U.S. Committed to Israel's Survival • m oviNG?
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Rabin put a damper on
speculation that he might
soon visit Washington as
part of the massive fence-
mending-with-America op-
eration that Israel plans in
the wake of the Kissinger
shuttle failure.
Rabin indicated that no
visit by him was contem-
plated in the immediate fu-
ture.
The U.S. State Depart-
ment re-emphasized Tues-
day that it is not assigning
blame to either side for the
breakdown of Egyptian-
Israeli negotiations after a
report circulated here that
Secretary of State Kissin-
ger had written govern-
ments in the Middle East,
giving full credit to Egyp-
tian President Sadat in
seeking a compromise,
while remaining silent on
Israel's position.
According to the news
report in the Washington
Post, Kissinger sent the
message to 30 countries in
the Middle East, explaining
the breakdown in very gen-
eralized terms.
A spokesman said Kissin-
ger did communicate with a
number of governments but,
"there is no question of plac-
ing blame on either side"
and that "both sides made a
serious effort" for a compro-
mise.
In Tel Aviv, Rabin
"hoped" a "renewal of the
present efforts lies ahead of
us," but he implied that no
arrangements had been
made for Kissinger's immi-
nent return to the region.
He confirmed press re-
ports that he had received
last week from President
Ford a letter regarding the
negotiations—but refused
to divulge its content.
Israeli newspapers re-
ported that Ford sent a
sharp letter to Rabin in
which he rebuked Israel
for taking too hard a line
in the negotiations with
Egypt and warned that the
U.S. would hold Israel re-.
sponsible for failure of the
talks and would have to
reconsider its relations
with Israel.
However, Rabin insisted
that descriptions of the let-
ter by the news media were
exaggerated and distorted.
The newspapers alleged
that the Presidential note
was dispatched to Jerusa-
lem at the specific request
of Kissinger after the latter
reported to Ford on the hard
line taken by President An-
war Sadat at Aswan.
State Department spokes-
man Robert Anderson em-
phasized that President
Ford's communication to
Rabin carried "no threat" to
Israel at all.
Meanwhile, the Senate
unanimously adopted a res-
olution endorsing the policy
of President Ford and Sec-
retary of State Kissinger to
achieve a solution in the
Middle East conflict.
At Kissinger's request,
the House International
Affairs Committee voted to
meet behind closed doors
Tuesday to hear Kissin-
ger's report on the break-
down of the peace negotia-
tions.
Before the room was
cleared of spectators, Kis-
singer said the settlement
process will now be enlarged
"from a local to a global ba-
sis and from bilateral to
multi-Israel" negotiations.
Israelis appeared to stand
fully behind the govern-
ment's refusal to agree to
major territorial withdraw-
als in Sinai without a for-
mal declaration of non-belli-
gerency by Egypt. -
The collapse of the talks
came as no surprise to pol-
icy makers here. On Thurs-
day night Kissinger flew to
Aswan With a new Israeli
offer.
It called for less than L
full declaration of non-bel-
ligerency, asking for a
commitment to refrain
from use of force for a
fixed period of time to-
gether with some "ele-
ments of non-belliger-
ency" such as free tourist
traffic and a moderation of
the boycott and of hostile
propaganda.
For this, Israel offered
the Abu Rodeis oil fields
and half of the Mitle and
Gidi Passes. Israel would re-
tain control of the passes'
eastern ends while United
Nations troops would re-
place Israeli soldiers at their
western ends. Egypt, how-
ever, rejected this too.
Egyptian President An-
war Sadat rejected Israel's
proposal for mixed patrols
of the buffer zone which Is-
rael saw as a meaningful
channel of on-going contact
between the two sides.
When Kissinger flew
• •
back to Israel on Friday
morning, however, he
gave a "senior U.S. offi-
cial" an upbeat briefing on
the plane, claiming that
while the withdrawal
question had not yet been
solved there was agree-
ment on other elements of
a settlement. The official
said that agreement was
possible.
The Secretary sent a simi-
lar cable to Rabin from the
plane, and Israel officials
were buoyed. Once the nego-
tiators had met with Kissin-
ger, however, and heard the
Egyptian responses in de-
tail, it became immediately
clear that no agreement was
in sight and the question
was only one of how and
when the talks would be
broken off.
Egyptian President Sadat
Faisal's Death Hard to Assess
The assassination of King
Faisal of Saudi Arabia is
fresh evidence of the insta-
bility of Arab regimes and
additional proof that Israel
must maintain a firm policy
stand toward those govern-
ments, Israeli officials said
Tuesday.
They contend that the
instability of Arab govern-
ments bolstered Israel's re-
fusal to accept further Sinai
withdrawals without spe-
cific and open moves by
Egypt toward more peaceful
relations with Israel.
