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Israel's New Peace Initiative
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16292 |
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CURRENT ISSUES
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| Issue
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3 / 1989 |
2,628 Words |
| Author
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Andrew Meisels
Andrew Meisels is a free-lance writer based in Israel. |
Israel's new government is preparing a Middle East peace initiative that will include a renewed offer of local self-rule for the Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza Strip--while rejecting the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
Although details of the initiative have not been finalized, sources close to Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir say it will be an "updated version" of the autonomy plan proposed in the 1978 Camp David Accords.
In his first speech to the Knesset (parliament) on being sworn in again as prime minister, Shamier called on Egypt, Jordan, and Palestinian representatives to negotiate with Israel on the basis of Camp David. Shamir, say his aides, is likely to propose that those negotiations be held under the joint auspices of the United States and the Soviet Union.
But the prime minister is dead set against Israel's taking part in an international peace conference made up of all five permanent members of the Security Council, a proposal that had the backing of Labour party leader Shimon Peres when he was foreign minister in the last government. Such a conference, the prime minister feels, would put all the pressure for concessions on Israel.
And Shamir's new broad-based government, which includes Peres and other Labour members, is committed to opposing the establishment of an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The government is also on record as refusing to negotiate with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).
Instead, it will propose a return to the "framework for peace" signed in Camp David 10 years ago by the late President Anwar Sadat of Egypt, former Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, and former U.S. President Jimmy Carter.
The Camp David accords proposed a five-year period of Palestinian autonomy in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with a freely elected administrative council governing the day-to-day lives of the area's Palestinians.
Once such an administrative council was elected, Israel was to withdraw its troops and civil administration from Palestinian population centers. The autonomy plan was seen by the Camp David accords as a transitional step toward reaching a final settlement on the permanent status of the West Bank and Gaza. Talks on the final status of the
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