Peace Plan Put to Israel Cabinet : Mideast: Government ministers hail proposal that could lead to withdrawal from Gaza Strip and Jericho. Opponents say survival of the nation is threatened.

Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin will ask the Israeli Cabinet today to approve a far-reaching “declaration of principles” to be signed with the Palestinians laying the basis for Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and for Palestinian self-government on the West Bank.

Israeli ministers Sunday hailed the agreement, worked out in months of secret diplomacy with the Palestine Liberation Organization, as a major step toward resolving the Palestinian problem and ending the Middle East conflict.

But the right-wing opposition angrily condemned the accord as treason, warning that it would put Israel’s security and even its survival at risk.

“The government is creating a Palestinian state with its own hands,” declared Moshe Katsav, a leader of the opposition Likud Party, “and is endangering the existence of the state of Israel.”

Rabin, however, made clear to the Cabinet on Sunday his determination to forge ahead and honor his pledge to accelerate the peace negotiations with Israel’s Arab neighbors, ministers said after the meeting.

“All in all, we are talking about an agreement that’s ready for the signing,” Environment Minister Yossi Sarid said. “I believe there is no doubt that the agreement with the Palestinians will be approved.”

Israel is also believed close to recognition of the PLO, which it has long denounced as a terrorist group, in return for reciprocal PLO actions, starting with formal recognition of Israel and its right to exist but also including a denunciation of terrorism and an end to the intifada , the Palestinian rebellion against the Israeli occupation.

“To achieve real, stable peace necessarily demands mutual recognition,” PLO information chief Yasser Abed Rabbo said in an interview on Israeli Army Radio. “Peace between the courageous requires that courageous steps be taken. I don’t think that it is impossible that there will be a meeting between (Rabin and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat) sometime soon.”

Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, who conducted the clandestine negotiations in Cairo and European capitals, was reported ready to fly to Washington to sign the “declaration of principles” and other accords as soon as formal agreement is reached with Palestinian delegates to the Arab-Israeli peace talks.

In Tunis, Tunisia, as the Palestinian negotiators left PLO headquarters for the resumption of the Washington talks Tuesday, Bassam abu Sharif, another top Arafat aide, said: “We think we are now five minutes from the first concrete steps on the road to peace in the Middle East. We have no illusions that it will be an easy road, but we are taking the first steps.”

This evening, Rabin will ask Israeli ministers at a special Cabinet meeting to approve Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank town of Jericho and the transfer of administration of the West Bank to an elected Palestinian government for a five-year period.

This is the operative element of the “declaration of principles,” which also lays out the basis for Palestinian self-government that Peres concluded with senior PLO officials who were acting on instructions from Arafat.

Rabin will also seek the ministers’ endorsement of two other key documents--one outlining the contentious issues, such as the future status of Jerusalem and the borders of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, that are being set aside for future negotiations, the other obliging Israel and the Palestinians to work together for the economic development of the occupied territories.

Peres, just back from a hurried trip to California where he outlined the developments for Secretary of State Warren Christopher, briefed the Cabinet on his secret negotiations with the PLO and basked in their warm congratulations, according to Israeli officials who attended the meeting; Rabin then put off discussion so ministers could study the documents.

“There are contradictions between the different documents,” Economics Minister Shimon Shetreet, a Cabinet conservative, said. “This is a process that was not carried out in the normal way with the usual accepted public discourse. . . . So, the final results will require a very close examination.

“But I think that what we are talking about is a turning point--(although) it is not clear in which direction.”

The buoyant mood of most ministers, however, and the general optimism among the government’s supporters reflected the conviction that the accord will prove to be the long-sought resolution of the Palestinian problem and thus a move that could bring to an end the overall Arab-Israeli conflict.

“Not every day does a government sit and discuss a breakthrough that could really be significant in our relations with the Arab states and particularly the conflict with the Palestinians,” Health Minister Chaim Ramon said.

Jubilant over the news that Peres brought but clearly awed by its implications, the dovish Ramon called the agreement “a major breakthrough, a historic moment between Palestinians and the Israeli people after 100 years of conflict, bloodshed and violence.”

But the government will find itself under an all-out attack from the right even before the Cabinet has formally approved the agreement. The Likud Party has called for a full debate today in the Knesset, Israel’s Parliament, and is planning to follow up with a no-confidence vote.

“This is, in fact, an act of national treason,” Uri Ariel, secretary of the Council of Judea, Samaria and Gaza, which represents the 125,000 Israeli settlers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. “We are not going to call people to a civil war--we are opposed to that--but we are going to call people to a difficult struggle, something beyond the struggles we have already seen.”

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Likud Party chairman, who cut short a visit to the United States and returned to Israel, will meet with other opposition leaders to plot a strategy that would force Rabin to take the issue to the country, either in early parliamentary elections or a referendum.

Katsav warned that the “recapture” by the Palestinians of Jericho, and later other West Bank towns such as Nablus and Janin, would bring demands for their return to Israeli cities that once had been predominantly Arab. “This terrifies us,” he said. “It is a real danger for Israel’s existence.”

Although the full accord has not been released, Israeli officials familiar with its terms said that it provides for Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank town of Jericho, which would then be run by Palestinians, including PLO officials, and for the election of a Palestinian government to assume administration of the rest of the West Bank for a five-year period.

Israel would retain control of security, foreign affairs and Jewish settlements, ministers stressed, attempting to allay fears that the very words Palestinian state arouse here. “Not a single settlement will move from its place during the autonomy period,” Ramon pledged.

The agreement also provides, they said, for Israeli control of entry to Gaza and the West Bank, retention of defense lines along the border with Jordan and a phased redeployment of Israeli forces out of populated areas.

Negotiations would begin in two years on the resolution of the remaining issues, including the future of Jerusalem, which both Israelis and Palestinians claim for their capital. Palestinians living in Arab East Jerusalem, however, would be permitted to vote in West Bank elections.

Sarid, a member of the leftist Meretz Party, described the agreement as “autonomy-plus, sovereignty-minus”--a compromise between Israel’s original offer to the Palestinians of simple administrative autonomy and their demand for complete independence.

“This is a package deal with the Palestinian bosses, a package that allows Israel to fulfill its responsibility for security, its responsibility for the settlements and every Israeli in the (occupied) territories,” Sarid said.

Moshe Shahal, the police minister, said a key element in the implementation of the plan will be the establishment of a strong Palestinian police force that will take over internal security from Israeli troops as they withdraw.

“If everything goes smoothly,” Shahal said, “we are talking about a few months.”

Israeli officials cautioned, however, that many issues must still be resolved, that the Cabinet will give the delegation to the Middle East peace talks in Washington a broad mandate to develop the accord but that the negotiations could prove difficult.