Foreign Minister Shimon Peres delivered his fiercest denunciation of his Likud unity coalition partners here Thursday as he defended the concept of an international conference for Middle East peace. He also proposed that the first item on the agenda of peace talks with Jordan deal with economic cooperation and joint undertakings to improve the infrastructure of both Israel and Jordan.
Peres addressed about 2,000 veterans and pensionnaires of the Labor Party. He accused Likud of launching a disinformation campaign and a campaign of vilification of him personally. “Likud, indeed, has ceased to exist and has become an appendage of Gush Emunim and the Tehiya and religious parties. There is no longer a Likud — only a Rabbi (Moshe) Levinger and Daniella Weiss,” he said referring to the most hardline Gush Emunim leaders.
SAYS LIKUD AGAINST PEACE TALKS
If Likud were to win the next elections, there would be no chance for peace talks with any Arab state, Peres declared. “Is it forbidden to even think about the chance of normalization (of relations with the Arabs)? I don’t have peace in my pocket. I am not ‘Peace Now,’ but can’t we take the chance to check the possibility?” of peace, he asked.
Peres suggested that the U.S., Britain and France sign a written undertaking that an international conference for Middle East peace will not impose a solution on the parties to the conflict.
He said Israel could begin its talks with Jordan by suggesting that the two countries examine the feasibility of a canal linking the Red Sea with the Dead Sea to replenish the latter’s evaporating waters, and that they build hydroelectric stations to produce power for both countries.
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