In late October, Israeli, Egyptian and American negotiators spent nine days discussing the proposed autonomy plan. Apart from this subject, Israel and Egypt concluded some bilateral agreements in the fields of tourism and trade. On the autonomy, Mr. Begin felt that Israel and Egypt should concentrate on the establishment of a Palestinian Administrative Council (Self-Governing Authority). The size of this body, the mode of elections to it and its scope will also have to be determined. All this will be discussed further in Cairo starting 4 November with the U.S. as a full partner in the talks. If the Palestinians refuse to cooperate, said Mr. Begin, "we will have done our duty" Text:
I suppose I can say that the talks between the two delegations have been successful. First of all, we reached a detailed agreement on tourism, of seven paragraphs and no doubt this will be of importance to the -economy of both countries, Egypt and Israel.
In the morning, the two delegations met: On the Egyptian side, General Ali, the Foreign Minister of the Egyptian Republic presided, and I also participated on our side, together with my colleague the Defense Minister. The question which we discussed mainly was how to bring about a breakthrough. You remember that the autonomy talks for the Arab inhabitants of Judean, Samaria and the Gaza district were stalled for the last 15 months and even more. So, we asked ourselves, what to do in order to bring about a breakthrough, and I think that we found a way - namely we agreed that we shall concentrate in the near future our efforts in the negotiations around the election, formation, establishment and inauguration of the Administrative Council, self-governing authority. Because here we need an election, and we had to decide all the details concerning the democratic election: through a secret ballot and all the other arrangements. Secondly, we have to decide about the functions of the administrative council and thirdly we have to take a decision about the number of the members of that institution. If this is achieved, let me assume that the Administrative Council is elected, established and inaugurated, as it is written in the Camp David agreement, then starts the movement on our side, the side of Israel. Then we will withdraw the military government from Judea, Samaria and the Gaza District, and we shall also carry out a withdrawal - as it is written in the Camp David Agreement - of our military forces, whereas the remaining forces, as it is written in the Camp David Agreement, will be re-deployed into specified security locations. That is a quotation from the Camp David Agreement. We will be prepared with a specification of those security locations. We shall present a map of those locations, in which the remaining Israeli forces will be stationed. So that will be a real breakthrough and a real change. There will be other problems, we will continue our negotiations. But, as we said to each other, and I can assume that there is a great measure of understanding and agreement on that suggestion, let us first of all concentrate around this issue, to bring about the election, the establishment, and the inauguration of the Administrative Council. For this purpose, there will be a meeting in the near future, not on the ninth, as previously determined, but on the Fourth of November in Cairo, between the three delegations. The Israeli delegation will be composed of three ministers: the Foreign Minister, the Interior Minister and the Defense Minister. The Egyptian delegation will be composed of the Foreign Minister, General Ali, and the Minister on Foreign Affairs, Dr. Ghali, and the third member, who will be appointed very soon by the Egyptian Government. Both the delegations, the Egyptian and the Israeli agreed that we should inform about these decisions agreed between us the American government and I already did so to the American ambassador, Mr. Lewis, and informed him about the development. He probably already sent a cable about it to Washington, so that the United States will be represented by a delegation they appoint there. So on the fourth of November, these tripartite negotiations will start in Cairo around the problem which I consider to be central, and my colleagues probably do agree with it, how to bring about the establishment and inauguration of the Administrative Council exactly in accordance with the Camp David Agreements.
Q: What was the message that Minister Ali gave you from President Mubarak and did you discuss the return of the deported mayors to the West Bank?
A: The second subject never came up. As to the message, nothing out of the ordinary was transmitted to me, greetings from the President. I asked how he was and invited him to come, of course, to Jerusalem. General Ali did not give me an answer as to a date for the visit, but he will definitely pass my invitation on to President Mubarak.
Q: Has there been any progress in the discussions of the High Committee on the Sinai Withdrawal, redeployment of Israeli and Egyptian troops in Sinai, border demarcations, etc.?
A: I can not give you details because my friend and I simply did not talk about these matters. But I can say that Israel, as we have declared, will fulfill the peace treaty and all its stipulations, as they were noted, written and signed by us. And the same goes for Egypt. We decided not to talk about what would happen were one side not to honor the treaty, but positively, that the two sides will carry out the conditions as they have been set down in the peace treaty.
