Ploy, Perhaps, but Farsighted Too : Peres shrewdly vows to seek a public vote on any peace accord

Early next month Israeli and Palestinian negotiators are scheduled to begin what is expected to be years of arduous bargaining over the most contentious issues in their quest for a permanent peace settlement. These include the status of largely Palestinian-occupied East Jerusalem, the future of 130,000 Israelis living in 144 West Bank and Gaza Strip settlements and the boundaries of a Palestinian entity. Late next month, Israelis are to vote in a national election that will turn on the question of whether the Labor Party-led government deserves continued support for its approach to the peace process.

In a surprise initiative, Prime Minister Shimon Peres now promises to seek popular approval of a final peace agreement with the Palestinians. Benjamin Netanyahu, leader of the opposition Likud Party, has dismissed the Peres proposal for a peace-plan plebiscite at some date well in the future as a ploy to influence the May 29 election. It is, transparently so. But it’s also a shrewd, even farsighted effort to try to ensure that a peace agreement with the Palestinians will rest on a clearly expressed national consensus. Not surprisingly, a suspicious Yasser Arafat was cool to the proposal.

Right now Peres and Netanyahu are about even in the opinion polls, a major change from the big lead that Peres held before Palestinian suicide bombings deepened doubts about whether peace was achievable. Next month, for the first time, Israelis will cast two separate votes, one for prime minister and one for the party they prefer to see head the government. Thus it’s possible that the next prime minister won’t come from the party with the highest vote total. Peres, unlike his assassinated predecessor, Yitzhak Rabin, has always had trouble commanding popular trust. Likud plays to these doubts with constant charges that Peres is ready to sell out Israel’s interests to get an agreement with the Palestinians.

Peres’ proposed referendum would give the Israeli electorate the final word on the terms of an agreement with the Palestinians. Aware of abiding and certainly understandable public concerns, Peres is offering it as an assurance that Israel’s vital interests--foremost national security--won’t be compromised. The May 29 election is clearly in Peres’ mind. But so is the more distant but indispensable need to have a peace agreement that is based on solid popular understanding and support.