Premier Shimon Peres said last night that Israel seeks “an honorable and acceptable solution” to “the Palestinian problem, which we must recognize” and was willing to negotiate directly with a joint Jordanian-Palestinian delegation to achieve it.
He said, in an address to the Board of Governors of the Hebrew University, that Israel would “not search the minds” of Palestinians in the delegation but they must not be advocates of the Palestinian covenant which calls for the elimination of Israel by armed struggle nor should “murder be their strategy,” meaning terrorism.
Close associates of the Prime Minister said later that his speech showed his determination to explore the avenue to Middle East peace talks Secretary of State George Shultz believes was opened during the visit to Washington of King Hussein of Jordan last week.
DOUBT PROGRESS MADE WITH HUSSEIN
But there are strong doubts here that genuine progress was made in Hussein’s talks with the Reagan Administration. Moreover, Shultz’s apparent enthusiasm over Hussein’s ostensible willingness to negotiate with Israel has sounded alarms in Likud whose Knesset faction, at a meeting last night, saw it as a serious setback for Israel.
Peres’ speech, which opened the Hebrew University’s 60th anniversary celebrations, seemed to indicate that Israel would be flexible with respect to the Palestinian component should direct negotiations ever materialize. He said in effect that while Israel will never negotiate with the Palestine Liberation Organization or any known member of the PLO, it would not probe too deeply into the sympathies of Palestinian negotiating partners.
The U.S. position is similar. While the Administration insists its policy toward the PLO is unchanged, it is prepared to accept members of the Palestine National Council (PNC) in a joint Jordanian-Palestinian delegation if they are not known members of the PLO. Israel regards the PNC as an integral part of the PLO. But there is a greater degree of flexibility in Peres’ approach to that obstacle than among his Likud partners in the unity coalition government.
‘AUTHENTIC PALESTINIAN’ DELEGATION URGED
Peres called on Hussein last night to put together a delegation and noted that there are many “intelligent and authentic Palestinian representatives on the West Bank” and Israel would not probe “their minds.” He said he favored international support for direct negotiations but opposed any “substitute.” “Why cross oceans when we can cross a river,” he asked with reference to Hussein’s demand that negotiations with Israel be held in the context of an international conference at which the Soviet Union, as one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, would have a major role.
Hussein frankly told U.S. officials that he needs an international “umbrella” to cover negotiations with Israel. The Jordanian ruler was saying in effect that, unlike the late President Anwar Sadat of Egypt, he cannot go it alone in negotiations fiercely opposed by Syria and other Arab rejectionist states.
The Likud side of the unity coalition seems apprehensive of any precipitate move toward negotiations regardless of their context. Addressing his party’s Knesset faction, Minister-Without-Portfolio Moshe Arens, a former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S., spoke of “a striking departure from the situation of the past three years” during which Washington and Jerusalem held prior consultation on major policy moves.
ARENS SAYS ISRAEL GIVEN JOLT
Arens, who is acting Foreign Minister while Yitzhak Shamir is abroad, said the policy that now seems to be emerging in Washington has given Israel its sharpest jolt since September 1, 1982 when President Reagan announced his Middle East peace initiative favoring a federation of the West Bank and Gaza with Jordan.
The U.S. is “no longer Israel’s ally but a broker trying to arrange a deal between two sides,” Arens said. Haim Kaufman, chairman of the Likud Knesset faction, demanded that “Peres persevere in his statement about not negotiating with the PLO and we must presevere in our argument that the PNC is nothing but a unit of the PLO.”
Kaufman added, “Also, we must not jump too joyfully when we hear that Hussein has agreed to negotiations based on (UN Security Council) resolutions 248 and 338. Let us remember that these resolutions imply a change in our borders.”
LABOR WANTS TO SEEK NEGOTIATIONS
The Labor Party’s Knesset faction is scheduled to meet with Peres tomorrow and is expected to express views somewhat different from those of Likud. The Labor Party daily Davar said today that Labor ministers are urging the Premier not to give in to Likud negativism but to insist on pursuing the negotiating option, even at the risk of ending the unity coalition.
Meanwhile, Minister-Without-Portfolio Ezer Weizman, leader of the Labor-allied Yahad Party, was reported to be “touching base” with several Orthodox Knesset members representing religious parties. His aim appears to be to re-examine the possibilities of these small parties joining Labor in a narrow-based government to replace the unity coalition. But the religious parties are also being wooed ardently by Likud with a similar purpose in mind.
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