Arabs Rebuff Israel on Syria and Palestinians

Israel submitted draft proposals on Tuesday for limited Palestinian self-rule and for a peace accord with Syria in the renewed Middle East peace talks. Both plans were turned aside by the Arabs.

After months of off-and-on wrangling over procedure, the negotiations--separate talks between Israel and each of its Arab neighbors, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and the Palestinians--have reached the stage of discussing substantive issues.

But, according to participants on all sides, the gaps between positions remain wide.

Meanwhile, President Bush and Secretary of State James A. Baker III defended the Administration’s stringent conditions for $10 billion in loan guarantees to Israel. Baker was subjected to sometimes acrimonious questioning by Israel’s supporters on a Senate Appropriations subcommittee.

“I thought the secretary expressed the policy of the U.S. government very clearly, very forcefully and very correctly,” Bush said in response to Baker’s demand that Israel stop all West Bank and Gaza settlement activity, in trade for loan guarantees that Israel wants to use to resettle Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union.