Time to Give Up Territorial Claims, Baker Tells Israel

Secretary of State James A. Baker III, delivering an unusually stern warning to a major pro-Israel lobbying organization, called on Israel on Monday to renounce its claims to territory that it has seized in wars with neighboring Arab nations.

“For Israel, now is the time to lay aside, once and for all, the unrealistic vision of a greater Israel,” Baker said in a speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

“Israeli interests in the West Bank and Gaza--security and otherwise--can be accommodated in a settlement” that would involve trading land for peace, Baker told his unreceptive audience. The Israeli government of Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir has steadfastly refused to swap land for peace.

“Forswear annexation,” Baker urged. “Stop settlement activity” by Jews in the West Bank. “Allow schools to reopen. Reach out to the Palestinians as neighbors who deserve political rights.”

Baker acknowledged that it would be difficult for Israel “to enter a negotiating process whose successful outcome will in all probability involve territorial withdrawal.” But, he said, “continuation of the status quo will lead to increasing violence and worsening prospects for peace.”

In setting the tone for a series of meetings between Israeli Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin and senior Administration officials in Washington this week, Baker said it was “high time for serious political dialogue” between Israel and the Palestinians.

During their first months in office, senior Administration officials generally have refrained from publicly joining the diplomatic effort to resolve the Palestinian uprising in the Israeli-occupied territories of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. But Baker recently dispatched a senior aide, Dennis Ross, on a low-key visit to Israel, and the Administration has quietly begun to focus on the region, following an introductory series of one-on-one meetings between President Bush and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir and King Hussein of Jordan.

On Monday morning, Rabin conferred with Defense Secretary Dick Cheney about the current military situation in Israel. Defense officials said Rabin sought assurances that the United States would maintain promised levels of military aid. He met with Baker later and is scheduled to meet with Bush on Wednesday afternoon.

While Cheney and Rabin did not discuss specific weapons systems that Israel hopes to buy from the United States, officials said that Cheney promised to work for congressional approval of $1.8 billion in foreign military sales financing in each of the next two years. The Defense Department administers the foreign military sales program, which supplements $1.2 billion in proposed economic support funds.

Baker, reiterating in his speech the U.S. preference for Palestinian self-government in the West Bank and Gaza Strip “in a manner acceptable to Palestinians, Israel and Jordan,” said: “Such a formula provides ample scope for Palestinians to achieve their full political rights. It also provides ample protection for Israel’s security as well.”

But, he said, “the gap between the parties on key issues such as Palestinian representation and the shape of a final settlement remains very, very wide.”

Atmosphere of Violence

“Violence has soured the atmosphere,” he said, referring to the deaths of 19 Israelis and more than 425 Palestinians since the uprising began in December, 1987. “So, a quick move to negotiations is quite unlikely.

Meanwhile, in a speech prepared for delivery today to the same group, Rep. Les Aspin (D-Wis.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, seemed to echo Baker’s message, saying that “military dominance is not for eternity. . . . In the end, a true and comprehensive peace settlement is required. Only that can bury the menace.”

Aspin will also say that U.S.-Israeli strategic cooperation, as well as U.S. efforts to stem the proliferation of chemical, nuclear and ballistic missile technology to the Middle East, could “buy time” for Israel to make peace with its neighbors.

“But we cannot turn the clock back. . . . Time is not in inexhaustible supply,” Aspin will say.

Times staff writer Melissa Healy contributed to this story.