Peace Process in Search of a Formula

Two prominent West Bank Palestinians have urged the Arab population in the administered territories to exert pressure on King Hussein and Palestine Liberation Organization chief Yasir Arafat to renew their talks aimed at finding a formula for joint participation in the Middle East peace process.

But the Jordanian ruler, in his latest remarks in Amman Saturday, appeared to be asking the Palestinians under Israeli rule to seek an alternative to the PLO as their representative.

Anwar Al-Hatib, who was Governor of Jerusalem during the Jordanian occupation before 1967, and Hikmat Al-Masri, Deputy Speaker of the Jordanian Senate, who lives in Nablus, proposed that a West Bank delegation go to Amman to mediate between Hussein and Arafat. Their call was published Friday in the East Jerusalem Arabic daily Al-Kuds.

Both men, considered very close to the King, stressed the need to continue the Jordanian-PLO dialogue which Hussein declared, in a 31/2 hour-television speech last Wednesday, had come to an end.

Premier Shimon Peres, in an interview in Yediot Achronot Friday, issued a call of his own. “King Hussein and ourselves should lead the wagon of peace and the residents of the territories can join,” he declared.

The proposal by Al-Hatib and Al-Masri was the first political ripple in the West Bank since Hussein’s speech Wednesday in which he expressly blamed PLO intransigence for the impasse in putting together a Jordanian-Palestinian negotiating team.

THE VIEW FROM AMMAN

Interviewed in his palace in Amman, Hussein said “The Palestinians must now make a decision. Are they happy with creeping annexation of their land by Israel and their possible expulsion from Palestine? If they’re unhappy, what do they want us to do about it?”

Hussein said he would “respect” a decision by the Palestinians to keep the PLO as their “sole legitimate representative” — the language of the 1974 Arab League summit decision in Rabat, Morocco but would also welcome a move by the Palestinians to find another “apparatus” for political expression.

He denied he was asking the Palestinians to renounce the PLO or to make a choice of leadership. “I am simply saying that the Palestinians must begin their own dialogue. They must say whether we are right or wrong, or come up with something else.”

But in light of the King’s harsh words about the PLO last week, most observers saw his remarks as a challenge to the Palestinians to decide soon who would speak for them. Hussein said in his Wednesday speech, “We are unable to continue to coordinate politically with the PLO leadership until such time as their word becomes their bond, characterized by commitment, credibility and constancy.”

Hussein rejected the notion, suggested in many quarters, that his break with Arafat meant the peace process has foundered. Some Israeli analysts agreed with his remark that “This is the end of a chapter, not of the book.”

But Hussein left open the possibility that he might enter into negotiations with non-PLO Palestinians through an international conference if the Palestinians choose such a scenario. He discounted speculation that he would now seek Syria as a negotiating partner, stressing that Jordan’s recent rapprochement with Damascus was a bilateral matter.

A leading Israeli Mideast expert, Hebrew University Prof. Emanuel Sivan, maintained that under present circumstances Hussein would find it hard to convince the residents of the territories to adopt an independent stand. Sivan pointed out that Jordan has neglected the Palestinians in recent years. He said Hussein appealed to them to make their own decisions because he dos not feel he has a mandate to enter into separate talks with Israel.