Israel, PLO In Touch

William R. Frye, Patriot Ledger U.N. Correspondent, United Nations, N.Y.

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“UNITED NATIONS, N.Y. — There is a certain wry irony about the public postures being adopted by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Israel about negotiations with each other. The fact is that the two already have engaged in arms’ length exchanges, and made some progress toward agreement.

Key Exchanges. The fact of these exchanges has long been known, but their substance has been closely held. They are carefully disavowed on both sides. But they have been far from unimportant. What has happened is that a group of Israeli doves with excellent Zionist credentials, including Maj. Gen.

Mattiyahu Peled, director of the Department of Arab Studies at Tel Aviv University, have met with middle-level PLO officials in a series of talks which began last July in Paris, and continued intermittently thereafter.

In their initial meetings, they agreed on a basis for negotiation: creation of a Palestinian Arab state on the West Bank and in Gaza, with boundaries essentially those of 1967; Jerusalem to remain unified, but with sovereignty to be shared by Israel and the Arab Palestine; PLO acceptance of the 1967 Israel — which is to say, in effect, coexistence of Israel and the PLO.

The Israeli negotiators reported to the government in Jerusalem the fact of the meeting and the initial accord which had been reached. The Rabin cabinet voiced no objection. It could have cut the talk off by calling them ‘dealings with the enemy,’ a serious crime; it did not. Nor did the Knesset, which debated the matter.

No Responsibility. The Israeli government thus permitted the talks to continue. It accepted no responsibility for them, but declined to interfere.

Subsequent meetings, over a period of months, evoked from the PLO side a willingness to state publicly that it would recognize the state of Israel and refrain from hostile action against it, provided Israel would promise to respond favorably to this step. The response would include willingness to negotiate with the PLO on establishment of an Arab Palestine.

The offer was relayed to Jerusalem, and the answer that came back was ‘no.’ Israel has never fully explained the refusal. One reason, however, was doubt about the authority of the PLO negotiators.

The PLO representatives included Said Hammami, the PLO representative in London, and Assam Sartawi, an aide; but it was not clear that they could ‘deliver’ the top PLO leadership, much less survive a challenge from the ‘Rejection Front,’ the PLO group which resists all peace moves…

Controlling Majority. Independent specialists believe a large segment, probably a controlling majority, of the PLO is in fact now willing to coexist with it. The Israeli election in May will determine whether moderates are to be in control of the Israeli government. The Cairo meeting next month may determine whether moderates are in control of the PLO.

Until then, public postures on both sides are likely to be unyielding — and of relatively little long-range significance.”

Context added by this archive

An American correspondent reporting in 1977 that the PLO had offered to recognize Israel and that the answer from Jerusalem was no. Both PLO negotiators are named; Said Hammami was assassinated the following January.

Cite this clipping

"Israel, PLO In Touch," The News and Advance, 6 June 1977, p. 1. Covering Palestine archive, CP-1977-001. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-1977-001