Israelis Assail U.S. Over Selection of Talks Site : Mideast: Ministers deplore failure to consult Shamir, but a boycott of negotiations is not expected.

Members of Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir’s government Sunday assailed the Bush Administration for scheduling the next round of Middle East peace talks before Shamir had a chance to talk with Bush about where they should take place.

The heated outbursts reflected underlying nervousness about the role of the United States in the coming face-to-face talks between Israel and its closest Arab neighbors. By unilaterally choosing Washington as the site of the talks, Bush showed a willingness to take matters in his own hands if the negotiations stall.

“We are speaking here of an Administration that doesn’t try or pretend to show, even for appearances, some amount of friendship or effort to coordinate, as was common with other administrations in the past,” said Ehud Olmert, minister of health and a protege of Shamir’s. Shamir’s Cabinet members frequently express longing for the Reagan Administration, which gave almost unquestioning support to Israel.

Despite the uproar, which coincided with a Cabinet meeting that was dominated by talk of the perceived slight to Shamir, there were no signs that Israel ultimately would stay away from the talks, called by Washington to begin Dec. 4.

Shamir told the CBS television program “Face the Nation” that he would “have to consult my ministers and my government, and we will give our answer.”

“The matter now is about some details,” he added in an interview that was taped Saturday night for broadcast Sunday. “Important details, but they could be worked out. Nobody could imagine that because of such a detail, this process will collapse.

“We are interested in this process. We want to go along with it.”

However, one of his Cabinet members suggested that Shamir would delay an official response beyond today, the deadline Washington was reported to have fixed for receiving replies from the negotiating teams invited to the talks. Besides representatives of Israel, these include delegations from Syria and Lebanon and a joint Jordanian-Palestinian team. Jordan so far is the only country to reply with a firm acceptance.

Shamir’s police minister, Roni Milo, told Israel Radio that the government should stall to show Washington that it “cannot pull this rope with us any tighter.” During the Cabinet meeting, Milo called the U.S. invitation “a nervy ultimatum.”

Reports today said Israel would try to get assurances that the talks would not stay in Washington indefinitely.

The sense of outrage stemmed from the issuance of the invitations before Shamir’s scheduled Friday meeting with Bush at the White House. In addition, Palestinians in Jerusalem had received their invitations before Shamir’s meeting with Bush, a perceived added injury in view of Shamir’s position that the Palestinians are only appendages of Jordan at the talks. The State Department has said that the invitations went out to all parties Thursday night.

“If the President wants to dictate a date for convening the negotiations, maybe he could wait three hours, perhaps, to give the appearance of consultations with the prime minister,” Health Minister Olmert declared.

Science Minister Yuval Neeman, an avowed opponent of the talks, suggested sarcastically that the American ambassador to Israel be invited to Cabinet meetings “so he can give us orders directly.”

The Bush Administration has pledged to remain a “driving force” in the talks, which had their start in Madrid three weeks ago. To Israel, that means driving the Arabs to the negotiating table, retiring from the scene and leaving Israel to work out peace treaties with the Arab states. To the Arabs, it means pressing Israel to give up, as a condition for peace, at least parts of the territories it captured during the Six-Day War of 1967. The territories include the West Bank of the Jordan River, the Gaza Strip in the Sinai Desert, the Golan Heights on the Israeli-Syrian frontier and East Jerusalem.

Washington’s decision to convene the talks there--which Secretary of State James A. Baker III said was made only after the Administration concluded that the parties would be unable to agree among themselves on a time and place--apparently pleased hardly anyone.

Israel wanted home-and-home talks in the Middle East. Shamir said it would be easier for his negotiators to keep in touch with him if talks were held in the region. He also wanted to score a symbolic point of having Arab officials appear in Jerusalem.

“I think the American government has again hurt the State of Israel unjustifiably and is damaging its position as an honest broker,” said Moshe Katzav, Shamir’s transport minister.

Syria pressed for the talks to resume in Madrid or some other European capital to give the talks an international flavor that would obscure Syria’s de facto recognition of Israel.

For their part, the Palestinians fear that members of the Palestine Liberation Organization who function behind the scenes as observers of the Jordanian-Palestinian delegation will be barred from the American capital. The Administration and the PLO are not on speaking terms.

Jordan, beset by economic problems and eager to gain Western favor, quickly accepted the Washington venue.

Israeli opposition to a prominent American role is rooted in disagreements with the Bush Administration about the goal of the talks. Shamir rejects the notion of giving up any of the disputed territories, while a trade of land for peace is a keystone of Bush’s design for ending the Middle East conflict.

In a 10-day swing through the United States, Shamir repeatedly made his views known. He referred to the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip as part of Israel and insisted that the extra breadth is needed for Israel’s defense.

“We are talking about lands that Israel is to give up. You know, people could think that we are a continent, that we are a very big country with lots of land,” he said on television. “(But) we have a tiny territory. . . . And we are talking about lands that . . . in our conviction . . . belong to us.”

Shamir dismissed a new poll of U.S. Jewish leaders reporting that 80% favored a freeze on Israeli settlements in the occupied territories in exchange for $10 billion in loan guarantees from Washington.

“I don’t believe it,” Shamir said. “I am sure, 100%, that the rank and file of the Jewish population, the Jewish community in the United States, support my views, my opinions.”

Shamir also expressed his suspicion that the Bush Administration is tilting toward the Arabs.

Shamir’s visit to Washington was notable for the lack of an upbeat finale. No matter what the disagreement with Washington in the past, he had always been able to show a happy face. Not this time.

“I do not remember an Israeli prime minister ever humiliated so bluntly and so roughly as was Shamir this time,” columnist Yoel Marcus wrote in the liberal Haaretz newspaper.

Williams reported from Jerusalem and Wright reported from Washington.

NEXT STEP

The top aide to Palestine Liberation Organization chief Yasser Arafat said that the Palestinian delegation to the Middle East peace talks will accept a U.S. invitation to go to Washington for the next round of negotiations. Bassam abu Sharif told a radio station in Rabat, Morocco, that Washington is an “excellent choice” as a site for the talks. There has been no public word that the Palestinians have formally accepted the U.S. invitation to the talks, but their participation appears almost certain.