Reports Israelis See They Must Re-explain Position to New Administration

The Guardian reported from Tel Aviv today that Israelis realize that with a Republican in the White House “much of what could be taken for granted with Democratic politicians or officials will have to be started afresh” and Israel will have to renew its efforts to explain its position to the new Administration and the new personalities in the State Department and the Foreign Service.

The paper said that Israelis were wary of William W. Scranton, President-elect Nixon’s fact-finding envoy to the Middle East, but believed that he may have absorbed the fact that Middle East crisis cannot be judged from the viewpoint of the Arab leaders alone. The Guardian believed that “some months may elapse before the new American Administration is ready to try to crack the Israel-Arab nut” and reported that much discussion was going on in Israel on how to best utilize that time.

(In Washington today, Mr. Nixon’s spokesman, Ronald Ziegler, dissociated the President elect from Mr. Scranton’s remark that the U.S. should pursue a “more even-handed” policy in the Middle East. He said that Mr. Scranton “was in the Middle East strictly as a fact-finder” for Mr. Nixon and “his remarks are Scranton remarks, not Nixon remarks.” Mr. Scranton made his comment about “even-handedness” in several Arab capitals and repeated it when he arrived in Israel. He said the U.S. should consider the feelings of all peoples and all nations in the Middle East, and not necessarily espouse the cause of only one. His words aroused concern in Israel that they possibly presaged a change in U.S. policy detrimental to Israel’s interests. Mr. Ziegler also spiked a remark by Mr. Scranton at the Rome airport on his way home when he said the Nixon Administration would offer its own peace plan for the Middle East soon after it took office. Mr. Ziegler said “that will be determined by Mr. Nixon after he has received Mr. Scranton’s report and has studied it along with all other available evidence.”)