Peres Predicts Peace Talks Shortly, Once Dayan and Vance Hold Talks

Shimon Peres, leader of the Labor Party in Israel, at a press conference here yesterday, predicted that the Middle East peace talks would resume shortly, once Secretary of State Cyrus Vance meets with Israel’s Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan.

While Peres noted that his party differs from the Begin government on the peace process in some ways, he stated that “Begin should be given a fair chance to try his hand.” He said he was not happy at the reception Premier Menachem Begin had received in Washington, commenting facetiously that “they even forbade the cherry blossoms to bloom.” Peres was in Chicago to address a dinner on behalf of State of Israel bands. The dinner, a gathering of 250 area leaders of the Bond program, produced Israel Band sales of $1,782,000. Peres also addressed an Israel Band dinner in Philadelphia Tuesday at which Rabbi Yaakov G. Rosenberg, recently appointed vice chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary of American and an active leader of the Bond program in Philadelphia and nationally, was honored. That gathering recorded Bond sales of $1,700,000.

Earlier that day, Peres also met with Philadelphia labor leaders, briefing them on developments in Israel and his party’s views.

THE ROLE OF JORDAN

On the peace negotiations, Peres stressed the need to bring Jordan into the negotiations and expressed the view that Jordan was waiting for the conclusion of the negotiations with Sadat. An interim West Bank agreement, he said, would hold out more hope for the future. “Both Jordan and Israel have the same interests at heart, the same worries and the same experience in pragmatic cooperation.”

For Jordan and Israel to come to come to terms, he suggested, four principles of agreement were needed: negation of a separate Palestinian State, outlawing of the PLO, continuation of a military presence for Israel on the West Bank and agreement an a transitional approach for the West Bank and holding a plebiscite in five years. He felt that Jordan and Israel already saw eye to eye on the first three, so that only the last issue needs to be resolved.

“Peace is inevitable,” he declared. In the wake of his own recent meeting with President Anwar Sadat of Egypt in Austria, he expressed the conviction that “peace is not only a desire for Israel, but a “must” for Egypt.”

Questioned as to whether the UN peacekeeping farce in Lebanon could keep the PLO from moving back into its previous bases, Peres said he hoped so but was not sure. He pointed out that the UN force is restricted in that it can only act as a deterrent and only take up arms in its own defense.