Israelis reject plan, Jordan likes it

Press, 4 September 1982, Page 8

Israelis reject plan, Jordan likes it

NZPA-Reuter Jerusalem

President Ronald Reagan’s plan for Palestinian self-rule faces an uncertain future after Israel angrily rejected it yesterday.

The Israeli Cabinet said that the plan was a serious deviation from the Camp David accords.

Mr Reagan had called for self-government by Palestinians in . Israeli-occupied territories in association with Jordan, and a freeze on Jewish settlement in the disputed lands. But the Israeli Deputy Prime Minister (Mr David Levy) said that his Government had unamimously rejected the plan because it was certain to lead to the creation of an independent Palestinian State. A Cabinet statement said that the Israelis would continue to exercise their “inalienable right to settle in the occupied West Bank and Gaza.”

The Prime Minister (Mr Menachem Begin) later emphasised his deep disappointment with the American proposals to the visiting United States Secretary of Defence (Mr Caspar Weinberger). .

The Cabinet statement indicated that the plan had unpleasantly shocked Israel. It said Ministers were angry because Washington had consulted Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia about its plan while failing to honour commitments to Israel to discuss any such moves in advance. Official sources said that the Government felt that the United States had seriously

CASPAR WEINBERGER

damaged its credentials as a mediator in the Middle East conflict.

Mr Reagan's proposal was an attempt to revive the Camp David peace process that has been stalled for more than three years on the degree of autonomy to be accorded some 1.3 million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.

But while it was rejected outright by Mr Begin’s Government, the opposition Labour Party said it had some positive elements and that it offered a basis for negotiation. The plan w r as cautiously welcomed in Jordan and other moderate Arab countries ahead of an Arab summit conference in Morocco next week.

The plan contained positive elements, the Jordanian Foreign Ministry said. Favourable reactions also

came from Tunisia and Morocco. One senior Government official in the Gulf said Mr Reagan s proposals could signal a shift in U.S. policies and would be discussed at the Arab summit meeting.

The Palestine Liberation Organisation has yet to react to the plan. A senior P.L.O. official said that he was encouraged by U.S. opposition to the establishment of Jewish settlements in the two territories captured by Israel during the 1967 Middle East war.

Jordan said that the proposals deserved to be studied by the Arabs and said it would consult with other Arab governments and the P.L.O. But State-run Damascus radio said that Syria rejected the proposals, saying that no plan based on the Camp David accords could bring peace to the Middle East.

Arab States condemned the accords which led to the signing of a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt in 1979.

The Tunisian Foreign Minister (Mr Beji Caid Essebsi) said that the plan was an improvement over previous U.S. positions, but said it was up to' the P.L.O. to say whether it was acceptable. The Moroccan Minister of State (Mr Ahmed Alaoui) said that the plan had considerable political and psychological significance. "One can no longer speak of unconditional U.S. support for Israel and this we register with satisfaction,” he wrote in the pro-Governmnt daily, “Maroc Soir." In Washington American

GEORGE SHULTZ

officials have expressed neither surprise nor disappointment at Israel’s rejection of the plan, saying they knew Israel and the Arab States would not accept parts of it. The Secretary of State (Mr George Shultz) described the plan as a package, saying “you can’t just pick this and reject that." But he emphasised that it guaranteed Israel's security. U.S. officials made it clear yesterday that no dramatic steps were planned as an immediate follow-up to Mr Reagan's speech. A State Department spokesman, John Hughes, said that the Administration was awaiting a formal response from Israel. Asked about the Israeli assertion that the plan deviated from the 1978 Camp David accords, Mr Hughes said: “We were not surprised by that reaction. We were not disappointed ..."