Two senior Israeli Cabinet ministers were tight-lipped but clearly elated as they returned here Sunday from what one of them called a “historic” meeting in Moscow with Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.
Finance Minister Yitzhak Moda’i and Yuval Ne’eman, the minister of science and energy, seemed pleased with the outcome of their surprise meeting with Gorbachev last Friday, which lasted over two hours and got a brief mention on Soviet television.
It was the first time Israeli government ministers met with a Soviet chief of state since Moscow severed diplomatic ties with Israel in 1967.
Israeli Housing Minister Ariel Sharon was also in Moscow last week, but his meetings reportedly were limited to Jewish activists and local municipal officials.
The two ministers who met with Gorbachev disclosed few details of the session, though Ne’eman said it could lead to important new economic cooperation between Israel and the Soviet Union.
Ne’eman, who heads the far right-wing Tehiya party, stressed that the apparent economic breakthrough is in no way connected with the possible resumption of diplomatic ties between Israel and the Soviet Union.
Gorbachev reportedly told the Israeli ministers that Moscow would be prepared to restore diplomatic ties if Israel were willing to participate in an international conference to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian dispute.
Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir rejected the Soviet condition for re-establishing relations as unacceptable to Israel. But he hailed the meeting with Gorbachev and made a point of noting that Israel is not opposed in principle to a Soviet role in regional diplomacy.
AN OIL-FOR-FOOD DEAL?
The Israeli media speculated over the weekend that the ministers discussed an oil-for-food barter deal with Gorbachev, but neither Moda’i nor Ne’eman would confirm it.
They indicated that Gorbachev was vague about specific areas of cooperation, but had suggested that Israel might influence Jewish entrepreneurs worldwide to invest their money in the Soviet economy.
The meeting occurred at a time when both Israel and the Soviet Union are grappling with severe economic problems, which lent some credence to reports that economic measures were discussed.
Only hours before Moda’i departed for Moscow, the Israeli Cabinet approved his drastic new economic program, which contains many controversial features.
The Soviet legislature and policymakers in the Russian Republic are also considering drastic measures to rescue their ailing economy.
The Gorbachev meeting was arranged under a veil of secrecy, Reports from Tass, the Soviet news agency, said the Israeli ministers were officially invited by the Soviet Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Ne’eman, a prominent nuclear physicist with an international reputation, said the meeting was set up by his ministry’s adviser, Professor Eliahu (Ilya) Zemstov, a scientist and Sovietologist who immigrated to Israel in 1973 and has maintained in contact with the Soviet Academy of Sciences.
A Soviet personality involved in the contacts that led to the meeting with Gorbachev was Alexander Yakovlev, a top Gorbachev adviser who in the past has met with several leading Jewish figures from the United States and Canada.
SHARON MEETS WITH SOVIET JEWS
The Ne’eman-Moda’i visit to Moscow created some discordant notes here.
Amnon Kapeliuk, Moscow correspondent of the Israeli mass-circulation daily Yediot Achronot, reported that the two Israeli ministers had desecrated the Sabbath during their weekend stay in the Soviet capital.
Both vehemently denied this. The Orthodox parties in the Likud-led coalition, which keep an eye out for Sabbath violations by government personnel, said they would not “make an issue” of the report this time.
Sharon, meanwhile, told the Cabinet Sunday about his meetings with Jews in the Soviet Union.
Sharon, meanwhile, told the Cabinet Sunday about his meetings with Jews in the Soviet Union.
He told reporters that it was vital to expedite the departure of Soviet Jews wishing to leave. He said it was well within the capability of Israel’s 4 million Jews to absorb the 1 million Soviet Jews he said wanted to emigrate.
While in Moscow, Sharon spoke by telephone to Pamela Cohen, president of the Washington-based Union of Councils for Soviet Jews. He told her that “every American Jewish family” should invest in apartments in Israel and then rent them to Soviet immigrants.
Cohen, who lives in Chicago, had telephoned the apartment of Moscow Jewish activist Leonid Stonov, where Sharon was visiting.
(JTA staff writer Susan Birnbaum in New York contributed to this report.)
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.
