Shamir Delays Responding to Call for Talks

As the supersensitive issue of who controls Jerusalem rushed to the center of Middle East diplomacy, Israeli officials claimed Wednesday that Washington had granted them a veto over the makeup of a Palestinian team attending the first stages of peace talks, bringing a harsh reaction from Palestinian leaders.

Despite the claim, the government of Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir did not answer a call from President Bush to join the talks, which have been endorsed by four Arab governments. In a television interview, Shamir said he is still awaiting American word on who will represent the Palestinians.

Local Palestinian leaders loyal to the Palestine Liberation Organization also withheld their response. Their delegation is supposed to form part of a team from Jordan.

Earlier, controversy broke out over an Israel Radio report and claims by right-wing rivals of Shamir that the United States had outlined a plan that would paper over a chasm of discord concerning the role of Arabs from Jerusalem.

The radio reported that Secretary of State James A. Baker III has assured Shamir that no Palestinian from Jerusalem would be seated during the early stages of the talks. He told Palestinians that they would take part later, when discussion reached the issue of the fate of land occupied by Israel, Palestinian leaders said.

In a domestic political complication for Shamir, members of the small, right-wing Tehiya Party withdrew from the ruling coalition over the issue of peace talks. The defection narrowed Shamir’s bloc in the 120-member Parliament to 63, a majority of three--not yet slim enough to endanger the survival of his government.

Tehiya spokesmen accused Shamir of planning to eventually negotiate with Palestinians from Jerusalem and to trade land won in the 1967 Middle East War for peace treaties with Arab governments.

Shamir, in his interview, insisted that “it was out of the question” that Palestinian residents of Jerusalem attend peace talks.

Asked whether his attitude might sink the elaborately constructed plans for Arab-Israeli and Israeli-Palestinian talks, he answered: “I would rather be blamed for that than for risking the unity of Jerusalem.”

Earlier, Defense Minister Moshe Arens told reporters that Washington agreed to exclude East Jerusalem Palestinians from proposed talks. “I have no doubt,” Arens said. “I believe there is no difference of opinion between the Americans and us on this matter.”

Shamir, in the interview, said the PLO had been excluded as well.

A senior government official, who did not wish to be identified, told The Times that Baker has constructed an elaborate fig leaf to skirt the delicate issue. The official said Shamir’s government is satisfied with the proposed compromise to allow Palestinians to take part in the talks later--so long as it is not announced officially.

“I don’t think we can agree on such a thing openly,” said the senior official. “If Shamir can sit down and say that he has avoided talking to Jerusalem Arabs, he will be comfortable. Maybe the Palestinians can sit down now and say that Jerusalem people will participate later.”

In any event, the official added, Baker’s current position is “closer to us than the Palestinians.”

Government spokesman Yossi Olmert remarked: “The Palestinians are in a no-win situation. Either they come in as we want or they are out.”

In Washington, the Israeli ambassador to the United States told Cable News Network that it is up to the Palestinians to say yes or no.

“The onus is on the Palestinians,” said Ambassador Zalman Shoval. “They have to inform the United States government about the composition of their delegation.”

By the time he arrived in Israel on Sunday, Baker had secured the agreement of Syria, Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon to attend a U.S.- and Soviet-sponsored peace conference with Israel. Of the four, Syria’s participation is considered the most crucial because it has been Israel’s most hostile neighbor.

On Wednesday, Shamir said that if talks with the Palestinians fall through, he would be willing to carry on with only Syria.

He repeated his belief that there has been a change in the attitude of Syrian President Hafez Assad, even if only “tactical,” in order to gain favor with the United States.

Shamir added that Israel will not give up the Golan Heights, which it seized from Syria in 1967, and he expressed hope that Israel and Arab governments can agree to disagree over border differences. “We want to change border conflicts to a difference of opinion about borders,” he said.

“What are we risking?” Shamir added in an unusually lighthearted tone. “We are not risking anything.”

