BACKGROUND
Affording the best is not the
question...finding the best is.
Israel Chalks Up
Tactical Points
The Shamir government appears to have
won its gamble as the Middle East peace
talks enter round two.
JAMES D. BESSER
Washington Correspondent
I
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34
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 13, 1991
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t was fitting that the cur-
rent round of Middle East
peace talks officially
began during Chanukah.
There was something
almost miraculous about the
fact that the tenuous pro-
cess, initiated last spring by
Secretary of State James
Baker, had survived to this
important bi-lateral stage.
Moreover, the first day of
second-round talks on Tues-
day appear to have gone well
for Israel. Sounding upbeat,
Deputy Prime Minister Ben-
jamin Netanyahu said the
discussions went better than
expected with the Syrian
and Lebanese delegations,
widely regarded as the
toughest test of Israel's abil-
ity to put an end to Arab
hostility.
But behind this
miraculous tale were some
hard-headed political
calculations and some inten-
sive, behind-the-scenes di-
plomacy by the United
States and Israel.
The decisions made during
this week will help set the
tone for the talks that will
hopefully follow. They could
also come back to haunt
Israel in the future if the
process fails to meet the ad-
ministration's expectations.
Stripped of all the
extraneous variables, the
events of the last 10 days
can be distilled to this:
Israel, for a variety of
reasons, took a big diplo-
matic gamble to - make what
it viewed as an important
point, and the Bush ad-
ministration — in the inter-
ests of preserving the talks
— handed the government of
Yitzhak Shamir a signifi-
cant victory.
Israel's big roll of the dice
involved its decision to insist
on a five-day delay in the bi-
lateral phase of the peace
talks, • originally scheduled
for Dec. 4 in Washington.
Ostensibly, the Israelis re-
jected the summons for that
date because their delega-
tion lacked time to prepare
for the meetings.
Israeli leaders also ex-
pressed unhappiness about
the choice of Washington as
the site for the second round
of talks and about the fact
that a number of procedural
matters remained unresolv-
ed prior to the gathering.
But the real cause of
Israel's distress was its
perception that the U.S. in-
tended to play a major role
in the bi-lateral discussions.
Having the talks in Wash-
ington, Jerusalem felt,
would reinforce Arab
perceptions that the White
House would come to their
rescue at the first sign of
deadlock.
The squabble over
"procedural" issues was
really an effort to make the
point that Israel expected
the second round of talks to
be genuinely bi-lateral —
without any significant role
for the Americans, beyond
issuing invitations and pro-
viding the meeting rooms.
Making that point was im-
portant enough to risk a
beating in the arena of
public opinion, Israeli offi-
cials believed — a fact that
made Israeli representatives
here and their American.
supporters extraordinarily
nervous.
"There were many people
who. argued that the delay
would be a public relations
disaster," said Jess Hordes,
The real issue for
the Israelis was
not dates.
Washington director for the
Anti-Defamation League of
B'nai B'rith. "But at the
same time, Israel had a
reasonable right to make the
point it was trying to make
about the importance of
direct negotiations, and of
not setting precedents that
would derail the peace talks
in the long run."
Mr. Netanyahu made that
point at a press conference
on the official opening day of
the peace conference — only
an hour after a Palestinian
press event had trumpeted
Israel's failure to appear.
The Arabs cannot sit back
and wait for their American
friends to "deliver Israel,"
he argued.
"That's not going to
work," Mr. Netanyahu said.
"And, in many ways, it's
important to air that as ear-
ly as possible, even on a
minor issue such as timing."