Israel OKs Talks on Arab Self-Rule : Middle East: Jerusalem says it’s ready to discuss limited Palestinian autonomy in the occupied lands. The suggestion comes despite right-wing threats at home.

Israel’s peace negotiators said Tuesday that they are ready to bargain with Palestinians over limited self-government in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, despite a threat by two small right-wing parties to bring down Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir’s government as soon as autonomy talks begin.

Yossi Ben-Aharon, director general of Shamir’s office and a key Israeli negotiator, said the Israeli delegation already has suggested an agenda that calls for talks over conditions for a Palestinian interim self-governing authority. “The proposal itself will be raised at the appropriate time,” he added.

In a related development, Secretary of State James A. Baker III took a personal hand in the talks for the first time since the formal peace conference in Madrid last October when he met Tuesday night with the heads of the Syrian and Lebanese delegations. He summoned the leaders of the Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian delegations for similar talks this morning.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Baker asked for a status report on the talks. A State Department official, who declined to be identified by name, said that there was no special urgency to Baker’s action. He said Baker did not propose specific steps that the United States wants the negotiators to take.

In Jerusalem, Shamir told his coalition partners that no Palestinian autonomy proposals will be introduced in the Washington talks until the Cabinet approves them.

Two right-wing factions have threatened to pull out of the governing coalition to protest autonomy talks, a step that could bring down the precariously balanced Israeli government and force early elections. The Moledet and Tehiya parties see Shamir’s proposal to give the Palestinians control of their day-to-day activities as a step toward Palestinian statehood.

The Tel Aviv newspaper Hadashot put Shamir’s attempt to balance the competing interests succinctly in a tongue-in-cheek analysis: “The first track is with the U.S. government, to which he will try and prove his strong desire to advance toward an agreement and to grant the Palestinians self-administration. The second track will be with the right wing of his government coalition, to which he will have to prove the exact opposite.”

Israel and a mostly Palestinian delegation began to discuss the future of the West Bank and Gaza Strip on Monday and continued with another meeting Tuesday.

The Israelis also met Tuesday with a primarily Jordanian delegation. Both sides said Tuesday’s negotiations were aimed at producing a peace treaty, which would be the second between Israel and an Arab state. In 1979, Israel signed a treaty with Egypt.

With the start of the Israeli-Jordanian meeting, the first formal substantive negotiations between the two nations, Israel now is engaged in separate, face-to-face negotiations with all of its closest neighbors: Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and the Palestinians. Jordan and the Palestinians technically are members of a single delegation, but they are negotiating with Israel in separate working groups.

Marwan Mouasher, Jordanian spokesman, told reporters that the Hashemite kingdom will demand Israeli withdrawal from all territories occupied in the 1967 Middle East War--the West Bank, Gaza, the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem.

Asked if Jordan was making such a withdrawal a precondition for a peace treaty, Mouasher replied, “It’s not a precondition to negotiations.” As for signing a treaty, he said that will depend on what the treaty contains, something that no one knows now.

Jordan for years has stressed the issue of Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territories, while hinting that it might compromise that position if offered a treaty that was favorable enough on other issues.

In response to Israel’s often-repeated insistence that a peace treaty must result in an exchange of ambassadors, Mouasher said: “When the issues between us are resolved (it) would certainly include full cooperation, including diplomatic relations.”

In the Israeli-Palestinian talks, both sides said they have prepared a draft proposal for Palestinian self-government, the clear focus of the talks. Neither side has provided any details of their drafts, although, in the past, Palestinian autonomy has been interpreted to mean self-government over education, welfare and other purely domestic matters, while leaving the Israelis in charge of foreign policy and security issues.

But Palestinian spokeswoman Hanan Ashrawi said the first order of business should be an agreement to stop the construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

“There can be no progress in any area, in any sphere, unless all settlement activity ceases,” she said. But she insisted that the Palestinians were not trying to impose preconditions.

Meanwhile, Elyakim Rubinstein, chairman of the Israeli delegation to the talks with Jordan and the Palestinians, said that an attack on an Israeli bus and automobile in the West Bank on Tuesday in which at least six Jewish settlers were wounded was an attempt to torpedo the talks by Palestinians who oppose peace with Israel.

“We will not be deterred in our quest for peace, but we shall also not tolerate either the terrorism itself nor the double-talk of some people supporting peace on one hand and encouraging terrorism on the other,” Rubinstein said.

Ashrawi said that her delegation “condemns all violence against innocent civilians.” But she said the Palestinian uprising against Israel will continue as long as the Israeli occupation continues.

The wounded settlers, including children ages 6 and 11, were struck when gunmen opened fire on a road leading north from Jerusalem toward the settlement of Shiloh in the West Bank. It was the third attack on the road since October, when Middle East peace talks convened.

Settler groups immediately called for Israel to abandon the peace process. “We cannot sit at the table while they are killing us,” said Bob Lang, a settler spokesman.

Settlers have grown increasingly edgy over roadside ambushes--four Israelis have been killed, including one in the Gaza Strip--and are demanding that the government crack down on the Arab revolt against Israel’s rule in the occupied territories.

Right-wing groups in the West Bank have set up vigilante units to respond to attacks and have vandalized Palestinian villages and towns while warning the Palestinians not to use violence.

Kempster reported from Washington and Williams from Jerusalem.