Rabin, Mubarak Confer on Palestinians : Agree That Direct Talks Preceding Vote Would Be Held in Egypt

Yitzhak Rabin, the Israeli defense minister who has presided over the controversial military crackdown on the Palestinian uprising, met for three hours Monday with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and said afterward that Israel endorses the idea of direct talks with a Palestinian delegation to resolve the crisis.

But Rabin, a member of a coalition government that is deeply divided over Mubarak’s plan for direct negotiations in Cairo, cautioned that there is still no agreement in Israel on whether Palestinians from outside the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip should be admitted to the bargaining table.

“We have trust in President Mubarak’s efforts and ideas to assist in bringing about a dialogue between an Israeli delegation and a Palestinian one,” said Rabin, whose visit was sanctioned by the Israeli Cabinet over the weekend.

Rabin said he reached agreement with Mubarak that such a dialogue, a prelude to elections in the territories to select a delegation for permanent peace talks, would take place in Egypt and that the Palestinian participants would be “announced” by the Egyptians.

But later, in a meeting with reporters in Tel Aviv that was broadcast by Israel Radio, Rabin said the dispute over the makeup of the Palestinian delegation is still the issue that “will make or break the whole Israeli peace initiative.”

‘Election Idea Valid’

“I believe the election idea is valid,” Rabin said at a press conference in Cairo. “The problem is we need to start with a dialogue--mainly Palestinians from the territories, some of us think only (Palestinians from the territories). . . . I believe that on the part of Israel, there are certain problems we have to discuss. . . .”

Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir and other members of his right-wing Likud Party have rejected Mubarak’s initiative and any attempts to force Israel to negotiate with Palestinians outside the occupied territories. Their objections stem from historic opposition to bargaining with the Palestine Liberation Organization, which they view as a terrorist organization, and fears that outside Palestinians, many of whom emigrated from Israel proper, could present a threat to Israel’s security.

Mubarak, in a separate press conference at the presidential palace after the meetings with Rabin, said he believes that “we shouldn’t neglect” Palestinians outside the territories that Israel occupied in the Arab-Israeli War of 1967.

He also emphasized that the PLO has been directly involved in the most recent round of behind-the-scenes negotiations. PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, much of whose base of political support is provided by Palestinians outside the occupied territories, has visited Cairo three times in the past week.

Arafat, Mubarak said, has already made a number of concessions, including the PLO decision to publicly renounce terrorism and essentially recognize Israel’s right to exist within its pre-1967 borders.

“Doesn’t this represent flexibility?” Mubarak asked.

The PLO has yet to take an official stand on Mubarak’s initiative, which the Egyptian president said “clarifies” Israel’s plan to elect representatives in the West Bank and Gaza Strip by suggesting, among other things, that Israel endorse the concept of trading land for peace and allow Palestinians in East Jerusalem to vote in any elections.

Shamir has rejected those and other potential conditions attached to the elections plan, while Rabin and other Labor Party officials have embraced the initiative as a way of getting the peace process moving again.

Although the Israeli Cabinet approved Rabin’s visit, he was given no mandate to negotiate on behalf of the government, and any official action in Israel toward accepting or rejecting the proposal is certain to be delayed until another round of meetings between Israeli officials and Mubarak in the United States later this month.

Rabin, a former Israeli prime minister and a key official in formulating the policies of Israel’s coalition government, has been in charge of Israel’s controversial military crackdown on the 21-month-old uprising against Israeli rule in the occupied territories. More than 600 Arabs and more than 35 Jews have been killed in the conflict.

After his meeting with Mubarak, Rabin visited the Pyramids of Giza and the grave of former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, who led the move for Arab peace with Israel in the 1970s and who was assassinated in 1981. Rabin placed a wreath on Sadat’s grave bearing the legend, in English and Hebrew, “In Memory of the Man of Peace.”