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14 , FRIDAY, AUG, , 21, 1987
Israel Relieved Over
Iran-Contra Hearings
Washington (JTA) — There
must have been sighs of relief
in Jerusalem when the Senate
and House select committees
ended 11 weeks of public hear-
ings on the Iran-contra affair
last week.
The 41 days of public testi-
mony left little doubt that it
was Israel that suggested the
Reagan administration seek an
opening to moderates in Iran
and that Israel continued to
push the Iranian initiative
when the United States was
wavering.
But on the one issue that
could have seriously hurt Israel
with Congress —whether the
Israeli government knew about
or had anything to do with the
diversion of profits from the
arms sale to Iran to the con-
tras —no hard evidence was
presented.
Since the diversion was first
revealed by Attorney General
Edwin Meese at a White House
briefing for reporters last
November, the Israeli govern-
ment has denied any knowl-
edge of the diversion. This
denial has been echoed by all
Israeli officials who visited
Washington over the past nine
months.
The only evidence linking
Israel to the diversion was a
tenuous one offered by Marine
Lt. Col. Oliver North, the
former National Security Coun-
cil aide.
North testified that, at a
meeting in Washington in
January 1985, Amiram Nir, the
counter-terrorism adviser to
the Israeli prime minister, sug-
gested that profits from the
sale of arms to Iran coud be
used for other purposes.
Later, at a meeting in Europe
among North, Nir and
Manucher Ghorbanifar, the Ira-
nian businessman who was a
go-between for the dealings
with Iran, North said Ghor-
banifar pulled him aside and
suggested the diversion to the
contras as one of the ideas to
convince the reluctant North to
continue the Iranian initiative.
North said that he assumed
that Ghorbanifar was acting
with at least the approval of
Israeli intelligence, if not the
government, since the late
William Casey, then director of
the Central Intelligence Agen-
cy, had told him the CIA
believes Ghorbanifar to be an
Israeli intelligence agent.
Left with no proven Israeli
link to the diversion, some have
sought to place the respon-
sibility for the Iranian in-
itiative entirely on Israel in an
effort to give the Reagan ad-
ministration the excuse that
"the Israelis made me do it."
This view was rejected by
Secretary of State George
Shultz when he testified before
the committees.
"When it comes to undertak-
ing something by the United
States government, then we
have to recognize . . . that
we're big boys and we have to
take responsibility for whatever
it is we do. We can't say that
somebody else suggested it to
us, therefore it's their fault,"
Shultz said.
Israeli officials believe the ef-
fort to establish a link with
Iran was a correct policy, as
does Reagan.
Shultz and Defense Secre-
tary Caspar Weinberger were
opposed to any arms being sold
to the Iranians. They had both
led the U.S. effort to try to get
other countries not to sell arms
to either side in the Iran-Iraq
war.
Thstimony in the final days of
the public hearing revealed that
at a November 1985 meeting
called to discuss the sale of
arms, Shultz said that he felt
"the Israelis sucked us up into
The only evidence
linking Israel to
the diversion was
a tenuous one.
their operation so we could not
object to their [arms] sale to
Iran."
While the public hearings are
over, the committees are conti-
nuing to take closed-door
testimony from CIA officials
and from Michael Ledeen, the
former consultant to the Na-
tional Security Council who
first explored with Israel and
others the possibility of mak-
ing contact with Iranian of-
ficials. Ledeen said in an inter-
view that he was asked in 1985
by Robert McFarlane, then the
national security adviser, to
look into the possibility of such
an initiative.
The committees- are expected
to release a joint report in late
September. One aspect that
will be eagerly awaited is the
assessment of the material the
committees have received from
Israel.
In June, Israel provided the
committees with details of its
financial transactions in the
Iran affair, and last week Israeli
officials turned over a 60-page
chronology from the beginning
of the Iran affair through Dec.
31, 1985.
The chronology is largely
based on testimony from David
Kimche, former director
general of the Foreign Ministry,
and Israeli arms dealers Jacob
Nimrodi and Al Schwimmer.
Both Schwimmer and Kim-
che have been subpoenaed by
Lawrence Walsh, the special
prosecutor investigating the
Iran-contra affair.