Rabin Lashes out at Eban for Making ‘irresponsible’ Statements

Premier Yitzhak Rabin responded angrily tonight to former Foreign Minister Abba Eban’s criticism of his government’s policies during the recent bilateral talks with Egypt conducted by Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger. The Premier’s rejoinder to Eban’s assertion that Israel rather than Egypt was to blame for the collapse of the talks was made all the more stinging by Rabin’s failure to refer to the Israeli statesman and former diplomat by name.

Speaking on television, the Premier referred to statements that were “irresponsible even though they were made by a man who formerly held responsible office.” Such statements, he declared, weakened Israel’s position both in the U.S. and in the Arab world, Rabin also spoke of “certain persons” who created an “exaggerated impression” of the current differences between Israel and the U.S. and said those persons could best explain themselves what motivated them to give such an impression.

Eban, who set off a furore of criticism in Israel by remarks he made in an interview published last Friday in Maariv, had accused the Rabin government of taking its strained relations with Washington too lightly. He said, according to Maariv, that Israel should have accepted the Egyptian terms conveyed by Kissinger if only out of consideration of its relations with the U.S. and that the short-comings of an agreement on those terms would have been compensated for by improved contacts with Washington.

EBAN: DUTY, RIGHT TO EXPRESS OPINIONS

Eban himself responded last night to angry criticism of his remarks by Labor Party Secretary General Meir Zarmi and others. He said on a radio interview that as a member of the Knesset and a diplomat of long experience, he had the right and duty to express his full and frank opinions of government policies and would continue to do so. “After all that has happened to me, after all I have achieved in the past 26 years, I owe it to the Jewish people in Israel and abroad to express my views fully and freely. I am determined to pay this debt,” he declared.

Zarmi had chastized Eban for publicly airing views which he should have expressed in party forums. He said Eban’s remarks were not only contrary to the Labor Party’s endorsement of the government’s position but were ill befitting a person of Eban’s high standing. The former Foreign Minister said last night that he intended to express himself at party forums but would not shy away from stating his views in public as well.

Asked point blank if he agreed with the U.S. view that Israel rather than Egypt was to blame for the failure of the Kissinger talks, Eban said that Israel had no choice but to reject the Egyptian terms conveyed by Kissinger, But, he added, the government should have realized from the start that its demand for a formal commitment of nonbelligerency from Egypt was an unrealistic basis for negotiations. Having failed to recognize that fact, the talks were launched “on the wrong foot,” Eban said.

At a public appearance in Haifa earlier yesterday, Eban described the present condition of the Labor Party as that of a “rudderless ship.” He said the defections of Arye Eliav and other ideological “doves” were a disaster for the party.