Mrs. Meir: Ice Broken for Direct Talks

Premier Golda Meir said that while the “ice has been broken” for direct talks between Israelis and Egyptians she was opposed entering into broader peace talks with Egypt before the Knesset elections Dec. 31. She said she was greatly encouraged by the outcome of last week’s talks between senior Israeli and Egyptian officers which settled outstanding cease-fire issues and resulted in the prisoner of war exchange now in progress. “Israelis have met with Egyptians and they have settled and solved problems which had at one time seemed insoluble,” she said on a television interview Friday night. But she observed that it would not make much sense if Israel went to a peace conference with Egypt in early or mid-Dec. “just to say shalom.” The Premier’s remarks indicated that she agreed with opposition Likud leaders that a new mandate from the voters was required before the government could enter into serious peace talks with the Arabs.

Mrs. Meir also appeared to be extending an olive branch to Likud when she credited its founder, Gen. Ariel (Arik) Sharon with a role in bringing about the POW agreement with Egypt. She mentioned Sharon, along with Gen. Aharon Yariv and Egyptian Gen. Mohammed Gemassi as deserving credit for the accord. Yariv and Gemassi did the bargaining. Gen. Sharon did not participate in the face-to-face meetings but Mrs. Meir may have been referring to the fact that it was his task force that crossed the Suez Canal and established an Israeli salient on the west bank creating a situation that made Egypt amenable to the cease-fire talks.

The Premier disclosed, however, that Egypt has rejected an Israeli proposal for a mutual pull-back of forces. She said Israel would withdraw its men from the west bank if Egypt evacuated its salient on the east bank. She suggested that Israel would be willing to have the UN Emergency Force (UNEF) occupy a strip on both sides of the canal. “At such a distance it is easy to violate the cease fire. But if everyone wants to preserve it, then it is made easier,” she said. Mrs. Meir added that despite the initial negative response by Egypt to the proposal “we must not give up hope. They will continue with the negotiations.” The Premier conceded that no progress has been made with Syria toward a POW exchange although “not a day or an hour has passed in which Israel did not seek some way to influence them to agree, the minimum they are obliged to do according to international law.”

She said that 10 days ago the Syrians made a proposal “of some kind” which Israel immediately accepted only to have the Syrians suddenly demand more. “We are not quite sure what exactly they are demanding,” she said. Mrs. Meir said that all aspects of the Yom Kippur War and the events preceding it would be delved into by the government’s inquiry to get under way soon. She said one of the issues would be whether the General Staff had recommended a preemptive strike by Israel when it became apparent that Egypt and Syria planned to attack. But, Mrs. Meir added, “If the situation had not been clear beyond a shadow of a doubt as to who started hostilities, I doubt whether the vital equipment we received in the course of time would have flowed in as it did and continues to do.”