Shamir Offers Assurances on Peace Plan : He Says His Initiative Is Intact, but Cabinet Rivals Demand Vote

Saying that his initiative for peace in the occupied territories remains intact, Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir uttered key words Sunday meant to keep his shaky coalition together, but his rivals demanded a new, formal vote on the original plan.

According to an official account of the weekly Cabinet meeting, Shamir took rehearsed questions from ministers and gave the answer: “The peace initiative is unchanged and the government will continue to act in accordance with it.”

Coalition Threatened

The assurance was aimed at placating the Labor Party, led by Finance Minister Shimon Peres, whose members have threatened to leave the ruling partnership if Shamir subjects the plan to limitations demanded by a resolution adopted by his Likud Party. The objective of the plan is to allow Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to choose a peace delegation.

“We have agreed on a governmental initiative which we felt should be defined in a way to attract an Arab side. Our argument is that there is a contradiction which exists between the government of Israel plan and the Likud resolution. We are trying to see where we stand on this contradiction,” Peres said.

Shamir offered to let the Cabinet vote on his verbal pronouncement, but Peres and his allies held out for a new, written text and a vote to guarantee that the proposal as originally advanced by Shamir is still valid. The plan was adopted by the government May 14.

The conflict began after Likud placed limits on the plan earlier this month. Under no circumstances must Israel give up land on the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, the party’s resolution said. It also specified that the Arab uprising must end before any election to choose peace negotiators takes place, and Arabs who live in East Jerusalem would not be permitted to vote.

Likud Party hawks were silent Sunday, evidently put on the defensive by Shamir’s insistence that the May 14 plan takes precedence over his own party’s policy--one that he had endorsed when it was resolved.

To avoid a confrontation with Likud, Shamir is resisting a new Cabinet vote on the plan. The Cabinet originally adopted the measure 20 to 6. “It is not necessary to have another vote,” said Yosef Ben-Aharon, a top Shamir aide. “The decision has been made to proceed--and that is that.”

Ben-Aharon went on to argue that the greatest obstacle to getting the peace plan on track is not Israel’s political maneuverings but continued talks between the United States and the Palestine Liberation Organization.

Ben-Aharon said Shamir’s plan and Washington’s dialogue with the PLO are “mutually exclusive.” The United States cannot profess to support Shamir’s plan and yet keep talking with the PLO, he insisted. Israel’s plan precludes participation by the PLO in elections or subsequent talks.

“We are getting to the moment of truth. We are not going to accept talks with the PLO, we are not going to accept indirect negotiations with the PLO through Washington,” Ben-Aharon said.

“We want to work with Palestinians here to have elections. The talks with the PLO undermine that effort.”

The Shamir government has steadily campaigned to end the talks between the Bush Administration and the PLO, which it considers an unrepentant terrorist organization. Once the PLO is let in on talks, Israeli officials assert, the formation of a Palestinian state next to Israel is inevitable.

Ben-Aharon’s comments came in the wake of hints from Secretary of State James A. Baker III, who said that if Shamir’s elections proposal falls through, the United States might lean toward the option of holding an international conference on the Middle East.

Such a conference has been a goal of the PLO.

U.S. Trip Canceled

The Bush Administration canceled plans to send a top State Department delegate to Israel this week to determine whether Shamir was still standing firm on his original plan, in the face of attacks on it from Likud. U.S. officials said that because Shamir was giving assurances that his initiative remained unchanged, it was unnecessary to send such a delegate.

Sources in the prime minister’s office and in the Labor Party said that Labor Party officials had feared that such a trip would be seen as pressure on its behalf.