Foreign Minister David Levy is planning to ask U.S. Secretary of State James Baker for a written guarantee that the United States will not insist that Israel negotiate with the Palestine Liberation Organization or support creation of a Palestinian state.
Levy told the Knesset on Wednesday that Israel would take risks in the peace process, but only if Baker consents to sign a document on “points on which both countries can agree.”
Levy, who will meet Baker on Aug. 9 or 10, promised, “We will speak openly as friends.”
Levy’s position was fully supported by Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, who told reporters later that any U.S. assurances could “make easier any decisions by the Israeli government.”
Levy addressed the Knesset in response to no-confidence motions on foreign policy issues, all of which were easily defeated.
He said he would tell Baker, “If you agree that there should be no Palestinian state and that Israel would not be forced to negotiate with the PLO, then let’s have it in writing.”
As for the risks Israel would be willing to take for peace, Levy cited Palestinian elections in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the centerpiece of an initiative proposed by Shamir in May 1989.
Levy said that with U.S. assurances in writing, it would make no difference to Israel if any Palestinians elected would say they “sympathize with the PLO, as long as they accept the Israeli peace initiative.”
The proposed elections are intended to let the Palestinians choose representatives with whom Israel would negotiate, first on limited autonomy in the territories and eventually on their final status.
Shamir and his Likud bloc have balked at allowing Palestinians from East Jerusalem to participate in the process. They also insist on excluding Palestinians deported from the territories.
Likud flatly rejected a proposal by Baker for Israelis and Palestinians to iron out those issues, in a dialogue to be held in Cairo.
That led to the collapse of the Likud-Labor unity government last March.
Some observers had said they could discern in Levy’s remarks some flexibility concerning deportees. But Levy implied no concessions when he told the Knesset on Wednesday that he had a message for President Bush.
He said he would tell the president that the United States cannot make demands of Israel which it does not make of the PLO.
The Bush administration broke off its 18-month dialogue with the PLO on June 20, on grounds that Yasir Arafat did not sufficiently condemn a failed attack by PLO-affiliated terrorists on beaches near Tel Aviv on May 30.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
