Rabin's response to the PLO's initiative is…

Rabin's response to the PLO's initiative is "the only place the Israelis could meet the Palestinians is on the field of battle."

For Israelis, U.S. president Carter's notion of a Palestinian homeland (and its similarity to the wording of the Balfour Declaration) is a code word for a Palestinian state, and they hotly oppose it—not least because it also implies a leadership role for the PLO.

Rabin, facing a major quarrel with the United States, is forced to call a general election for May 1977.