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PLO delegation meets
Bundestag members
The Southed
by David Kantor
BONN (JTA) —The first
meeting of a Palestine Liberation
Organization delegation with
members of the Bundestag
representing all three parlia
mentary factions last week has
generated an angry controversy
here. The meeting was condemned
by pro-lsrael members of the three
factions but government officials
and leaders of the coalition parties
signaled their approval of further
contacts with the PLO.
A spokesman for the ruling
Social Democratic Party (SPD)
said that the PLO group and SPD
deputies were in full accord that a
final settlement of the Middle East
conflict implies the right of the
Palestinian people to self-
determination. That statement
gave an official stamp to the
meeting which was originally
described as a private initiative on
the part of some members of the
Bundestag.
On the other hand, a group of
prominent SPD members who
sympathize with Israel warned that
contacts with the PLO were
useless. They noted that the SPD's
parliamentary faction had not
approved the meeting.
Deputy Foreign Minister
Guenther Van Well reiterated the
Bonn government's support for
Palestinian self-determination in
the toast he delivered at a dinner
here in honor of Mayor Elias Freij
of Bethlehem, the first West Bank
Arab leader ever invited to West
Germany by the government.
Freij, known as a moderate, urged
Europeans to support the
moderates on the West Bank and
Gaza Strip. He met with a score of
members of parliament of all
parties.
Meanwhile, officials here said
the government intends to
strengthen contacts with all parties
to the Arab-lsraeli conflict
pending the new Middle East
initiative planned by the European
Economic Community (EEC)
member states. This is understood
to apply mainly to the PLO which
is not recognized officially but is
increasingly presented here as a
legitimate partner to any future
solution of the Palestinian
question.
Officials also noted that the
Secretary General of the Arab
League—which ousted Egypt after
it signed its peace treaty with
Israel—will visit Bonn on May 7.
The upcoming EEC initiative is
expected to be the main topic of his
talks with West German leaders.
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Instead of autonomy talks i
Peres, Labor Party want
to negotiate with Jordan
by David Friedman
NEW YORK (JTA)-Before
Shimon Peres, chairman of Israel's
Labor Party, met with President
Carter at the White House
Thursday, it is certain that
administration officials carefully
studied an article by Peres in the
current issue of the prestigious
periodical. Foreign Affairs.
Titled, “A Strategy for Peace in
the Middle East," Peres argues
that the issue of the West Bank and
the Gaza Strip can be settled
through step-by-step negotiations
with Jordan.
‘...a Palestinian state
...will continually
menace both the
Jordanian kingdom
and the security of
Israel...’
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Motherly love
Three-year-old Yoav Gat is comforted by his mother in a Haifa hospital recently, while recovering
from wounds received during the April 7 attack by Palestinian terrorists on a nursery at Kibbutz Misgav
Am in northern Israel.
Peres stresses that the Labor
Party believes that “within the
framework of a peace settlement,
we would be prepared to relinquish
parts of the West Bank on the
condition that they remain
demilitarized; that no foreign army
ever again cross the Jordan River
and menace the gates of Jerusalem,
as happened iff 1998 and 1967; and
autonomy by May 26 is to first
work out an autonomy agreement
in Gaza. “If autonomy is realized
in the Gaza Strip, it will enable
Egypt to claim that the
negotiations between itself and
Israel have gone beyond the purely
Egyption-lsraeli context, relating
now to the solution of the
Palestinian problem,” he notes.
Peres says if autonomy in Gaza
is successful, it could then be used
as a model for negotiating
autonomy in Judaea and Samaria.
But first' Peres would have
municipal elections held on the
West Bank “tacitly coordinated
with King Hussein."
Peres notes that this would lead
t» the third step, negotiating with
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happened in 1973."
While stressing that if the Labor
Party returns to office it would be
bound to any international
commitments made by the Likud
government, Peres doubts that the
autonomy for Palestinian Arabs
on the West Bank and Gaza now
being negotiated by Israel. Egypt
and the United States will be
realized.
He claims that if the version of
autonomy proposed by Prime
Minister Menachem Begin is
implemented, “Israel will change
from being a Jewish State into a
hi national community." If
President Anwar Sadat's version is
implemented, it will mean a
Palestinian state, Peres states,
adding that such a state “will
continually menace both the
Jordanian kingdom and the
security of Israel, and
consequently the peace and
stability of the whole area."
Peres argues that instead of
negotiating on autonomy, the
Labor Party prefers negotiations
with Jordan based on United
Nations Security Council
Resolution 242 which could also
include the participation of West
Bank Arabs. He believes these
negotiations should be conducted
on a step-by-step basis. “The
prospects of King Hussein's
involvement in the negotiations
are predicated on active
encouragement by the United
States, Saudi Arabia and Egypt,"
he adds.
The scenario proposed by Peres
if there is no agreement on
U.S. participating or could include
Egypt and West Bank Palestinians.
He says that parallel to this should
be an understanding between the
U.S., Israel, Egypt and Saudi
Arabia sq that Jordan would have
Arab and Western support.
“I estimate today the conditions
for such an understanding are
better than ever before,” Peres
concludes. “Jordan will not be the
first Arab state to reach a peace
agreement with Israel, since Egypt
preceded it; nor will Jordan have
to agree to a new base, for it can be
done on the basis of Resolution
242. Egypt does not have the desire
or capacity to represent the
residents of Judaea, Samaria and
Gaza, and it is most likely that
Cairo would prefer that this be
done by the King and not by
(Yasir) Arafat (head of the
Palestine Liberation Organization)."
In addition, Peres’ entire article
is predicated on the basis that
other moderate Arab leaders will
follow Sadat's example in making
peace with Israel because of the
threats to the Middle East today
from religious fanaticism, as seen
by the example of Iran, and Soviet
expansionism.
The Peres meeting with Carter
may show what, if any, support his
ideas have in the administration.
But the Carter administration is
committed to seeking an
autonomy agreement. Meanwhile,
Begin said last week he had no
objection to the Carter-Peres
meeting “as long as everybody
remembers that Peres is the leader
of the opposition."