A bipartisan study group, headed by former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford, urged Vice President George Bush on Monday not try to propose a new peace initiative for the Middle East when he takes office as president Jan. 20.
Instead, the group, known as American Agenda, suggested that “the wisest course is to focus on discussions with the Israelis to try to move them to deal more effectively” with the political and economic situation of Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
“The U.S. might also tell the Israelis that we are prepared to help substantially if they find ways to improve the economic situation of their Arabs and grant them as well a greater degree of local political independence,” the report said.
The report, which deals with the entire gamut of domestic and foreign issues, is the result of eight months of study by some 340 persons. It concludes that the most immediate issue facing the country is the U.S. fiscal deficit.
The two former presidents presented the recommendations to Bush on Monday and discussed them at a news conference after the meeting with the vice president.
The Middle East was not mentioned except for a brief remark by Carter on the results of the Palestine National Council in Algiers.
“President Ford and I both agree that the recent meeting in Algiers by the PNC was significant, (although) not adequate,” Carter said. “But it is something that should be considered to see where it can lead in the future.”
PRESSURE TO ‘DO SOMETHING’
The Reagan administration, while finding some “encouraging” signs at the PNC meeting, said that its political declarations did not go far enough for Washington to deal with the Palestine Liberation Organization or accepts its involvement in peace negotiations.
The administration also rejected the PNC’s declaration of an independent Palestinian state, stressing that the future of the territories can only be decided through negotiations, not by unilateral action of either side.
The American Agenda recommendations noted that the new Bush administration will be pressed to “do something” in the Middle East.
“In our view, the situation is not now, and will not for some time be, ripe for new major peace initiatives on the part of the United States,” the report said.
It recommended that a presidential emissary be sent to the Middle East, who “just might return with new valuables ideas. Any U.S. proposal or position — whenever it is put forward–should, of course, be the product of consultation with the Israelis and the moderate Arab states.”
The report also stressed the new danger to Israel from ground-to-ground ballistic missiles in Syria and elsewhere. For this reason, the report said, “it is important for the U.S. to support Israel in developing the anti-tactical ballistic system, the Arrow.”
The foreign policy section of the recommendations were written by Warren Christopher, deputy secretary of state in the Carter administration, and Lawrence Eagleburger, former undersecretary of state for political affairs in the Reagan administration.
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