U.S.-Israel Relations: State Reviews Autonomy Proposal
(November 9, 1987)
Cable from Tel Aviv embassy to the Secretary of State regarding the idea of autonomy as a solution to the Palestinian issue. The conventional wisdom has assumed that Likud's offer to resume autonomy talks has been little more than something to say when pressed for alternatives to an international conference. While that is true for some, there are others in Likud who see the pursuit of greater autonomy as genuinely the only way to go. Unilateral autonomy or devolution (virtually no one speaks of real unilateral withdrawal) is considered by some labor circles to be a necessity not only to preserve the territorial option for peace negotiations, but also to decrease the corrosive effects of occupation on Israeli society. But we see little evidence of a realistic action plan for autonomy in either camp.
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Source: U.S. State Department