7-
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Rabin Is Upbeat
As Knesset Opens
Jerusalem (JTA) — In a power- Hanegbi set up large loudspeak-
fill, sometimes moving, general- ers on the desk in front of him
ly upbeat speech this week and began playing on a tape
marking the start of the Knes- recorder Mr. Rabin's pre-election
set's winter term, Prime Minis- pledges regarding the Golan.
On Speaker Shevach Weiss'
ter Yitzhak Rabin reiterated his
pledge to hold a referendum be- angry orders, Mr. Hanegbi and
fore making any "significant" his equipment were soon escort-
withdrawal on the Golan ed out of the chamber by Knesset
ushers.
Heights.
Defending his proposals, Mr.
But he brushed aside opposi-
tion demands for new elections Rabin said every one of his pre-
decessors had called from the
now.
Mr. Rabin's speech came at a Knesset podium for Arab leaders
time when he is facing stiff Op- to make peace with Israel. It had
position from a growing segment taken bloody wars and suffering
of the Israeli public and even from to persuade the region that peace
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Israeli hunger strikers protest the return of the Golan to Syria.
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among some members of his ril-
ing Labor Party to his land-for-
peace proposals as a means for
getting the long-stalled negotia-
tions with Syria back on track.
During the policy statement he
delivered during an often stormy
Knesset session, Mr.Rabin reit-
erated the proposal he made last
month that Israel would insist on
holding onto most of the Golan
Heights during a three-year "test-
ing period," during which Syria
and Israel would live in full peace
and normalization.
Regarding the Israel-Pales-
tinian track, the prime minister
said he discerned "the first signs
of firm government" in the Pales-
tinian self-rule areas.
And with Jordan, he predicted
the signing of a full peace treaty
before the end of the year.
When it came his turn to
speak, Benjamin Netanyahu,
leader of the Likud opposition, ac-
cused the premier of breaking his
promises to the nation.
He said that Mr. Rabin was
now preparing the public for a full
withdrawal from the Golan,
which ran contrary to Mr. Rabin's
own election platform in 1992.
Mr. Rabin's address was in-
terrupted just seconds after he
arrived at the podium, when
Likud Knesset member Tzachi
AP/NATI HARNIK
was attainable, he said.
Israel had been "best at war,"
he said. "Now we shall fight to be
best at peace."
Noting that there are encour-
aging signs in the Palestinian au-
tonomous regions of the Gaza
Strip and West Bank enclave of
Jericho, Mr. Rabin said Israel is
still far from satisfied with the
Palestinians' efforts to rein in ter-
ror.
Mr. Rabin said he had made it
unequivocally clear to PLO
Chairman Yassir Arafat that fur-
ther progress was inextricably
linked to the issue of checking ter-
rorism, which he said had
claimed the lives of 62 Israelis
since the Declaration of Princi-
ples was signed in September
1993.
Turning to Jordan, Mr. Rabin
made a point of stressing that the
path to full peace with Jordan
had been "paved" by the historic
agreement signed with the Pales-
tinians last year.
Mr. Rabin said that Israeli and
Jordanian negotiatiors were
meeting almost on a daily basis
on issues relating to border de-
marcations and the allocation of
scarce water resources.
Mr. Rabin quoted Jordan's
King Hussein as saying at their
recent meeting in Aqaba that