Middle East Let the Chess Game Begin

By Michael S. Serrill

Despite his reputation as a plodding and phlegmatic diplomat, Secretary of State George Shultz does not lack for energy. His wanderings over the past two weeks in search of a Middle East peace have taken him to Jerusalem, Amman, Damascus, Cairo and London, where Jordan's King Hussein met with him between bouts of dental surgery. After two days of NATO summitry in Brussels, the Shultz shuttle, with Ronald Reagan's blessing, rumbled back to London before heading to the Middle East again. Said an elated senior diplomat aboard Shultz's plane: "It's the only game in town."

The game, however, is as complex as a grand-master chess tournament, and by the end of the trip Shultz had made his boldest move yet: offering the players the first U.S.-sponsored peace plan since 1982. He presented a proposal that calls for final talks, to begin by year's end, on a permanent solution to the Palestinian question. While many predicted Shultz's scheme would quickly be checkmated, the Secretary said, "There is a readiness to work to change things that should be taken advantage of by everybody. The moment can be lost."

Shultz's blueprint has three parts: an international "event" in April to inaugurate the peace process; talks between Israel and a Jordanian-Palestinian delegation beginning in May to arrange for elections and a degree of self-rule in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip; negotiations starting in December for final disposition of all occupied territories, including the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem, which Israel has annexed. Shultz, who presented the plan to Israel, Jordan, Egypt and Syria, wants at least a positive sign of interest from all four countries by next week, when Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir is scheduled to visit Washington.

A unanimous "yes," however, is highly unlikely. In more than nine hours of talks with Shultz, Shamir stubbornly stuck to his position that he will never exchange territory for peace. But with some reluctance the Prime Minister did agree to an international conference, provided that it is purely ceremonial, a condition the Arabs may find difficult to accept. The Arabs, in the meantime, were creating their own complications. The angry Palestinians who have led the uprising in the occupied territories have not only heeded the Palestine Liberation Organization and refused to meet with Shultz, but also now balk at being made part of a joint Jordanian-Palestinian delegation, a formula that dates back to 1985.

Meanwhile, blood continued to be spilled in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, where at least six more Palestinian deaths were reported. Though the violence is three months old, Israeli TV viewers were shocked last week when the state- owned station ran footage of four soldiers savagely beating two bound Palestinians. The segment, filmed by a CBS crew and shown on U.S. television two weeks ago, was heavily edited, but the clips were still more graphic than Israelis are accustomed to seeing.

Faced with the flood of negative publicity, the Cabinet was seriously considering a simplistic solution last week: ban the press from the occupied territories. In fact, when violence erupted after the noontime Muslim prayers Friday, authorities did close parts of the West Bank to reporters.

With reporting by Dean Fischer/Amman and Bruce van Voorst/Jerusalem