THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Charges Traded Over Peres Meetings With Arab Leaders
JEERUSALEM (JTA) —
Shimon Peres, chairman of
the Labor Party, apparently
had meetings last week
with King Hassan of
Morocco in that country and
with Prince Mohammad,
brother of King Hussein of
Jordan, in London.
But the nature of those
contacts with their implica-
tions, if any, for broadening
the Middle East peace proc-
ess remained obscure as
Labor and the Likud gov-
ernment traded angry
harges and counter-
harges over the propriety
of Peres' alleged meetings.
Peres, who refused to con-
firm the reports of his meet-
ings but would not deny
them, accused Begin's office
of "leaking" the story and
having the state-owned
television broadcast a
"completely baseless and
fabricated" account "for
local consumption during
the election campaign."
Begin hotly denied
Peres' charges at Sun-
day's Cabinet meeting
and accused the opposi-
tion leader of "libel."
Other Cabinet ministers
joined in the attack on
Peres.
Justice Minister Moshe
Nissim assailed Peres for
trying to undercut the gov-
ernment by meeting a
foreign chief of state (King
Hassan) without the gov-
ernment's knowledge or ap-
proval. Peres defended his
right to meet Arab leaders
abroad and denounced Nis-
sim for sounding off about
something he knew nothing
about.
Sources close to Peres in-
sisted that the prime minis-
ter's office was aware of
Peres' scheduled meetings
and noted that the Labor
leader was accompanied by
a security agent which
would not have been the
case if the government were
in the dark.
Peres insisted that
whenever he has met
with Arab leaders "I ex-
plain to them the position
of the Labor Party which
negates a separate Pales-
tinian state, which is
against negotiation with
the Palestinian state,
which is against negotia-
tion with the Palestine
Liberation Organization,
which is for a united
Jerusalem and which is
ar defensible borders."
-' Without referring to any
meeting with a Jordanian
principal, Peres said he
thought the Labor Party's
"Jordanian option" was still
valid and that King Hus-
sein would be prepared to
come to the negotiating
table with sufficient prep-
aration and with a govern-
ment prepared to come for-
ward with a plan he could
ultimately accept.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia
rejected a suggestion by
Peres that he would try to
explore the possibility of
peace with the Saudis if his
Labor Party wins the Israeli
general elections on June
30.
Peres said he had nothing
against a European initia-
.tive to promote peace in the
at
C
Middle
East.
Peres
cautioned, however, that
such an initiative had to be
"in the • right direction" and
should aim at bringing Jor-
dan rather than the Pales-
tine Liberation Organiza-
tion into the peace process.
Sources in the prime
minister's office confirined
later than Begin and his
military aide, Gen. Ep-
hraim Poran, knew of the'
meeting with Hassan but
not of the meeting with Pr-
ince Mohammad, believed
to have been arranged by
Western circles.
While Likud charged
treacherous conduct on
Peres' part, Labor Party
circles hailed the con-
tacts as a great achieve-
ment in the search for a
wider peace.
When Peres arrived
home Friday, he said he had
no meetings with Arab
leaders in Europe. Obser-
vers noted that Morocco is
not in Europe. Peres admit-
ted indirectly to the meet-
ings when he charged Be-
gin's office with leaking the
story. Morocco issued an of-
ficial denial last week that
the meetings took place.
Peres would say only that
the denial "stood by itself."
Later, at a press confer-
ence, he said, "I have met
openly and secretly with
Arab leaders. On the occa-
sions where the meetings
were secret I respect the
promise to keep them secret
and I am not ready to refer
to them. About the supposed
meeting with King Hassan
of Morroco, the (Rabat)
Palace denied this meeting
and I have nothing to-add to
this denial."
He went on to say, "As the
person heading the (Labor)
Alignment, the largest
political movement in Is-
rael, it is my duty to seri-
ously check what can be
done and what cannot be
done, with whom one can
speak on what, what is real
and what is possible, what is
serious and what is true,
and without fear of anybody
come to the people and say:
`This is possible and this is
impossible. This has pros-
pect and this does not, in
order to present to the
people perspectives for the
future of the state which
encompass both realism and
vision."
Friday, March 21, 1981 13
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Druckman Postpones Plan
to Abandon Religious Party
JERUSALEM (JTA) —
Rabbi Haim Druckman,
ultra-rightist Knesseter of
the National Religious
Party, Tuesday agreed to
postpone for one week his
intended announcement
that he was leaving the
NRP and founding a new
party to run in the Knesset
elections.
Druckman said he was
responding to a last minute
appeal from NRP leader
Yosef Burg, the minister of
Interior.
Political observers say
Druckman's move will
heighten tension within the
NRP between Burg's
"Lamifne" faction and the
"Young Guard" faction of
Education Minister Zevu-
lun Hammer.
Druckman had de-
manded, as his price for
remaining in the party,
three Knesset seats
among the first dozen on
the NRP election list for
Neo-Nazi Loses
in Election Bid
White supremacist can-
didate Gerald R. Carlson, a
neo-Nazi who won an al-
most uncontested Republi-
can primary in the heavily
Democratic 15th District
last year, finished a poor
fifth in the 4th District on
Tuesday with 764 votes, 1.6
percent of the vote.
A conservative, Mark D.
Siljander of Three Rivers,
won the special Republican
primary in a bid for the
Congressional seat for-
merly held by David
Stockman, President
Reagan's director of the
Office of Management and
Budget.
The Moral Majority. cre-
dited itself for boosting Sil-
jander's campaign, but Sil-
jander downplayed the
Moral Majority role.
persons of his idealogical
persuasion.
Former Foreign Minister,
Moshe Dayan said last week
that he has just about de-
cided to head a new party
list of his own. Dayan, a
former Laborite, quit the
Likud government in Oc-
tober 1979. Druckman, if he
leaves the NRP, is expected
to take with him the rank
and file of the Gush
Emunim, especially its
most religious elements
who regard him as their au-
thentic spokesman.
But political observers
believe this will do more
damage to the ultra-right
wing Tehiya faction than to
the NRP.
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