Shultz Suggests Linking Jordan and Palestinians

Secretary of State George P. Shultz, in the first public preview of his ideas for a final Middle East peace agreement, suggested Wednesday a Jordan-Palestine federation linking the Hashemite kingdom and the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Shultz said the estimated 60,000 Jewish settlers now living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip should be allowed to stay in their homes if they wish, provided they are willing to live under the laws of the Arab-ruled entity.

Comments in Interview

Shultz made his comments in an interview broadcast Wednesday night on Israeli Television as he was winding up a hectic day of meetings in Israel, Egypt and Jordan. The interview was recorded earlier in the day, before he left Jerusalem.

In Amman, Shultz conferred over an elaborate dinner with King Hussein about details of the U.S. proposal for negotiations between Israel and its Arab neighbors. Although neither Israel nor Jordan has accepted Shultz’s initiative, the secretary of state applauded Hussein for “the kind of approach required for this process to move ahead.”

In contrast, Shultz volunteered no similar praise for Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir. Without specifically placing blame on anyone, Shultz said, “While we have made some progress, differences have not been substantially narrowed.”

He continued: “We need the willingness to explore exhaustively every angle, every aspect, every word and every implication of this initiative--not in a skeptical search for what may be wrong but with a serious commitment to make it work.” He cited no names, but U.S. officials have said that Shamir frequently focuses on what he considers to be the deficiencies in the Shultz plan.

The proposal Shultz submitted last month to Israel, Jordan, Egypt and Syria is intended only to bring the parties to the bargaining table. The suggestions he made Wednesday for an ultimate settlement are similar to President Reagan’s Sept. 1, 1982, Middle East peace plan. That proposal was immediately rejected by then-Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin.

Shultz’s half-hour interview was his second long appearance on Israeli Television since he resumed his Middle East shuttle Sunday. He has not had the same kind of success in his effort to take his case directly to the Arab public.

An interview that Shultz gave Tuesday to Jordanian Television was never broadcast, although Jordanian officials had said at the time that it would be shown.

State Department spokesman Charles Redman said Jordanian Prime Minister Zaid Rifai told him Wednesday that the interview was not aired “because some of the things the secretary said were not compatible with Jordanian positions.”

“Obviously, we reject that the interview did not show,” Redman said. “We wouldn’t have agreed to do an interview if we had known it would be reviewed.”

No Meeting With Editors

Shultz had planned to meet with Egyptian newspaper editors Wednesday in Cairo, but Redman said President Hosni Mubarak’s office neglected to invite the editors.

“It was their venue, their editors,” Redman said. “Somebody dropped the ball.”

Even in Israel, Shultz ran into some trouble with his effort to take his case to the public. His interview Sunday was broadcast in English with Hebrew subtitles only after Israeli Television refused a U.S. request to also subtitle the interview in Arabic.

Throughout the day, Shultz stressed that any ultimate solution must be the result of negotiations among the parties. However, he has said that once the talks begin, the United States will present its own detailed proposal for a settlement.

In his Israel Television interview, Shultz began to reveal what such a U.S. draft would contain.

“The best solution is a solution that emerges from negotiations,” Shultz said. “And I’m not smart enough to know the best solution.”

But he said that in his view, the West Bank and Gaza are not large enough to “make sense as a national entity.”

Instead, he said, he would favor a federation linking the West Bank and Gaza with Jordan or, perhaps, Egypt. Egypt has indicated in the past that it is not interested in participating in such a federation.

As for the Jewish settlers now living in the West Bank and Gaza enclaves, Shultz said, “Jews have a right to live in these areas and, on the other hand, if they want to (remain there) . . . they have to live under the laws that are there.”

Both factions of Israel’s divided coalition government are determined to maintain the settlements under Israeli law. The rightist Likud Bloc would accomplish that by retaining Israeli control over the territories, while the centrist Labor Alignment would retain Israeli sovereignty over the settlements even if part of the rest of the territory was turned over to Arab control.

Although Shultz repeated that the United States would not welcome the Palestine Liberation Organization to the negotiating table, he warned Israel that it will not be allowed to stack the Palestinian delegation with collaborators.

“You can’t take the view as Israel (that) we’ll look around for the Palestinians we like that tend to agree with us and they’ll be the representatives of the Palestinians,” he said. “No way. The people who represent any party have to be people who are regarded as legitimate fighters for their side of the argument.”