Shamir, Key Likud Members Reject Mubarak Peace Plan

Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir and leading members of his Likud Party on Friday rejected a Labor Party proposal to accept an invitation from Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak to take part in talks with a Palestinian peace delegation.

The rejection left the government, a tenuous coalition led by Likud and Labor, badly split on the future of peace talks. The invitation from Mubarak was designed to bring Israelis together with Palestinian leaders to discuss Israel’s proposal to hold elections in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Israel on its own has not been able to produce a group of Palestinians to discuss the election proposal. Shamir and the Likud regard the Mubarak proposal as an underhanded way to bring in the Palestine Liberation Organization as a party to the negotiations.

The vote on Mubarak’s offer was taken by the so-called Inner Cabinet, which is made up of 12 members divided equally between Likud and Labor. After eight hours of debate over two days, the Inner Cabinet divided along strict party lines, and under Cabinet rules the tie defeated the proposal.

The deadlock reflected Israel’s continuing inability to resolve questions of whom it should talk to and about what.

Likud officials tried to put the best face on the deadlock.

Avi Pazner, a spokesman for Shamir, said, “It’s not the end of the peace initiative and not the end of the government.”

Yosef Ben-Aharon, another aide to Shamir, was asked whether the rejection of Mubarak’s plan had left the Egyptian president hanging in the air, and he responded, “Well, he’s a good acrobat.”

Labor officials scolded Likud for being unwilling to set the election process in motion by agreeing to the proposed talks.

“Israel today suffered a severe setback,” Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin said. It was Rabin who put forth the election proposal last spring.

Labor threatened to reconsider its participation in the coalition government, a threat it has made several times in the 10 months since the government was installed.

‘New Political Situation’

“We have a new political situation,” Shimon Peres, head of the Labor Party and minister of finance, said. “We’ll convene our party institutions and decide about how we proceed.”

Officials of Likud and Labor alike looked to the United States to end the paralysis. Secretary of State James A. Baker III has suggested that Egypt, Israel and the United States meet to work out the makeup of a Palestinian peace delegation. The proposal was not taken up Friday, according to Ben-Aharon, because it had not been put in writing.

“Maybe now we will get something concrete,” Ben-Aharon said.

The Israeli election plan was designed to let Palestinians select delegates who in turn would negotiate limited autonomy under Israeli rule. Shamir saw this as a way of finding local Palestinians willing to negotiate and of avoiding talks with the PLO.

Arab Loyalty

The PLO, which is based in Tunisia, says it has the loyalty of most Arabs in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, yet Shamir refuses to deal with the PLO, mainly because it is demanding a Palestinian homeland adjacent to Israel.

No local Palestinian has stepped forward independently to take up Israel’s election offer. Shamir says the Arabs fear that the PLO will kill anyone who speaks up.

Last summer, the United States delivered a proposal to Israel from the PLO to establish a mixed Palestinian panel from inside and outside Israel to discuss the election plan. Shamir rejected the idea on grounds that the outside Palestinians would surely be selected by the PLO and that this would give the PLO a legitimate claim to leadership.

Finally, Mubarak stepped in with his plan. It, too, called for a mixed delegation, but focused on Israel’s election plan as the basis for the talks. Again, Shamir and Likud saw the offer as a ploy for opening the door to the PLO.

“Mubarak’s plan in effect entails talks with the PLO,” Ben-Aharon said Friday.

Labor, on the other hand, embraced Mubarak’s idea and, in effect, resigned itself to accepting a fig leaf for PLO participation.

“Likud has no proposal,” Peres said. “It has one interesting offer: to create a new Palestinian people because it’s not satisfied with those in existence. We (in the Labor Party) are talking about negotiations with Palestinians as they are in the field. Every time we reach something practical, there is a new attempt to get out of it, a new story.”

As the split between the two parties widens, it appears that internal political disputes on both sides are making any alternative movement unlikely.

Shamir faces a challenge from a trio of hard-line ministers in Likud who want no alterations to the election proposal as it stands. Outside talks, in their view, will inevitably cause Israel to cede the occupied lands, and they are opposed to this.

Within the Labor Party, which is willing to give up at least some land in return for peace, a group of moderates had been pressing the party to leave the government and let Likud fend for itself.

But if Labor bolts, new elections may follow, and few experts think Labor could do better now than it did last fall when it came in a close second to Likud. Many think Labor would do worse.

Peres has been trying to find allies among the small religious parties and form a government on his own, but there are no signs that he is succeeding. Moreover, if Labor should leave the government, Rabin would probably challenge Peres for the party leadership, creating yet further upheaval.