Sen. Frank Church (D. Idaho), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called on the United States not to interfere in the current negotiations between Egypt and Israel over autonomy for the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.
“We have a duty to encourage that process without interference,” Church said in a speech prepared for delivery tonight at the annual dinner and convocation of Bar Ilan University at the Pierre Hotel here. He added: “Admittedly, the opening positions are for apart; but compromise is the meat of negotiations. To try to force any proposal upon Israel or Egypt would surely redound to our detriment — as happened during the one nearly fatal phase of the post-Camp David talks. It is imperative that we allow the negotiations to proceed unhindered by any suspicion of partiality. Let us respect.” Church continued, “not denigrate, the political process in Israel where major political decisions cannot be taken by simple fiat.”
PROPOSES U.S., ALLIES HELP SADAT
But Church, noting the “serious problem” facing Egyptian President Anwar Sadat who has been a subject of political and economic pressures by the Arab world as a result of Egypt’s peace agreement with Israel, said that it is urgent that the U.S. will solicit help “on a global scale” for Egypt. “Our allies in Europe and Japan should be pressed to shoulder part of the load,” Church declared. Church said that although the negotiations in Beersheba and El. Arish have been in progress for less than two weeks, “the possibility of failure looms on the horizon, threatening at the very least, to reverse the remarkable progress achieved thus far, and at the very worst, to engulf the Middle East in an Armageddon.”
Predicting that the negotiations over West Bank autonomy will be “most difficult,” Church stated: “There is no magical potion that could produce an easy accord; in fact, the subject of the current negotiations was deliberately put on the back burner in order to realize the less difficult priority — the signing of the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty,” In view of the circumstances “when supposed Arab moderates have joined the radical camp; when some of our West European allies have hopped aboard their bandwagon, and when Israel is being used once again as the pawn in the despicable game of oil blackmail” the temptation to force a settlement in the autonomy negotiations “will be great,” Church observed. Any attempt by the U.S. to force a solution would be a mistake, he said’.
Earlier today, at a press conference, Church said he would not support the opening of a Libyon trade mission in Idaho as he has been asked to do by the Idaho Farmers Association after a delegation from his state visited Libya. “I will not lend my personal endorsement” to the request, Church said. He added that he will also continue to oppose the sale of military planes by the U.S. 16 Libya, noting that Libya supports international terrorism and also supported Idi Amin, the recently deposed President of Uganda, who Church described as “the equivalent of Hitler in out time.”
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