Israeli Right Assails Peres’ Peace Bid to Jordan

Right-wing members of Israel’s coalition government lashed out Tuesday at Prime Minister Shimon Peres’ call for peace talks with Jordan, charging that his comments violated the coalition’s guidelines.

Housing Minister David Levy of the rightist Likud Bloc, who is acting prime minister in the absence of Peres and the alternate prime minister, Yitzhak Shamir, said that a “deep clarification” will be necessary as soon as Peres returns from New York.

Peres, who represents the center-left Labor Alignment, issued his call for peace talks with Jordan in a speech Monday before the United Nations.

“The Likud is not in this government to advance the alignment’s policy,” Levy said in an interview with state radio. “Whoever deviates from the policy guidelines of the national unity government endangers by his own acts the existence of the government.”

‘Warning Signal’

Trade and Industry Minister Ariel Sharon, also of Likud, told the independent newspaper Haaretz that “there is no similarity between the government’s policy guidelines and the ideas put forth by Peres in his speech.” Sharon said Peres’ U.N. speech was a “warning signal,” and he pledged that he would “find the time and place to respond.”

Finance Minister Yitzhak Modai, another Likud man, said he was astonished by Peres’ remarks. He said he could only hope that they represented “an overview, but not a policy.”

Such remarks by three of the five top Likud ministers in the coalition government suggested that Peres will face a hostile reception in the Cabinet when he returns this weekend. He is scheduled to stop in Paris on his way back from New York and to arrive in Tel Aviv late Saturday. The Israeli Cabinet customarily meets on Sunday.

Sharp Questioning Due

While Peres may face sharp questioning, it is not at all certain that there will be a Cabinet crisis. Much will depend on the attitude of Shamir, the Likud Bloc leader, who is due back tonight from a three-day trip to Europe.

Shamir, who serves as foreign minister as well as alternate prime minister, and Peres are due to switch jobs next October under an unusual rotation provision of the coalition agreement.

This means that Shamir has an incentive to head off any crisis that could break up the coalition. The latest public opinion polls indicate that Peres would have a strong edge over Shamir if elections were held now.

The Likud ministers did not specify what coalition guidelines Peres allegedly violated in his U.N. speech. What seems to have upset them was a section in which he said that negotiations with Jordan “may deal with the demarcation of boundaries as well as the resolution of the Palestinian problem.”

Peres’ Labor Alignment is on record favoring territorial compromise for peace, but Likud considers the occupied West Bank of the Jordan River and the Gaza Strip as inviolable parts of “the land of Israel.”

Guidelines From Coalition

The coalition guidelines stipulate that Israel will call on Jordan to enter peace negotiations but that any government proposals must have the support of the entire government. The guidelines specify that “in the event of a disagreement over the territorial issue, elections will be held.”

The Likud could argue that Peres’ remarks constitute a unilateral offer to negotiate the return of some portion of the occupied territories, and are therefore in violation of the guidelines.

Modai said “this international performance” by the prime minister had made him change his mind about supporting Jewish settlements in the occupied territories. He now feels, he said, that “they must be given preference in the face of the impending danger.”

The Likud ministers also criticized Peres’ stated willingness to consider an “international forum” for peace negotiations with Jordan and his failure specifically to rule out talks with Palestinians affiliated with the Palestine Liberation Organization.

In an Israel radio interview broadcast Tuesday, Peres reiterated that he would not check too closely into the backgrounds of Palestinian negotiators that might be proposed by Jordan’s King Hussein.

Sadat Enmity Recalled

Peres recalled that the late Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, who signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979, had been a sworn enemy.

“Sadat attacked us in a war, and we did not ask whether he had fought against us,” Peres told Israel radio. “From the moment he approached us for peace, we accepted him according to his current situation.”

In the U.N. speech, Peres declared an end to the state of war between Jordan and Israel, said he hoped Jordan would reciprocate and called for creation of “a small working team” within 30 days to begin preparations for peace talks. Jordan has consistently opposed direct negotiations with Israel, insisting on an international peace conference that would include the PLO.

Referring to the Likud attacks against Peres on Tuesday, a state radio commentator said: “There was never any doubt that it would be hard to bring Likud and Labor to the same negotiating table, let alone Israel and Jordan.”