
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, March 12, 1990                   TAG: 9003122774
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: JERUSALEM                                 LENGTH: Medium

ISRAELI CABINET POSTPONES ACTION ON PEACE-TALK PLAN

Israel's coalition government, unable to take the fateful step toward the country's first peace talks with Palestinians, edged toward collapse Sunday.

Top ministers of the Likud and Labor parties, the coalition partners, met for three hours but adjourned without a vote on an American proposal to get the peace process under way.

"This is the end of the agreement," fumed Labor Party leader Shimon Peres, who has summoned his 1,300-member Central Committee today to discuss the withdrawal of Labor from the 15-month-old national unity government.

According to participants, Peres demanded that his Likud counterpart, Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, put the American proposal to a vote of the 12 assembled ministers. Shamir refused, and Peres led his Labor followers out of the conference room in ministerial offices in West Jerusalem.

"We served notice that a lack of a vote would be seen as a decision, and I see this as a negative decision," Peres told reporters.

Declared Communications Minister Gad Yaacobi, a Peres supporter: "The reason for this government to exist has ended. The present peace process was ended by Likud. There is no chance to continue."

However, brinkmanship is an art in Israeli politics, and despite Peres' insistence that the coalition no longer serves a purpose, other politicians pushed for more time on the decision.

"We must make an effort - another day or two, another week or two - to find a formula that will enable the two parties to act together," urged Transport Minister Moshe Katsav, a Likud man.

Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin, more flexible than Peres on deadlines, reportedly put forward a compromise Sunday to bridge the gap between Peres and Shamir. Rabin called for immediate acceptance of the American formula, which would jar loose the stalemated peace process, and later parliamentary decisions on the issues of negotiating strategy dividing the two parties.

But Rabin's proposal never came to a vote either. "The prime minister said there was still a need for more discussion," Katsav told reporters.

by CNB