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Rabin Wants PLO Ousted From ‘Driver’s Seat’

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Times Staff Writer

Israeli Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin said Wednesday that he has urged prominent West Bank and Gaza Strip Arabs to “take the driver’s seat” of the Palestinian movement away from the Palestine Liberation Organization and open peace negotiations with Israel.

Rabin said he had recently conducted a series of meetings with residents of the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip and that he told them, “If you, among yourselves, decide you are our partners for negotiations, I’ll be for negotiations with you.”

However, he said, West Bank and Gaza Palestinians are reluctant to take the step because of the danger of reprisals by the PLO, which “is fearful of the emergence of authentic leaders” among the residents of the territories.

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Rabin, in Washington for consultations with U.S. officials, sought to deflect American criticism of Israel’s hard-line handling of the seven-month-old Palestinian uprising. As defense minister, he is in charge of military efforts to combat anti-occupation demonstrations and is one of the three top leaders in Israel’s politically divided coalition government.

A White House statement asserted that the disturbances do not “provide a justification for civilian lawlessness (by Israeli vigilantes) nor act as an excuse for avoiding political discourse with the Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza.”

Despite the criticism, however, the Administration signed an agreement with Israel on Wednesday that provides for the United States to finance 80% of an Israeli program to develop a defense against medium-range ground-to-ground ballistic missiles.

Rabin said the $160-million research program is a response to the recent acquisition by Arab nations of Soviet or Chinese missiles. Although Israel’s air defenses are adequate to prevent attack by Arab aircraft, he said, “there is no defense for push-button missiles.”

Israel is known to have its own medium-range missile program. But when asked about it after he spoke at the National Press Club, Rabin said, “There are items on which Israel does not speak openly.”

Clovis Maksoud, the Arab League’s ambassador to the United Nations, said the missile program “is very disturbing and introduces a further incentive to Israel to sustain its intransigence and its defiance of all international efforts and initiatives to achieve a just and comprehensive peace.”

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Rabin said he is prepared to talk to any Palestinians who acknowledge Israel’s right to exist. But when asked about a statement attributed to PLO spokesman Bassam abu Sharif, in which Abu Sharif called for a negotiated agreement guaranteeing “peace and security” for both Israel and the Palestinians, Rabin responded, “From time to time, the PLO comes up with what I would call a trick.”

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