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ARAFAT SAYS P.L.O. ACCEPTED ISRAEL

ARAFAT SAYS P.L.O. ACCEPTED ISRAEL
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December 8, 1988, Section A, Page 1Buy Reprints
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Yasir Arafat said today that the Palestine Liberation Organization accepted the existence of the state of Israel. His statement, which he presented as a milestone, was immediately dismissed in Israel and greeted coldly by the United States.

After a two-day meeting with five prominent American Jews here, a P.L.O. delegation led by Mr. Arafat said in a joint statement that the Palestinian parliament in exile last month had ''accepted the existence of Israel as a state in the region'' and ''declared its rejection and condemnation of terrorism in all its forms.'' [ Text of statement, page A10. ]

At a news conference, Mr. Arafat said, ''We accept two states, the Palestine state and the Jewish state of Israel.''

The Palestinian leader portrayed the statement as an important clarification of the declaration last month in Algiers by the Palestine National Council, the P.L.O. legislative body. After the Algiers meeting, debated had raged over whether the Palestinians had implicitly recognized Israel and truly renounced terrorism.

In Jerusalem, Israeli leaders discounted the Stockholm declaration and Mr. Arafat's comments. Foreign Minister Shimon Peres characterized them as a ''cunning exercise in public relations.'' What was needed, he said, was ''a commitment in reality'' to an end to violence. Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir was similarly dismissive.

The United States has long said it would not deal with the P.L.O. until it stated unambiguously that it recognized Israel's right to exist and United Nations Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338, which lay out the basis for a negotiated settlement and peace in the Middle East. The United States has also asked for an unequivocal statement that the P.L.O. renounces all forms of terrorism.

The statement today fell short of meeting these longstanding American requests in that it continued to attach conditions like discussing United Nations resolutions on the Palestinian question at an international conference.

Secretary of State George P. Shultz, in New York for the visit of Mikhail S. Gorbachev, expressed the American unhappiness.

The United States, he said, had ''for a long time certain set things that we have said must be said by the P.L.O.'' He had only a brief report of the Stockholm meeting, he said, but ''so far as it's been reported to me, they haven't met these conditions.'' Previous Ambiguity

At the Algiers meeting, Mr. Arafat would not say whether the Palestinian council's declaration represented a recognition of Israel. Some Palestinian hard-liners said it did not. There was no public explanation today of why Mr. Arafat was willing to say in Stockholm what he had declined to say in Algiers. Nor was there any indication of how his Stockholm remarks would be received in Arab countries.

The P.L.O. chairman said of today's statement: ''Its significance is that it is an accurate reading and interpretation of the Palestine National Council declaration made in Algiers,'' declaring that it was ''clear and unambiguous.''

In his view, he went on, the importance of the Stockholm meeting was to ''give a push to the peace process.''

The P.L.O. statement comes a week before Mr. Arafat is scheduled to address a special session of the United Nations General Assembly in Geneva. The session was moved from New York to Geneva after Secretary of State Shultz refused to give Mr. Arafat a visa to enter the United States on the ground that as chairman of the P.L.O., he was an accessory to terrorism. Swede Sees 'Breakthrough'

Foreign Minister Sten Andersson of Sweden, who arranged the meeting between the P.L.O. delegation and the five American Jews, said the statement represents ''a breakthrough in the peace process'' because ''the P.L.O. explicitly accepts Israel as a state.''

The American Jews who met in Sweden with the P.L.O. urged the United States Government to begin talking with the P.L.O.

''We hope deeply that the U.S. Government will now open a dialogue with the P.L.O.,'' said Rita E. Hauser, who heads the American arm of the International Center for Peace in the Middle East, a Tel Aviv-based research group. ''The P.L.O. has stated what the U.S. has demanded since 1975.''

For the P.L.O. to be invited to any meaningful peace talks, it must convince the United States Government that it has truly embarked on a course of moderation, favoring negotiation over acts of violence.

The members of the American Jewish delegation emerged from their talks with the Palestinian chairman convinced that a real shift in policy and tactics had occurred. In particular, they cited the P.L.O.'s acceptance of a ''two-state solution'' to the conflict in the Middle East, meaning that both Israel and a Palestinian state can exist side by side.

''A historic change has taken place in the attitude and the analysis by the P.L.O. of the situation in Middle East,'' said Abraham L. Udovitch, professor of Middle Eastern history at Princeton University, who was one of the five Americans at the Stockholm meeting.

In the private sessions, Jewish participants said, Mr. Arafat repeatedly asserted that the Algiers document ''abrogated and nullified'' the P.L.O. charter, a declaration dating to the 1960's that called for the destruction of the state of Israel. Don't Speak for Everyone

The Americans meeting with Mr. Arafat have been criticized by some Jewish organizations and the Israeli Government as unrepresentative of all Jews and for being exploited by Mr. Arafat in his effort to fashion a moderate image for the P.L.O.

In response, the American participants stressed that they did not pretend to represent Jews as a community, but came because they felt their participation could be constructive.

''Any time you get involved in something political, you are being used to some extent,'' said Stanley Sheinbaum, the economist and publisher, who is a regent of the University of California at Los Angeles. ''But I don't mind being used if it furthers the process of peace in the Middle East.''

In addition to Mrs. Hauser, Professor Udovitch and Mr. Sheinbaum, the American Jewish participants were Drora Kass, executive director for the American branch of the International Center for Peace in the Middle East, and Menachem Rosensaft, a founder of the International Network of Children of Jewish Holocaust Survivors.

The Swedish Government first got in touch with some of the Jewish participants in April. Foreign Minister Andersson said he believed that a meeting between American Jews and the P.L.O. could be constructive.

The statement today was essentially agreed upon at talks in Stockholm on Nov. 21, which were attended by Mrs. Hauser, Mr. Sheinbaum and Ms. Kass and a small group of senior Palestinian officials led by Khalid al-Hassan, co-founder of the P.L.O.

A correction was made on 
Dec. 9, 1988

Friday, Late City Final Edition A picture caption yesterday about Yasir Arafat's meeting with a delegation of American Jews misidentified the man at the right. He was Stanley Sheinbaum, a member of the American delegation, not Foreign Minister Sten Andersson of Sweden.

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