We reject M.E. call with both hands, says angry Israel

Press, 4 October 1977, Page 8

We reject M.E. call with both hands, says angry Israel

NZPA Tel Aviv Israel has vehemently rejected a United StatesSox iet statement on reconvening the Geneva peace talks and vowed to go into a state of emergency to resist what it calls an “imposed solution.”

The s u p e r-powers statement at the week-end recognised the "legifmate rights” of the Palestinian people and called for their part: .pation at any resumed M ddle East negotiations. "The reaction is natural and understood — we reject it with both hands," the Finance Minister (Mr Sitnha Ehrlich) said after a Cabinet meeting. He is substituting for the ailing Prime Minister (Mr Menachem Begin) who is in hospital recovering from fatigue. Asked whether Israel could resist pressure from both the Soviet Union and tee United States. Mr EhrlThc people will have to go into a state of emergency. “It depends on the people in Israel and in the Diaspora — the Jews — in the United •States — and they’re behind us." he said. “I believe we have the power to stand, not for a thousand years, but for a reasonable period." Mr Ehrlich said that the super-powers exhibited "real signs of forcing an imposed, solution on us, and we won’t' accept an unposed solution.” i He said Israel would not accept a Palestinian State ori deal with the Palestine Lb-1 eration Organisation, which Mr Begin has repeatedly condemned as a "gang of murderers.” He said the Government was considering renewing its call for Opposition parties to join a coalition of national unity, a move the Opposition rejected after Mr Begin came to power in June.

But the Opposition leader; (Mr Shimon Peres) said that the Labour Party was not interested. He criticised the Government for holding out for a peace treaty as the only possible goal for peace talks. The United States has never before spoken of thei “legitimate rights," of the! Palestinians, only of “legiti-l mate interests.” But the statement did in fact only confirm what has been the U.S. position for some months — that the Palestinian question has to be faced up to and that the Palestinians have to have some form of homeland of their own.

In Washington, Dr Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Carter’s National Security Adviser, says the United States “would certainly” go to Israel’s aid if it were threatened from abroad. In a TV interview, Dr

Brzezinski declared: “If Is-1 rael was mortally threatened, especially by an externa] power, the United States, even now, without a security treaty, would certs inly go to its aid.” The presidents of 32 n njor Jewish organisations I in the United States, among! them the American Jewish! Congress and B’nai B’rith,! fired off a telegram to thej Secretary of State (Mr Cyrus Vance) expressing profound disturbance at the statement “which on its face represents an abandonment o f America’s historic com-1 mitments to the security and st rvival of Israel.” The Palestinian news i agency. W.A.F.A., which re-i ' fleets mainstream thinking in the P.L.0.. has described the ioint statement as “a positive step towards a just: and lasting solution to the I Middle East.” The agency said the! statement contained a clear: recognition of the Palestin-I iian nation and optimistically • termed it "an advanced step which will inevitably lead to explicit recognition of the P.L.O. as the sole legal representative of the Palestinian people.” Egyptian newspapers have reported that a special envoy of President Anwar ■ Sadat left Cairo for Washington yesterday with instructions to the Foreign i Minister (Mr Ismail Fahmi) to ask for an urgent meeting I with President Carter. Egyptian officials have declined all comment on the , Soviet-American statement, saying it needed careful coni sideration.