Stone Sees Desire for Peace

Sen. Richard Stone (D. Fla) left Israel at noon today after a four-day fact-finding visit during which he met key leaders of the outgoing government, the victorious Likud party and leaders of past-Israeli regimes. He said he was convinced that the change of government leadership in Israel will proceed smoothly because the patriotism which unites Israelis is more powerful than the differences which divide them.

He emphasized that President Carter has always stressed that he will never try to impose any arrangement on any of the parties to the Middle East conflict. He also said that while it was too early to gauge the clear policies of the next Israeli government, he was impressed that all concerned have a strong desire for peace. “I think the new government will give us the chance for the kind of negotiations for peace that President Carter seeks in the efforts he has made so far, his willingness and openness to whatever proposals the contending parties might make to you and you might make to them,” he told Israeli reporters.

Stone, who is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s subcommittee on Middle East and South Asia, said he would “tell the Arab leaders I found a desire for peace in Israel.” But he insisted he was not conveying any messages from Israel to the Arab states he will visit on his current Mideast junket. Stone will go to Damascus and Cairo before returning to the U.S. It was learned that he might re-visit the Middle East in several weeks.

Although his stay in Israel was relatively brief, he managed to include talks with Likud leader Menachem Begin, Foreign Minister Yigal Allon, Premier Yitzhak Rabin, Defense Minister Shimon Peres, Moshe Dayan, Gen. Ezer Weizman, Simcha Ehrlich and Gen. Ariel Sharon of Likud and the Israeli Chief of Staff Gen. Mordechai Gur.