Israel Wants $2 Billion to Rehabilitate Palestinians

Israeli Foreign Minister Moshe Arens urged the United States today to head an international fund-raising drive for $2 billion to rehabilitate Palestinian refugees in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and to promote his government’s peace initiative.

U.S. officials said that although the United States will do what it can, many questions remain about the Israeli proposals and that the next steps must be up to the Israelis and Palestinians themselves.

Arens presented his government’s newly adopted four-point initiative to Vice President Dan Quayle after discussing it a day earlier with Secretary of State James A. Baker III.

Quayle “endorsed the plan in principle but said he wanted to hear more details,” said vice presidential spokesman David Beckwith. The spokesman said Arens and Quayle did not discuss the fund-raising request or specifics of the Israeli proposal to hold elections among the 1.7 million Palestinians of the occupied West Bank and Gaza.

‘Israel Not Panama’

Arens reiterated today that he had sought to convince Baker and other U.S. officials that details of the plan, being sought by the United States and Arab countries, should be discussed only once its implementation begins.

Discussing details endangers acceptance of the plan, he said. The United States can assure its allies that regardless of the details, Israel accepts the principle that there must be free and democratic elections, he said. “Israel is not Panama and (Yitzhak) Shamir is not (Panamanian Gen. Manuel Antonio) Noriega,” Arens said.

The important thing now is for the United States to fully endorse the proposal in principle and push for its acceptance with Arab and non-Arab states, Arens told reporters.

“We feel it’s now the turn of the United States at bat to declare wholehearted and unreserved support for this initiative,” Arens said.

The United States views the elections as the centerpiece of the Israeli plan. But Arens appeared to be trying to shift some of the emphasis away from the controversial election proposal to the idea of rehabilitating 300,000 Palestinians living in refugee camps.