Peres Warming to Egypt Peace Plan : Offers ‘Real Chance’ to End Stalemate, Labor Leader Says

JERUSALEM —  Shimon Peres, leader of the Labor Party and deputy prime minister of Israel’s coalition government, insists an Egyptian initiative to break the stalemate on peace talks with the Palestinians presents “a real chance.”

On Friday, Peres, Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir and two other members of the so-called “inner Cabinet,” Foreign Minister Moshe Arens and Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin, met for the second time in 72 hours on the proposal from Cairo, which has ignited a blaze of consultations over the past 10 days.

Under orders from Shamir, none of the participants disclosed the details of their talks, which followed reports that the Labor Party and Shamir’s Likud Party were sharply divided on the initiative. Shamir reportedly is strongly opposed to several points in the Cairo proposal.

Peres, in an interview with The Times on Thursday at his offices in Tel Aviv, declined to comment on the reported divisions over the Egyptian plan. But, he said, “I do not see us (Labor) giving it up. It does not kill the (Israeli) peace initiative. On the contrary, it provides it with a real chance.”

Proposed by Shamir

The Israeli initiative, proposed by Shamir last May, calls for the election of a panel of Palestinians from the occupied territories of the West Bank and Gaza to negotiate with the Israelis on a period of interim self-rule. Years later, the eventual status of the land would be decided. So far, no Palestinians have stepped forward.

Yasser Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Organization, which claims to represent the West Bankers and Gazans in an undefined State of Palestine unilaterally proclaimed last fall, has rejected the Israeli plan for failure, among other things, to provide for Palestinian statehood. The Israelis refuse to deal with the PLO, or known members of the PLO, and developed the election idea in an attempt to find some other Palestinians with whom to talk peace, to bring an end to four bitter decades of conflict now characterized by the 21-month-old Palestinian uprising in the territories.

Said Peres of the Israeli proposal: “It’s in limbo. It needs a breath of life. It has the air of a beginning but not yet a firm body.”

The Egyptian initiative is a series of 10 conditions, modifications to the Israeli plan, specifying some election rules that the Israeli side either left vague or did not address. Now called simply “Mubarak’s 10 points,” after the author, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, the initiative reportedly has yet to be presented through formal channels to the Israeli government. Shamir has therefore refused to discuss it publicly, insisting instead on Palestinian acceptance of the general principle of elections.

Among the 10 points, however, is a provision that the peace process, including the proposed elections, be based on the principle of trading land for peace, a divisive subject among Israel’s political parties. Shamir and the Likud have opposed any surrender of the occupied territories, seized in the 1967 war. The subject was avoided in the Israeli plan, but a conference of the prime minister’s party adopted a binding resolution on its ministers to oppose land-for-peace negotiations.

Other Touchy Points

Other controversial points on Mubarak’s list include a freeze on new Jewish settlements in the territories and a guarantee of the right to vote for the Arabs of East Jerusalem.

Peres agrees that several of Mubarak’s points are abhorrent to his own party but, he said, the Egyptian intercession, initially introduced informally two months ago, provides an opening for negotiations. Egypt, the only Arab country at peace with Israel, “is willing to play a role in bringing the partners together,” he pointed out. “I welcome it.”

And, he told the Jerusalem Post, “The Americans are a critical link in the initiative.”

The longtime Labor Party leader, who is also finance minister in the coalition government, noted that Muburak also avoided some “thorny issues” in his proposals: “There’s no reference to a Palestinian state, no reference to self-determination, no reference to a return the ’67 borders.

Just a ‘Starting Line’

“A Palestinian delegation to negotiations may be equipped with those 10 points as their starting line,” he went on, “and we will come with our points. This is the nature of the procedure.”

He said he could not confirm diplomatic reports that the Egyptian president has agreed to host Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in Cairo and to name a list of Palestinian negotiators.

While Peres sees opportunities in the initiative, others have been cautious at best or flatly opposed. Faisal Husseini, an influential East Jerusalem Palestinian, declared: “It is not enough for us. . . . I believe there will be more discussions with President Mubarak, and we hope to add something to these 10 points.”

And Israeli Housing Minister David Levy, who with Trade Minister Ariel Sharon and other hard-liners forced the Likud resolution against trading land for peace, labeled the Egyptian plan a threat.

The Israeli proposal itself was a delicately constructed political compromise and no Israeli official, including Peres, flatly stated that they were prepared to make changes. But if Palestinian negotiators can be found to discuss a set of points--whether Mubarak’s or some others--the Israelis will have found a negotiating partner, the lack of which, Peres said, has caused the Israeli plan to be “obviously stumbling.”

Jerusalem press reports Friday said any final decision by the inner Cabinet on how to react to the Egyptian initiative is likely to await the return of Peres and Foreign Minister Arens from visits to the United States, including stops in Los Angeles.

At all his stops, Peres will be drumming up prospects for foreign investment in Israel, the aide said.