Shamir Rejects Peace Proposal From Mubarak

Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, rejecting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s call to trade occupied land for peace, said Thursday that Arabs are not willing to give Israel peace.

Shamir dismissed as a joke Mubarak’s appeal to the Israeli people to change their government’s mind. Part of Mubarak’s interview with Israeli journalists in Cairo was broadcast Wednesday in Israel.

Asked whether the Egyptian leader was interfering in Israel’s internal affairs, he said: “I don’t think he meant it seriously. He was only joking.”

Shamir told high school students in Herzliya: “Land for peace--that well-known phrase sounds so innocent. Israel will give up land and they will give us peace. . . .

“There is no element in the Arab world willing to give us peace.”

Cites Syria as Example

He cited as an example Syria, which wants Israel to return the annexed Golan Heights, captured in the 1967 Middle East War, but he said he does not believe Syria is willing to make peace.

Mubarak said Israel is banging its head against a wall by trying to deal only with Palestinians from the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip while ignoring Palestinians outside.

Angry Shamir aides said Mubarak should “stop preaching” and trying to lure Israel into talks with the Palestine Liberation Organization, which it regards as a terrorist group.

Deputy Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Israel Radio that Mubarak’s call for Israeli-Palestinian talks and his 10 proposals for conducting elections in the occupied territories “would torpedo our initiative and not put it forward.”

Egypt’s demand that Israel be willing to hand back territory means in practice allowing a PLO state, he said.

Criticizes Mubarak Tactics

Shamir criticized Mubarak’s attempt to appeal to Israelis over their leaders’ heads, contrasting Israeli and Egyptian forms of democracy.

“I don’t think he expects an answer from the Israeli people but from their government,” he said. “We are a democratic country. If people didn’t rely on the government, it would not be able to stand the way it does in Egypt.”

Israeli political commentators also questioned the wisdom of Mubarak’s appeal to the Israeli public against Shamir.

In an editorial entitled “The Wrong Address,” the newspaper Yediot Aharonot said Mubarak’s first mistake was to appeal to the people and his second error was that he addressed only Israel, not the Palestinians.

“Trust is not created by direct appeals to Israelis to bypass their government or by provoking an argument between one and the other, and it is definitely not created unilaterally,” the newspaper said.