Q: Do you plan to meet with President Mubarak, in order to overcome additional obstacles regarding autonomy?
A: I invited President Mubarak to come visit us. I was in Egypt most recently, and also when I was in Cairo for President Sadat's funeral, I invited President Mubarak to visit us. I hope he will come, then we will be able to tell you, after our conversation, what we talked about. For the moment, no agenda has been set for a meeting whose date has not yet been fixed.
Q: You speak about the possibility of a breakthrough in the negotiations. Is the goal a comprehensive agreement on autonomy, or, as it was defined in the last meeting in Cairo, an interim agreement on a document of understandings and principles?
A: No, no, we want an agreement on autonomy. But it is not possible to achieve - especially in such a relatively short time - an agreement on all the problems, and it is possible that there are problems which will require extended negotiation. Therefore, logically, we, I hope, have agreed to take up the central point in the problem, and to try to reach an agreement for implementation concerning this central point: namely, the establishment of the Administrative Council.
Q: Is the intention to try to hold elections for the Administrative Council even before autonomy is implemented?
A: I didn't say that. We will have to make a special decision on that matter. It is possible that we will reach agreement on this problem and before the elections are held we will want to talk about other matters. The governments will have, first of all, to decide, and then agree, on this. But I called this a breakthrough because until now even the negotiations that have been conducted - and especially since there has been an interruption of over a year and a quarter - we have made not progress. There are things that have been decided ... but the main thing has not been reached. I proposed what I consider to be the main thing. And if we succeed in these negotiations and arrive at an agreement, I think that it certainly will be possible to talk about a breakthrough.
Q: What is the significance of President Reagan's message to you, and what is the next step in the strategic dialogue with the U.S.?
A: The message from President Reagan was from the 22nd of October, in other words, Thursday. I received it on Friday. It is a very warm message, and President Reagan states in it that despite the disagreements that exist between us, the United States continues to remain tied with bonds of friendship to Israel, to be concerned with Israel's security and also to continue to the strategic cooperation. That is the main content of the letter ... it goes without saying that it was a pleasure to read these words.
Q: Mr. Prime Minister, you say the next step will be the election and installation of the Administrative Council. In order to do that, I assume you will need the cooperation of the Palestinians. Do you think this can be achieved?
A: We speak about a democratic election, my friend. Nobody can be dragged to a democratic election process. You participate in such a process willingly. And therefore, it will be the decision by the population to go to the polls.
Then I have to remind you of the reply with such a question which was put to President Sadat (and his reply in Alexandria at the press conference, as you remember). He said: I am asked the question, what is going to happen if the Palestinian Arabs living - and now I use my language - in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza District, will not accept the agreement which you will reach with Israel and with the United States of America (because President Sadat stood and General Ali repeated that statement on the participation of these three partners only, without any addition in the near future)? What will happen, he said, if you reach an agreement with the United States and with Israel and then the Palestinian Arabs living in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza District will not accept it? His reply was as follows: Then we did our duty. That is a proper reply.
Q: Have you reached any agreement with the Egyptians on the modalities of the election?
A: Yes. I think we reached many agreements on the mode of the election. Not all of them probably, perhaps there is still a necessity of further negotiation. But many agreements of great importance are already reached about the mode of election, democratic elections, equal elections. For instance, today I reminded my Egyptian colleagues that we decided that both women and men will go to the polls. As you know, under the Jordanian occupation, the women were de-franchised. They couldn't vote. But under the agreement between us, both men and women will go to the polls. This is also a very important decision, absolutely agreed with both the Egyptian and Israeli delegations.
Q: The autonomy negotiations have been going on for two years. Why should we believe that suddenly there has been real progress?
A: I don't ask you to believe in anything you don't see with your own eyes. All I can do is to explain to you what we talked about, and what we agreed upon. This is what we did today during our meeting. Then we shall see in the future. I can't give you any guarantees that what I told you will happen. It may - I hope it will. The contents, I also suppose that the method, is practical. Let us hope for the best.