King Faisal's support for
U.S. efforts to moderate
positions of hard line Arab
leaders was welcomed in
Jerusalem, but the officials
also noted that Faisal had
supported the Palestine Lib-
eration Organization politi-
cally and financially and
that his unyielding demand
that Jerusalem be com-
pletely under Moslem rule
was totally unacceptable.
— Premier Yitzhak Rabin
said it was still too early to
assess the effect in the re-
gion or worldwide of the
assassination of King
Faisal.
Privately, observers point
out that Faisal's successor,
Prince Haled, could hardly
be more extreme in his hos-
tility towards Israel and
towards Jews than Faisal
was. Thus, Saudi vehemence
in the Arab-Israel conflict
might be moderated in the
new reign.
Arabists here say Haled .
is not the power denter in
Saudi Arabia, and his reign
might be seen as a transi-
tion period because of his
weak health and age — 64.
Also, a power struggle could
develop between him and
the •newly appointed heir-
apparent, Prince Fahid.
Fahid is considered one of
the most powerful men in
Riyadh. His supporters have
held central positions in the
power structure there, and
he has an important say on
foreign policy issues.
Both Haled and Fahid —
like most of the huge royal
house — are considered
pro-Western and anti-So-
viet, but neither are be-
lieved to be so single-
-
minded nor so religiously
extreme as the late Faisal
was.
Israeli political observers
point out, nevertheless, that
Faisal's basic friendship to-
wards Washington was
tried and assured — and to
that extent his death means
a further diminution of U.S.
influence in the region.
These observers add,
though, that Faisal in his
last week of life disap-
pointed Henry Kissinger —
for the second time in sev-
eral months — by failing to
throw his influence behind
the Secretary of State's
shuttle effort. Kissinger
flew last Wednesday to Ri-
yaddh Toenlist Faisal's sup-
port and influence upon
Sadat at the crucial stage of
the peace negotiations.
Kissinger's earlier disap-
pointment with Faisal oc-
curred last October at the
Rabat Arab summit confer-
ence. The Americans and
Israel had expected Faisal
to line up behind Jordan's
Hussein against the PLO.
But Faisal reversed his long-
standing enmity towards
the terrorists and supported
them against Hassein.
Jewish groups recall
Faisal's long-standing
enmity towards Jews, who
are not permitted entry
into Saudi Arabia; his
leadership in the oil and
economic boycott against
Israel and her supporters
and his many statements
of hatred.
The World Jewish Con-
gress reported this week,
before Faisal was assassi-
nated, the discovery of an
Arab magazine article quot-
ing Faisal.
He stated in the article
that "Israel' has had mali-
cious intentions since an-
cient times," and re-states
the ancient "Blood Libel" by
saying that Jews mix the
blood of non-Jews with
matza for Passover.
Meanwhile, President
Ford has given "strong in-
structions" to his subordi-
nates to implement his
"strong statement" about
discrimination against
American citizens by the
Arab boycott "and those
agencies are following his
instructions," Presidential
press secretary Ron Nessen
reported. "It is clear," that
the Department of Com-
merce is "investigating" the
boycott practices and "in-
tends" to take legal action
against American compa-
nies that do not report boy-
cott practices.
Nessen's comments came
last Friday in response to
questions on whether the
President is implementing
his statement that Arab dis-
crimination against Ameri-
can Jews was "repugnant."
Supporting his state-
ments of governmental sup-
port of the President's feel-
ings against discrimination,
Nessen referred to a letter
from Secretary of Com-
merce Frederick B. Dent of
March 6 to Sen. Jacob K. ,
Javits (R.-N.Y.).
The letter said that "the
boycott requests reported-
to this department by
American exporters . . .
do not appear to constitute
an attempt on the part of
the boycotting countries to
prevent routine exports of
U.S. products to Israel or
to deny trade opportuni-
ties to U.S. exporters on
religious or ethnic
grounds."
Dent also said that with
reference to the absence of
boycott information from
companies that "the fact
that a shipping line or a
bank does not report to the
Senate Subcommittee on
Multinational Corporations
on March 18 — almost two
weeks after the Dent letter
— indicated a decline in re-
ports filed with the depart-
ment from 23,617 in 1972 to
only 788 last year.
The forms issued by the
Commerce Department for
reporting boycott practices
have been attacked by con-
gressional committee mem-
bers for lacking penalties
against those that do not
file them. In addition, the
committee members have
said the forms virtually en-
courage companies to go
along with Arab boycott
demands.
added Sunday, in an inter-
view for an Egyptian publi-
cation that he had not been
overanxious to reach agree-
ment with Israel because he
believed Egypt had the up-
per hand.
•
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