The general feeling in Israel today is that peace negotiations with Egypt will be resumed, eventually, but in a different framework than the talks which broke down Wednesday and probably in a different venue.
That assessment was based on President Anwar Sadat’s speech to the Egyptian Peoples Assembly (Parliament) yesterday in which he demanded prior concessions by Israel on the key questions of territories and the Palestinians as the price of resuming the talks. But he pledged, at the same time, “The peace initiative will never be dropped.”
Official Israeli responses to Sadat’s speech and to his remarks at a press conference after meeting with Secretary of State Cyrus Vance in Cairo Friday, were tough. But Premier Menachem Begin and Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan did not, by any means, close the door to the resumption of negotiations with Egypt. Begin said Friday that he had the impression that Sadat wanted to continue the political negotiations, but in a neutral location. Nevertheless, the Cabinet decided at its weekly meeting today that Israel will delay going to the joint military committee talks in Cairo. (See separate story P.3.)
SADAT INDICATES MINIMUM REQUIREMENT
Sadat said, at his press conference with Vance, that the minimum requirement for continuing the peace process was Israeli acceptance of a declaration of principles embodying withdrawal from all Arab territories occupied in 1967 and acknowledgement of the Palestinians’ right to self-determination. Except for those two issues, Israel and Egypt reportedly were agreement on a joint declaration of intentions when Sadat suddenly recalled his negotiating team to Cairo Wednesday.
In his speech to the Egyptian Parliament, Sadat elaborated on his press conference statements Friday. He accused the Israelis of playing for time and deliberately leading Egypt “into labyrinths to take us in circles so that we would find ourselves back at the starting point.”
Sadat claimed Israel’s purpose was to try to erode world support for Egyptian peace moves and to exploit his recognition of Israel’s “need for security” to justify its continued occupation of the territories seized ten years ago. He called Begin “arrogant” and claimed that the Israeli leader was able to take a tough line on Israeli settlements in Sinai because of his ample stock of American weapons.
SEEKS U.S. ARMS
In that connection, Sadat declared, “I am telling the American people now, that this is the outcome of the arsenal which was given to Israel.” He disclosed that he had told Vance that Egypt wanted to be equipped with “every armament” given Israel, not to attack Israel but to give Egypt equivalent bargaining power. He insisted that Egypt would not allow Israeli settlements on any part of its territory “even if it means we should fight again to the end of the world.”
At his Friday press conference, the Egyptian leader said: “Whenever Israel chooses to agree not to tread on others’ land and sovereignty, everything can resume again…The minimum we accept is a declaration of principles stating withdrawal and self-determination.”
Both Begin and Dayan indicated over the weekend that Sadat was badly mistaken if he thought he could extract whatever he wanted from Israel. “There isn’t anybody, neither in the government nor in the Knesset who will give Sadat whatever he demands,” Begin told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Security Committee Friday. “I prefer to say it to him in a clear and straight way.”
The Premier said he failed to understand why Egypt had rejected Israel’s peace plan so quickly and easily. He reiterated that the parties had almost reached agreement on principles except for the settlements in the Rafah salient and the Palestinian question. Begin suggested that the U.S. would now have to play a greater role than it had in the aborted negotiations. Sadat also had indicated that he wanted an expanded American role.
BEGIN REJECTS ALLEGATIONS
Begin rejected allegations that public statements by him had accelerated the breakdown of the Jerusalem talks. He said that whatever statements he made were in response to the demands by Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohammed Ibrahim Kaamel, the head of the Egyptian negotiating team. When several MKs accused Begin of failing to understand the Arab mentality, he retorted angrily: “I was elected Premier as a Jew, not as an Arabist.”
Dayan was equally adamant on a television interview Friday night. He said that if Sadat insisted on total Israeli withdrawal as the price for resuming the talks, “then the situation is at a dead end.” He also said that he did not regret any statements he made that might have aggravated the Egyptians. He said it was Egyptian, not Israeli policy that had changed.”
The Foreign Minister said that before the Sadat-Begin summit talks at Ismailia last month, Sadat had never conditioned negotiations on an Israeli commitment to dismantle its settlements in Sinai. Sadat, for his part, said in Cairo that when the Israelis said they would keep the settlements and defend them with Israeli forces even after Sinai was returned to Egyptian territory, he thought it was “a joke.”
Dayan referred in his remarks to the expanded American role, noting that before the talks broke down they had acted not only as mediators but had advanced their own proposals to break the deadlock. Vance, who is returning to Washington, had little to say at the Cairo press conference Friday. He told reporters, “As President Sadat indicated, the door to peace is not closed. We all have the same objective of achieving a just and lasting peace.”
CARTER SEES TEMPORARY SETBACK
(Speaking in Atlanta Friday, President Carter said the latest events in the Middle East were very serious but, hopefully, only a “temporary setback” that can be resolved. “We hope there won’t be anything other than a brief interruption in the political talks,” he said. He told reporters, “In my own private communications with President Sadat..my assessment is that he has been quite sincere in what he has done, that it is not posturing and not designed to influence our action one way or the other.”
(But Carter indicated that the U.S. was not about to put pressure on Israel to make more concessions. He suggested that Israeli and Egyptian leaders be more careful of what they say publicly and concentrate more on private negotiations.)
Israeli press opinion was not uniform. Maariv and Yediot Achronot said today that the peace process could not be renewed unless Egypt showed a willingness to make concessions. The Jerusalem Post said, however, that Israel should not be the party to slam the door on future talks.
But at least three Knesset members who had bitterly opposed Begin’s peace plan, contended today that the peace initiative was over. Geula Cohen and Moshe Shamir of Likud and Rabbi Haim Druckmann of the National Religious Party (NRP) submitted an urgent motion in the Knesset stating that Israel’s peace plan is no longer valid and mass settlements should begin “throughout the land of Israel.”
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