Weizman Ready to Talk to Arafat, Habash if They Seriously Want Political Settlement

Gen. Ezer Weizman, chairman of the Herut Executive, offered yesterday to sit down and talk with Yassir Arafat or Dr. George Habash if either declared that his guerrilla group, El Fatah or the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, truly wanted a political settlement of the Middle East crisis. Weizman, addressing a large student audience at Bar-ILan University went so far as to say he would rather talk with Arafat than with King Hussein of Jordan as the latter, he contended, has no real affinity for Palestine. Reports yesterday in the semi-official Egyptian newspaper Al Ahram said the central committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization had agreed to seek a political solution in the Mideast. The reports were denied, however, by some Palestinian leaders. Weizman, the former Air Force commander and former Gahal (Herut-Liberal) Minister of Transport and Communications, warned against the concept that giving up occupied Arab territory would bring peace. Return of the territories is central to Palestinian thinking. Weizman stressed that Israel “must not enter into negotiations while the Egyptians are holding a gun to our head.”