Shamir Taking Charge of Israeli Team at Talks

Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, until now a reluctant player in the Middle East peace process, decided Wednesday to head Israel’s delegation to next week’s conference in Madrid, infuriating his foreign minister, David Levy, who then refused to attend at all.

Rumors about Shamir’s desire to take direct charge had been circulating here for days. His decision appeared to reflect both his intense political rivalry with Levy and a deep mistrust of the Foreign Ministry professionals who authored the original Israeli peace talks proposal and who are viewed as soft on the issue of trading land for peace.

In a printed statement, Levy said Shamir’s move “neutralized” the Foreign Ministry’s role in the peace process. With Shamir’s decision to head the delegation, Levy said, he sees “no need to go.”

Levy ended the declaration with a wish for “all success.”

Shamir’s unexpected decision came as the White House announced Wednesday that Israel, its Arab neighbors and Palestinians had formally agreed to attend the historic gathering.

The positive responses to a joint U.S.-Soviet invitation set the stage for a meeting next Wednesday in Madrid between some parties that have maintained a state of war for more than 40 years.

Spokesmen for Shamir insisted that the prime minister is going to Madrid only to show Israel’s “seriousness.”

“This decision was based on the desire to give the utmost importance to the process,” said Ehud Gol, Shamir’s spokesman.

Gol claimed that Syria, Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon are refusing to send their heads of government or heads of state and argued that they are trying to avoid top-level contact with Israel.

“The main man should be there,” Gol concluded.

U.S. officials reacted cautiously to the news.

“We’re not going to get into the internal debate in Israel,” said a State Department official.

A White House official said Wednesday night that there is no indication that other heads of state or government will now seek to attend the peace conference in response to Shamir’s move. The official, who requested anonymity, noted that the invitations were issued at the foreign minister level. But he said the Administration is not concerned by Shamir’s decision to attend.

“We’re not going to tell him not to,” the official said.

Israel is divided over what should be achieved at the talks, and politicians of all stripes are vying to place blame or take credit, depending on the outcome of talks.

In part, the tiff also confirms former U.S. Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger’s quip that Israel has no foreign policy, only domestic politics.

Levy views himself as a prime candidate to succeed Shamir. His ambition--and his efforts to take credit for getting the talks rolling--poses a challenge to Shamir’s protege Moshe Arens, the defense minister, and a host of “princes,” the group of younger politicians who curry Shamir’s favor. Two dissident members of Shamir’s Likud Party have already announced that they will try to unseat Shamir before the next election.

Shamir’s decision runs the political risk of offending Levy’s large following among Israel’s ethnic North Africans, who identify with Levy’s Moroccan background and working-class origins.

In a previous Cabinet position as housing minister, Levy played the role of hard-liner and fought an effort to get Israeli-Palestinian peace talks off the ground. It was finally Shamir who sunk a 1989 plan for talks by rejecting an American-brokered design for a Palestinian delegation.

As foreign minister, Levy has taken a dovish line. His office came up with a formula for “regional talks” in which Israel would meet at a ceremonial opening with an array of Arab states and then negotiate with each one of them over a range of issues.

Shamir has been described by associates as grumpy as the proposed dates for getting talks under way draws near, and he has said that Israel is going to Madrid because it has no other alternative.

The first inkling that the Foreign Ministry’s influence would be cut off came when word leaked that Shamir had named his top aide, Yosef Ben-Aharon, to head the team to negotiate with Syria; his Cabinet secretary, Elyakim Rubenstein, for the talks with the Palestinians and Jordan, and, from the Defense Ministry, Israel’s chief hostage negotiator, Uri Lubrani, for the talks with Lebanon.

Those choices for the top negotiating jobs effectively exclude several senior Foreign Ministry officials who lean toward an ultimate compromise of trading land occupied by Israel in 1967 in exchange for peace with Arab states. None of the selected three harbors any fondness for a land-for-peace arrangement.

Shamir has pledged not to give up any of the West Bank or Gaza Strip, home to 1.7 million Palestinians, or the Golan Heights, which Syria claims. Israel bases its position both on its security needs and its biblical rights.

Ben-Aharon has been squabbling for weeks with Levy. He has accused the foreign minister of eagerly giving in to American pressure to attend talks.

In any case, close observers say the spat is really between Shamir and Levy.

“Ben-Aharon is just a stand-in,” said a senior official close to Shamir.

Shamir’s announcement followed a political face-off that began in the morning when the prime minister told Levy that he himself wanted to head the delegation to Madrid, make the opening speech and reserve for handpicked associates all the jobs of leading the individual negotiating teams.

Levy insisted that he should at least be allowed to give the opening address, and Shamir offered to think it over. But he phoned Levy at 8 p.m. to confirm that he would handle the whole event himself. Levy then decided to stay home.

Times staff writer Douglas Jehl, in Washington, also contributed to this report.