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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. Israelite o o jj z 7 O LU The Weekly Newspaper for Southern Jewry Our 56th Year Atlanta, Georgia, Friday, April 25, 1980 Z z C •JJ H CC U- cc — UJ _) X O 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...’ fc'rfs-**** "wr - 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 ■U/l'f.S^AlllLWi,. I. NMRMMMMMP 1 1 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."