Shamir repeated his opposition to the formula of giving up land for peace treaties with Arab states. “Land for peace” is at the heart of key U.N. resolutions on the Middle East and is the bedrock of Washington’s program for untangling the Arab-Israeli conflict. “I do not believe in territorial compromise,” Shamir said.

The prime minister’s television appearance followed by hours the withdrawal of Tehiya from his ruling parliamentary coalition, a combination of right-wing and religious parties. “You start on this road, you are going down a corridor leading to a trap,” warned Tehiya member Geula Cohen.

Tehiya favors annexation of the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, which Israel has already done in the case of the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem.

Other right-wing factions are considering withdrawal, but a government crisis is unlikely.

The Knesset, Israel’s Parliament, is in recess, and it would take 20 votes to reconvene it. In addition, the opposition Labor Party has announced that it would support Shamir in a showdown over peace talks.

Palestinian leaders reacted sharply to their proposed exclusion. “Baker said the Israelis cannot offer any compromise concerning Jerusalem and asked us to postpone it to another stage,” said Zacharia Agha, a physician from Gaza who met with Baker during his short visit. “We are saying right now the representatives from Jerusalem must participate in all stages of negotiations.”

In Tunisia, PLO leader Yasser Arafat charged that the U.S. proposal for talks “completely leaves out the question of East Jerusalem,” Paris-based Radio Monte Carlo reported.

It was far from clear that the Palestinians were giving a flat no. Several PLO dignitaries have fanned out to Arab capitals, including Damascus and Amman, seeking support for Palestinian positions on a conference.

In four months of hectic shuttle diplomacy, Baker has operated under the hypothesis that sensitive issues should be put aside and left for the end of talks, after other agreements have been reached.

The apparent promises to Israel that Palestinians from Jerusalem will not sit in during early phases of talks and to Palestinians that Jerusalemites can come in later are concrete manifestations of that concept. It is a device meant to let both sides get to the table without giving in on hallowed principles.

There is almost no issue more volatile than the question of who owns Jerusalem. And against every effort to push the issue to the background, it has begun to dominate the latest round of diplomacy.

Israel annexed the Arab eastern part of the city after its triumph in the 1967 Middle East War. About 140,000 Palestinians live in East Jerusalem neighborhoods. The Western Wall, the holiest site in Judaism, is in the eastern sector of the city, as are several other Jewish shrines.

Israeli leaders rarely utter the name Jerusalem without referring to it as the eternal and undivided capital of Israel, and successive Israeli governments have ringed Arab neighborhoods with Israeli suburbs to blur the divisions in the city.

“In Israel, there is a consensus that Jerusalem is the complete and united capital of Israel,” Shamir said.

In the Arab world, liberation of Jerusalem is a common rallying cry, and Palestinians have earmarked the eastern half of the city as the capital of their proposed state. Jerusalem is the third holiest city in Islam and is the site of the Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa mosque, both key Muslim shrines.

For Arab Christians and Christendom at large, Jerusalem is an important stop for pilgrims and the location of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

The city has become a major focus of the Arab uprising against Israeli rule; Israelis who venture into Palestinian neighborhoods run the risk of getting hit by stones or attacked by knives.

“There can be no talks that do not include Jerusalem,” said Jerusalem resident and Palestinian leader Faisal Husseini, who also met with Baker.

The U.S. policy on Jerusalem has been one of non-commitment. Washington considers the final status of the city to be subject to negotiation and has kept its embassy in Tel Aviv pending the long-awaited outcome.

Voices of Dissent in Peace Talks

Yitzhak Shamir, Israeli prime minister. On territory: “We want to change border conflicts to a difference of opinion about borders.”

Faisal Husseini, Palestinian leader. On the question of who owns Jerusalem: “There can be no talks that do not include Jerusalem.”

Geula Cohen, Tehiya party member. On the issue of land for peace: “You start on this road, you are going down a corridor leading to a trap.”