Shamir Seeks to Muzzle Cabinet on Peace Plan

Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir moved Sunday to muzzle public remarks by Cabinet ministers on a politically divisive Egyptian peace initiative.

An outspoken critic of the initiative himself, Shamir called on his ministers to make no more comments about the plan without first checking with the Foreign Ministry, an Israel Radio report said.

Speaking at his morning Cabinet meeting, the broadcast disclosed, the prime minister appeared to be directing his criticism at Shimon Peres, head of the Labor Party and Shamir’s deputy prime minister in a coalition government.

Peres is visiting the United States, where he has repeatedly told interviewers that he believes that the initiative of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak presents good possibilities for bringing Israelis and Palestinians together for peace talks.

Foreign Minister Moshe Arens, like Shamir a member of the Likud Party, the senior partner in the ruling coalition, is also traveling in the United States, and was quoted in Los Angeles as critical of Peres for speaking on foreign affairs, Arens’ own field.

Differences between the two parties have stirred feverish speculation here about the future of the coalition government. The Jerusalem Post, in its Sunday editions, quoted unidentified sources in Shamir’s office as saying that Labor Party ministers’ “promoting” Mubarak’s initiative while traveling abroad “is no longer tolerable.”

“The prime minister is not willing to compromise on the government’s (own) initiative,” the Post quoted its sources as saying. “If a confrontation such as (abandoning the Likud-Labor coalition and) going to elections is necessary, Shamir would prefer it now.”

Shamir put forward the Israeli plan in May, calling for elections of a panel of Palestinians from the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip to negotiate interim self-rule in the territories and, later, the future of the disputed land. Earlier this month, Mubarak formally countered with a list of 10 conditions, or modifications, to the Shamir plan, which he said could bring the two sides together.

The Palestine Liberation Organization and leading West Bank Palestinians had rejected the Israeli proposal for failing to specify certain conditions. Mubarak’s modifications have filled in some of the blanks but raised points that Likud finds unacceptable. One recommends including several Palestinians from outside the territories on a delegation to discuss the elections.

Shamir, Rabin Differ

The defense minister, Labor’s Yitzhak Rabin, went to Cairo last week to discuss the Egyptian plan with Mubarak and, speaking there and on his return, called the initiative “an important step.” According to one political analyst here, Shamir considers himself close to Rabin and has been hurt by the public break on this issue.

The prime minister himself has political restraints within his own party from right-wing ministers such as Ariel Sharon. “There are sincere differences over Mubarak’s 10 points,” the analyst said, “but there’s a lot of political brinkmanship going on too. The coalition could break over this issue, but some sort of compromise is more likely.”

Shamir has called for a meeting of his so-called Inner Cabinet on the peace process once Peres and Arens return to Israel, hoping to debate and settle the matter behind closed doors. On Sunday, however, a minister of the religious Sephardic Torah Guardians, or Shas party, called for a referendum on the issue, an improbable prospect but one that would bring the debate fully into the political arena.

Meanwhile, the clandestine leadership of the Palestinian uprising in the occupied territories distributed a leaflet Sunday demanding a role for the PLO in the process, criticizing the Mubarak initiative for not providing for one.