Former Premier Yitzhak Rabin believes that the American position on a Middle East settlement at this juncture could have become the basis for an arrangement on the West Bank, had the Labor Party been in office. He also disclosed, in an address to the Jerusalem Journalists Association, that he has proposed an alternative to Premier Menachem Begin’s peace plan which he presented to the Labor Party’s political committee at a meeting here over the weekend.
Rabin said that he told his Labor colleagues that the American attitude, which apparently has the blessings of Egypt, speaks of a readiness for border adjustments on the West Bank, does not favor a Palestinian or PLO state there and does not claim the right of self-determination for the Palestinians but only that they have a voice in determining their future. His altemative plan, he said, was to divide sovereignty over the West Bank between Israel and Jordan for a limited period after which a compromise would be worked out in the spirit of Security Council Resolution 242.
Rabin unveiled his plan at the meeting of the top Labor Party leaders including Labor Alignment chairman Shimon Peres, Former Premier Golda Meir, former Foreign Minister Abba Eban, former Justice Minister Chaim Zadok and former Transport Minister Gad Yaacobi. Labor MK Moshe Shahal, who attended the gathering, urged the Labor Party to make its proposals public to prevent a widening of the gap between Israel and the U.S. Eban called on the government to renew its efforts to draft a joint declaration of principles with Egypt.
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