Sharon bars cabinet peace talks

TEL AVIV, Israel, Dec. 28 (UPI) -- Prime Minister Ariel Sharon Thursday played down the importance of a draft Memorandum of Understanding that his Foreign Minister Shimon Peres gave the Palestinians and reportedly intends to announce a ban on diplomatic negotiations at Sunday's cabinet meeting.

A high-ranking Israeli government official told United Press International Sharon intends to tell the cabinet: "There will be no diplomatic move, nor diplomatic contacts toward an arrangement before there is a ceasefire."

The source spoke on condition of anonymity.

Peres' unsigned draft memorandum presented to the Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative council Ahmad Qurei, better known as Abu Ala, envisaged a Palestinian state two months after the deal is signed. That proposal enraged Sharon's hawkish coalition partners.

The two ministers and other lawmakers of the hard-line Ihud Leumi-Israel Beitenu Knesset (parliamentary) faction Thursday met Sharon in Tel Aviv.

"We demanded that no government source, nor anyone on the government's behalf, conduct any negotiations on a future arrangement, including (the establishment) of a Palestinian state, before the cabinet discusses and decides on the matter," said the faction's spokesman, Yeshayahu Rosenfeld.

Sharon seemed to sway. Sunday his bureau denied there was an offer to the Palestinians. It termed a Yediot Aharonot newspaper report on the draft proposal "imaginary and without any foundation."

Then, faced with Foreign Minister Shimon Peres' pressure, and possibly the need to win Labor's support for the proposed budget, Sharon confirmed Peres' talks were held with his "knowledge."

Thursday, at his Likud Party headquarters in Tel Aviv, Sharon said Palestinian statehood "hasn't come up for a debate in the Cabinet," and therefore Peres' offer "has no validity, no weight."

Sharon reiterated that when the time comes, he intends to conduct the negotiations with the Palestinians but "I do not intend to conduct any negotiations under fire."

A senior government source trying to explain the apparent shifts told UPI: "Peres has ideas ... It's not a diplomatic plan. These are ideas."

According to the unsigned draft memorandum of understanding, Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization would agree to an immediate cease-fire. Along with a cease-fire, the proposal calls for collecting illegal Palestinian weapons, ending the closures Israel has imposed on Palestinian towns, a freeze on Israeli settlement activity, an end to targeted killings, and a Palestinian move to establish one-armed force instead of the many that are around now.

Within eight weeks after the proposal's signature, Israel would recognize a Palestinian state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip based on United Nations Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338 that call for an Israeli withdrawal from areas Israel occupied in the 1967 war.

The envisaged State of Palestine would recognize the State of Israel on the basis of those same U.N. resolutions, the document reportedly adds.

The negotiations over the permanent Israeli-Palestinian agreement could begin on the eighth week and cover the Israeli withdrawal from the State of Palestine, refugees, Jerusalem's future, the settlements, security, water and relations with other states, the report says.

Those negotiations should be completed within nine to 12 months and implementation should be completed within 18 to 24 months, the document adds.

The two states will also discuss international roles, a peacekeeping force, and economic and financial aid to the Palestinian economy, the report said.

A source close to Peres told UPI the foreign minister did not comment on Sharon's latest statement, and was continuing his contacts with the Palestinians "regardless of Sharon's statement."

Sharon heads the hawkish Liked Party and Peres belongs to the dovish Labor Party. Those two parties are the key elements in the broad based national unity government that Sharon strives to maintain.

Labor's new chairman, Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, Thursday decided to lift the closure Israel had imposed on the West bank town of Bethlehem. Monday the Israelis lifted the closure imposed on Jericho.

On the other hand the Defense Minister's Media Advisor indicated Thursday that Israel has not yet given the Palestinian Authority its consent to rebuild Gaza International airport that the Israelis damaged following suicide attacks inside Israel.

Wednesday the head of Israelis Southern command, Major General Doron Almog, told the Palestinians he did not object to Palestinian repairs.

However Thursday the Defense Minister's bureau termed Almog's comments "a recommendation" that would soon be presented to Ben Eliezer.

Moreover, the decision to damage the airport was taken in the cabinet, so the proposal for repairs also has to come before the cabinet, the statement said.

Outgoing Chief of Military Intelligence, Maj. Gen. Amos Malka, Thursday told defense reporters in Tel Aviv that the intelligence does not believe Arafat would accept "Israel's existence as a Jewish state in secure boundaries for a long time."

Several days ago a top Israel Security Agency official who briefed defense correspondents on condition of anonymity reportedly said the targeted killings were as effective in eradicating terror as trying to dry up a sea by using a spoon.

Malka, on Thursday, defended the attacks. "We can prove, unequivocally, that the focused foiling of attacks (the Israeli term for targeted killings) lowered the number of fatalities," he said.

"Attacks that were supposed to take place -- did not occur," he added.

Malka said the radical Islamic Jihad failed in most of its attempted suicide bombings because Israel has targeted most of its bomb experts.