Vice Premier Shimon Peres denied a newspaper report Thursday that he intends to present a peace plan calling for the establishment of a demilitarized Palestinian state in the administered territories.
Pressed during a television interview, however, Peres hinted that he may have plans that refer to a “Palestinian entity,” pointing out there was little difference between such a body and the autonomy ideas agreed to by both Likud and Labor.
He also indicated a new willingness to consider negotiations with members of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
“Who does the PLO represent?” Peres asked. “The majority of the Palestinians live in Jordan. The PLO certainly doesn’t talk for them. And if it claims to talk for the Palestinians on the West Bank and Gaza, why should we not talk to them directly?”
The Labor Party leader said he would discuss his ideas privately with Yitzhak Shamir before the prime minister travels to Washington in early April. But he said he would not discuss them openly or even present them to the Cabinet until Shamir returns home.
“I want Shamir to go to Washington under the best possible circumstances,” Peres said. “If he can persuade the Americans to accept the plan, well and good. If he can persuade the Palestinians to accept it, well and good.”
Shamir refused to comment on the rumored Peres plan, which was disclosed Thursday by the respected Hebrew daily Ha’aretz. But he said that the national unity government must not be allowed to collapse.
According to the Ha’aretz story, the peace plan was drawn up by Peres and a “think tank” led by reserve Brig. Gen. Ephraim Sneh, former head of the civil administration in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The story said it would be made public next month, after Shamir returns from his talks with President Bush in Washington.
Sneh, speaking from Geneva in an interview with Israeli army radio, denied that there was a detailed alternative plan to the one Shamir will bring to the United States. But he spoke of some new “ideas.”
EXPECTS SHAMIR VISIT TO FAIL
The basis of those ideas, he said, is the assumption that Shamir’s visit will be a failure.
The story came amid a barrage of advice being leveled at Shamir by politicians from all shades of the political spectrum, as the premier prepared for the U.S. trip.
Knesset members on the right are advising him not to give up an inch of the biblical Land of Israel. The left is urging him to talk to the PLO.
Shamir has revealed little of the plan he intends to present to Washington. But it is said to include some kind of an interim arrangement for Palestinian autonomy in the territories. He has categorically ruled out, however, the possibility of a Palestinian state and any transactions with the PLO.
Ha’aretz said the Peres plan proposes, in effect, a demilitarized Palestinian state, with its own parliament and police force. Security would be controlled by the defense forces of Jordan and of Israel.
The plan calls for an unofficial cease-fire between Israel and the Palestinians on all fronts for one year. It would include a stage of preparations for a meeting between Israel and Palestinians, including Palestinians abroad, with informal U.S. and Soviet encouragement.
After that period, negotiations would begin under an international “umbrella” modeled after the 1973 Geneva peace conference convened in the aftermath of the Yom Kippur War.
Israel would negotiate directly with freely elected representatives of the Palestinian population of the administered territories.
The paper says the Peres plan does not rule out an eventual meeting with PLO Leader Yasir Arafat.
(JTA Jerusalem correspondent Gil Sedan also contributed to this report.)
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