Kissinger Due in Israel Wednesday; Efforts to Form Cabinet in High Gear

Secretary of State Henry Kissinger plans two visits to Jerusalem and two to Damascus this week, it was reported unofficially today. Kissinger’s initial goal is to create a framework in which Israeli-Syrian disengagement talks could later be held, perhaps by military officials working at the front, as at the Israeli-Egyptian Kilometer 101 talks, or at Geneva, it was noted. Meanwhile, the Labor Party central committee met today in Tel Aviv to discuss members for the new Cabinet after weekend attempts to persuade Gen. Moshe Dayan, the outgoing Defense Minister, and Shimon Peres, the outgoing Transport Minister, to accept posts in the Cabinet failed. The decision by Dayan and Peres not to join the new Cabinet was made final Friday night at a meeting of the Labor party’s Rafi wing. That meeting followed a fruitless session between Dayan and Peres and Premier Golda Meir and Labor Minister Yosef Almogi.

Mrs. Meir made an impassioned plea tonight to Dayan and Peres to reverse their decisions to leave the Cabinet. “You have no right to go,” she said, at this time when “I know that fateful decisions will have to be taken.” She said she well understood that there came a time in political leaders’ careers when they are tempted to say to their party, “Take back your mandate,” having reached a “breaking point” under carping and criticism. But she was begging the Rafi minister to summon up the inner strength to resist this temptation. While Mrs. Meir addressed the central committee of the Labor party central committee, Dayan sat in front the row, his head bowed, his face inscrutable, as she once more spelled out her firm position against a national unity government. Likud, she said, has the word “no” on the masthead of its ideology. Likud policy would prevent any peace prospects and endanger friendship with the U.S. She could not say how long the minority government would last.

Almogi, who initiated that meeting, said later he feared a possible split in the Labor party but Peres insisted that the eight former Rafi members would not leave the party and would support the new Cabinet. One problem which must be solved promptly, observers said, is selection of a new Defense Minister. Mrs. Meir was understood to be considering two actions: first, to name a new Defense Minister quickly, probably former Chief of Staff Yitzhak Rabin, or Gen. Haim Bar Lev; or to maintain the portfolio herself with the hope of persuading Dayan to change his mind, while Rabin or Bar Lev assumed operative responsibility at the Ministry. Reports on Dayan’s plans to leave his post were that he would do so as soon as the make-up of the new Cabinet was announced and presented to President Katzir and the Knesset, presumably Wednesday or Thursday. Dayan’s office has cancelled all meetings and functions previously arranged for him as Defense Minister.

Another Labor effort to persuade the National Religious Party today not only failed to bring any progress toward that goal but brought a rejection by NRP negotiations of an Alignment appeal to support the new Cabinet, even if the NRP would not join it. The NRP negotiators said their party would either vote against the new Cabinet or abstain when it is presented to the Knesset. Aharon Yadlin, the Labor party secretary general, speaking at the Labor party central committee meeting, denounced Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren for his role in the “Who is a Jew?” deadlock which led to the NRP decision against joining the new coalition. Yadlin said Rabbi Goren surrendered to pressures from Orthodox rabbis in other countries on the issue and “endangered” the authority of the Chief Rabbinate. Yadlin said the “young guard” of the NRP had deliberately torpedoed the coalition talks and “pretended” that the conversion question was the key issue while their real concern was over the possibility of a return of West Bank territory to Jordan in any future peace talks.

Meanwhile, according to unofficial reports, if Kissinger finds that progress on the substantive issues between Israel and Syria can be achieved by his own direct participation, he might agree to expand his “shuttling” between Damascus and Jerusalem. Observers noted that this was what happened when he came to the Middle East to work out a framework for Israeli-Egyptian disengagement. Whether the Kissinger visit was discussed at the weekly Cabinet meeting today was not indicated, although it was generally assumed it had been. Informed sources said Dayan and Peres were expected to participate in the Kissinger talks, since the new Cabinet is not expected to be presented to the Knesset before next Monday, after Kissinger leaves. A discussion of the proposed talks with Syria did take place yesterday at Mrs. Meir’s home, with senior Ministers, including Dayan and Peres, participating.

The influential Cairo newspaper, Al Ahram, said Kissinger would come to Israel with a list of Syrian-held Israeli prisoners, as Israel has demanded, and thus set the stage for detailed disengagement talks. While there was no official confirmation for the report in Jerusalem or in Washington, political observers here said it was true and that Kissinger’s visit meant that the way was open for the disengagement negotiations. (In Washington, there was a flurry of diplomatic activity as Egyptian Foreign Minister Ismail Fahmy and Joseph J. Sisco. Under Secretary of State-designate, met several times this weekend prior to the departure of Kissinger to the Middle East tomorrow. Kissinger and Fahmy also met today in an apparent last minute effort to tie up loose ends concerning Kissinger’s new effort to get Israeli-Syrian disengagement talks started. The Secretary is due in Damascus on Tuesday and in Israel on Wednesday. It was confirmed here than among those accompanying Kissinger on his new Mideast round will be Robert J. McCloskey, ambassador-at-large, who will act as advisor and ad hoc negotiator; George Vest, State Department spokesman; and Sisco. It was also learned that Ellsworth Bunker, chief U.S. representative at the Geneva talks, may also accompany Kissinger.