30 Senators Send Letter Critical of Shamir Peace Stance

A bipartisan group of 30 U.S. senators has written a letter supporting Secretary of State George P. Shultz’s Middle East peace initiative and assailing Israeli officials who reject the plan’s call for Israel to trade occupied territory for peace with the Palestinians and the rest of the Arab world.

In a two-page letter delivered to Shultz after he returned Saturday from a peace mission to the Middle East, the senators explicitly criticize Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir for rejecting the land-for-peace formula, which has been advanced by Shultz and supported by Labor Alignment members of Israel’s coalition government.

Shamir and members of his conservative Likud Bloc are pursuing a hard line in attempting to repress the wave of violence that has been going on for nearly 13 weeks in the occupied West Bank of the Jordan River and the Gaza Strip. The turmoil has left 83 Palestinian protesters dead and hundreds of others injured. Shamir and his allies so far have refused to consider any peace plan that cedes Israeli-held land to Palestinian control.

Staunch Backers ‘Dismayed’

The letter’s signers, who include some of the Senate’s staunchest supporters of Israel, said they are “dismayed” by Shamir’s rejection of proposals to grant some autonomy to the Palestinians in the occupied territories in exchange for Arab recognition of Israel and a promise to refrain from further attacks on the Jewish state.

The letter was circulated by Democratic Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan and Republican Sen. Rudy Boschwitz of Minnesota. Its signers include Sens. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.), Lowell Weicker Jr. (R-Conn.), Howard M. Metzenbaum (D-Ohio) and Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.). All six senators are consistent supporters of Israel.

‘Status Quo Is Not Tenable’

The senators’ letter “shows the strong feeling of strong supporters of Israel that they want to get peace talks going,” said an Administration official, requesting anonymity. “The status quo is not tenable. It’s not good for Israel’s long-term security, and it’s not likely to lead toward a lasting resolution of the (Palestinian) problem.”

No Comment From Shamir

In Israel, neither Shamir nor his aides would comment on the letter Sunday, but Israel Radio reported that the Israeli Embassy in Washington had appealed to the senators not to send the document, arguing that it constitutes intervention in delicate negotiations now under way.

An embassy source in Washington confirmed Sunday that embassy officials had urged that the letter not be sent, the Associated Press reported. The embassy “had reservations about the timing of the letter, but there is no way we could have prevented the letter from being written or sent,” AP quoted the source as saying.

Some Criticism of Jordan

The senators’ letter contains some criticism of Jordan and other Arab states, but it clearly is aimed at putting pressure on Shamir to accept Shultz’s negotiating formula and to consider some kind of land-for-peace exchange.

“Accordingly, we were dismayed to read . . . that Prime Minister Shamir had said that ‘this expression of territory for peace is not accepted by me,’ ” the authors wrote.

“We hope that the prime minister’s statement did not indicate that Israel is abandoning a policy that offers the best hope for long-term peace. . . ,” the letter said.

Urge Keeping Some Land

The letter does not ask Israel to return all the land seized in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War or return to the “dangerous and insecure” pre-1967 borders. It does, however, urge Israel’s leaders to accept peace proposals put forth in the 1978 Camp David accords and in U.N. Security Council Resolution 242, which calls on Israel to relinquish some land to the Palestinians in exchange for Arab recognition of Israel’s right to exist.

The senators said they also are “disturbed” by reports that Jordan may be backing away from peace talks that would include Israel and a joint Jordanian-Palestinian delegation. Jordan has proposed an independent Palestinian presence at the peace talks.

“Israel rejects negotiations with the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization), and rightly so,” the letter states. “However, its officials have indicated that it would negotiate with a joint Jordanian-Palestinian delegation. Jordan’s abandonment of the joint delegation concept now would deal a serious blow to the peace process.”