Indications that the Soviet Union might use Jewish emigration or the restoration of diplomatic relations as leverage to extract concessions from Israel on the peace process have disturbed Israeli leaders on the eve of Soviet Foreign Minister Alexander Bessmertnykh’s historic visit here.
Bessmertnykh was due to arrive here at noon Friday, becoming the highest-ranking Soviet official ever to visit the Jewish state.
All week Israeli leaders have been anxious about the visit, which could lead to the long-sought restoration of full diplomatic relations between the two countries, which Moscow severed in 1967.
But the jitters were heightened by reports of the foreign minister’s remarks Wednesday in Damascus and late Thursday in Amman.
In Amman, Bessmertnykh spoke out strongly against the continued building of Jewish settlements in the West Bank. Then, after mentioning that Soviet Jewish emigration “may create some concerns” for Israel’s Arab neighbors, he added, “I would not exclude anything when we talk about the necessity to stop the construction of these settlements.”
Israeli leaders reacted angrily Thursday to the implied linkage.
Aliyah is a humanitarian matter that should remain entirely separate from the diplomatic process, said Eliahu Ben-Elissar, chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.
Any Soviet linkage of it to the peace process would be met by Israel’s solid resistance to a Soviet role in the process, the Likud Knesset member said in a radio interview.
‘VIOLATION OF INTERNATIONAL ACCORDS’
In New York, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations issued a statement Thursday evening expressing concern about the reports of Bessmertnykh’s remarks.
“Any endeavor to inject conditions on freedom of immigration would be a violation of international accords,” said the statement, which was issued by the chairman of the conference, Shoshana Cardin.
Israeli officials stressed Thursday night that Soviet diplomatic relations, likewise, must not be offered with strings attached. Israel will not “pay a price” for the restoration of full diplomatic ties, said one official.
Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir said he hoped the restoration of relations would be announced during or soon after Bessmertnykh’s visit. But neither he nor anyone else in the government seemed to know what the Soviet statesman intended to do on the subject, and Shamir seemed to prefer not to dwell on it.
One government source observed that “the more one is seen to want something, the higher the price one is perceived to be ready to pay for it.”
Israel is especially sensitive to pressure to cease settlement building in the administered territories, which the Bush administration has repeatedly described as an “obstacle to peace.”
The Soviet foreign minister will meet U.S. Secretary of State James Baker in Cairo over the weekend before Baker arrives here next week.
Israeli leaders fear the Soviets and Americans may “gang up” on Israel and demand a cessation or suspension of settlement building as a precondition for some confidence-building steps by the Arab side.
Both Shamir and Foreign Minister David Levy were expected to stress, publicly and privately, during Bessmertnykh’s brief visit Israel’s appreciation of the Soviet policy of liberalized emigration for Jews, and Israel’s willingness to cooperate in a peace effort under the joint auspices of the two superpowers.
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.
