As the United Nations bustled with activity at the opening of the 44th General Assembly on Tuesday, the Israeli delegation looked forward to the new session with a tinge of uncertainty.
While the Israelis are steeled to counter the expected attacks on their legitimacy from the Arab bloc and their supporters, two key issues are as yet unresolved.
The one of primary concern to Israel is whether or not Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasir Arafat will be granted a U.S. visa so that he can address the General Assembly.
Clovis Maksoud, the Arab League representative here, said Monday that Arafat has not yet decided whether to try to attend the General Assembly session. But he said that if Arafat did come, the logical time for his visit would be in November, when the assembly holds its annual debate on the Palestinian issue.
The other unknown factor for Israel will be the impact of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s address to the General Assembly, which is scheduled for Sept. 29.
It is expected that Mubarak will formalize and detail his offer to host a dialogue between Israeli officials and Palestinian representatives on the implementation of proposed elections in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
During Mubarak’s stay in New York, he will meet with Israeli Foreign Minister Moshe Arens, who will address the General Assembly two days before him, and with Finance Minister Shimon Peres, whose visit is not directly linked to the United Nations.
CREDENTIALS BATTLE EXPECTED
But beyond the unknowns, Israeli officials are prepared to fight the usual attempts to discredit the Jewish state and the expected moves by the PLO to win new victories in its diplomatic war against Israel.
“We are in a situation where the other side is using the U.N. as a propaganda tool,” Ephraim Dowek, Israel’s deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, said in an interview.
Dowek said that the Israelis view their position at the United Nations as a defensive one, constantly having to fend off attacks and criticism throughout the course of the General Assembly and within various U.N. agencies.
The first move of this General Assembly is expected to come in the form of the traditional attempt to revoke Israel’s credentials.
Since 1982, Arab nations have annually tried to oust Israel from the United Nations by proposing an amendment to the report of the Credentials Committee.
In the past, one of the Scandinavian countries has moved for postponement of discussion of the Arab amendment, and that move has been upheld in a vote. That sequence of events is once again expected this year.
The Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith has sent telegrams to the countries that either voted against the Scandinavian measure or abstained from the vote last year.
The telegram said that refraining from an attack on Israel’s U.N. credentials “would send a positive signal to all parties to further the prospects for Arab-Israeli coexistence.”
NEW PLO MOVES EXPECTED
Officials at the Israeli mission said they are confident that they have enough votes to survive the credentials battle. They expect approximately the same amount of support Israel received last year, with the possibility of increased support from East bloc countries in the wake of glasnost.
At the same time, the Israelis still do not feel they have a chance of being able to muster enough votes to revoke the 1975 U.N. resolution equating Zionism with racism.
Thomas Pickering, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said in Washington last week that the United States was committed to seeing that resolution repealed.
Pickering said he believed that the United Nations was moving away from constant attacks on both Israel and the United States. He expressed optimism about the prospects for a productive General Assembly.
The Israelis are also wary of the efforts of the Palestine Liberation Organization to be recognized as a state. Currently, its status within the United Nations is as an observer mission called “Palestine.”
This year, the PLO may attempt to upgrade its status to that of an observer state, a status held by countries such as Switzerland, or it may even try to be admitted to the international body as a full member.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
