Proposals for Interim Arrangement with Egypt Taken Up by Knesset Committee

Proposals for an interim arrangement with Egypt that could lead to the reopening of the Suez Canal were taken up today by the Knesset’s Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee. An official announcement said discussions of the subject would be continued within a few days. Although the Knesset adjourned a week ago for spring recess, the committee continues to meet. It was briefed today by Foreign Minister Abba Eban who reported on his recent talks with U.S. officials in Washington. Meanwhile the government was reported to be considering the military and political effects of an interim arrangement. Israel’s proposals on the subject are expected to be ready within a week to 10 days and will be submitted to Washington for transmission to Cairo, informed sources said. The latest initiative for an interim arrangement originated in Washington and Israel apparently prefers the United States to serve as “broker” on this issue rather than United Nations mediator Dr. Gunnar V. Jarring. According to one Israeli view, any such arrangement must be preceded by mutual declarations of termination of hostilities and a state of non-belligerency from Israel and Egypt. This condition is reportedly insisted upon by Defense Minister Moshe Dayan, Transport Minister Shimon Peres, Police Minister Shlomo Hillel and Minister-Without-Portfolio Israel Galili.

But other Cabinet members, among them Eban, are said to believe that Israel must adopt a more realistic if somewhat softer position that would be easier for Egypt to accept. Nevertheless, Cabinet ministers unanimously agree that no Egyptian troops can be allowed to cross the canal should Israeli forces be withdrawn any distance from its east bank under an interim arrangement. Israel would grant access to its side of the canal to Egyptian technicians and other civilian personnel necessary to restore the canal to a useable condition. The Israel Labor Party convention which ended yesterday endorsed the principle of an interim arrangement while it strongly backed the government’s refusal to make any prior commitments to withdrawal from occupied territories. The Labor Party got a pat on the back today from its coalition partners, the National Religious Party, for declining to discuss at the convention a series of recommendations for religious reforms in Israel. The agenda item was dropped after several Party leaders, including Premier Golda Meir, decided that it would offend the Orthodox bloc. “It has been a long time since the Labor Party took such a conciliatory step toward religious Jewry,” an NRP spokesman said today.