Palestinians Must Work With Israel, Peres Says

Former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres, a Nobel laureate and the avuncular spirit of the Mideast peace process, was in his element Monday, urging continued faith in negotiations as he became the first Israeli to address the Palestinian legislature.

Using warm, personal tones in a 10-minute speech that won him a standing ovation, Peres called on Palestinian leaders to create their longed-for independent state through negotiations with Israel, and not alone.

“It is our deep hope . . . that the Palestinian people will gain independence,” the onetime Labor Party leader told the Palestinian Legislative Council, meeting in special session at its temporary headquarters here.

Reiterating his party’s stand on the touchy issue of Palestinian statehood, he added: “It is in our common interest to see a Palestinian state in place as a result of agreement” with Israel.

Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat greeted Peres with an embrace. The warm relationship between Peres and the Palestinian leadership is in contrast to the on-again, off-again ties between the Palestinians and the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Later Monday, in an address in Tel Aviv, Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Moussa urged Israelis to embrace the concept of Palestinian statehood.

“Israel’s future relations with the Palestinian people must be based on two states,” Moussa said to a gathering at the peace center Peres now heads. “The establishment of a viable Palestinian state will consecrate the recognition of the state of Israel and will contribute to ensuring her security.”

In Ramallah, Peres, 74, was accompanied to the informal gathering of lawmakers in the Palestinian-controlled city by an array of gray-haired statesmen who are on the board of his Peres Center for Peace.

They include former Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, South African Archbishop Desmond M. Tutu and former South African President Frederik W. de Klerk. The panel is holding its annual conference in Tel Aviv this week.

Monday’s speakers in Ramallah, from Gorbachev to Palestinian parliament leader Ahmed Korei, lavished praise on Peres for his role in spearheading the interim Israeli-Palestinian accords known as the Oslo agreements and for his long history of commitment to peace. He beamed in return.

Although only about half of the 88 members of the Legislative Council attended the session, those who did were warmly receptive, smiling as Peres and Korei, another veteran of the breakthrough 1993 negotiations in Oslo, reminisced about how far the process has come since those early days of secretive peace talks.

“It’s important, in a sense, to prove that Netanyahu and the extremists do not have a monopoly on discourse and have failed to silence this sort of thing,” said Hanan Mikhail-Ashrawi, a Palestinian legislator and a former member of Arafat’s Cabinet.

In his own speech, Peres made no reference to repeated vows by Arafat to declare a state on May 4, the end of a transition period set by the interim peace accords, even if the Palestinians have not reached a permanent agreement with Israel.

The issue has become a key factor in the campaign now underway in Israel before May 17 national elections. Many analysts believe that a unilateral Palestinian declaration less than two weeks before the vote would boost the chances of Netanyahu’s being returned to office.

Another speaker at the parliament session, U.S. Rep. Tom Lantos (D-San Mateo), made what he called a “simple plea” to the Palestinians.

“Don’t do anything on the 4th of May, because all hell will break loose and all your advantages and gains will go down the drain,” he warned. “It would be a tragedy for you and the region.”

Later, in a meeting at his office in Ramallah, Arafat assured the international group that he will work for a negotiated peace with Israel, but he made no promises about May 4.

Such dates “cannot be ignored, bypassed or let slide,” the Palestinian leader said. “The coming 4th of May is one of these important dates. . . . We cannot bypass that date simply because one of the parties wants to keep it hostage to its narrow domestic calculations.”

Arafat called Israel’s elections, which will be held more than a year ahead of schedule, a “pretext” to halt the agreements.

Arafat, Peres and the late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their roles in the Oslo accords. In November 1995, Rabin was assassinated by a Jewish religious extremist hoping to stop the territorial compromise that is the basis of the peace process.

The victory by Netanyahu, the Likud Party leader, over Peres the following May was widely viewed as a decision by the Israeli public to slow the pace of peace and of further withdrawals from occupied West Bank land.

In October, Netanyahu signed a new, U.S.-brokered agreement with Arafat. He then carried out an initial troop withdrawal but quickly froze implementation as his right-wing coalition began to fall apart.

Netanyahu says his government will not carry out any further pullbacks until the Palestinians meet their obligations under the agreement. The Palestinians, largely supported by U.S. officials, say they have, and analysts on both sides expect little or no progress until after the elections.