Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, locked in a struggle with the Bush administration over U.S. loan guarantees for immigrant absorption, is under mounting pressure from the right wing of his coalition government to back out of the U.S.-sponsored peace process.
He urged the United States on Thursday to be “objective” in its approach to regional issues.
Briefing visiting members of Congress, Shamir claimed current U.S. attitudes are being interpreted by the Arabs as distinctly anti-Israel, which, he said, prejudices both the peace process and Israel’s ability to absorb Soviet immigrants.
The right-wing parties, never happy with the idea of a Middle East peace conference under U.S.-Soviet auspices, have been infuriated by Washington’s apparent linkage of the loan guarantees to a freeze on settlement-building in the administered territories.
Their anger is shared by Shamir and most of his Likud bloc, though not by the opposition Labor Party and the small leftist factions in the Knesset.
On the other hand, Shamir faces criticism for jeopardizing relations with Israel’s most powerful ally and for risking billions of dollars in badly needed loan money.
Nevertheless, Israel’s official position, articulated Thursday night by Shamir’s top aide, Yosef Ben-Aharon, is that a settlement freeze is not even under consideration.
Ben-Aharon, who is director general of the Prime Minister’s Office, demanded that the United States differentiate between the humanitarian issue of Soviet Jewish refugees and the political dispute over the settlements.
He also reminded the Americans that Israel has yet to make its final commitment to join the peace conference.
‘BRUTAL AMERICAN PRESSURE’
Israeli officials admit, though, that they are resigned, albeit reluctantly, to a 120-day delay before Congress acts on Israel’s request that the United States guarantee $10 billion in loans so it can borrow the money on more favorable terms.
President Bush insists the waiting period will benefit the peace process.
The Israelis and their supporters in the United States acknowledge that a victory over Bush, if it were possible, would poison relations with the administration.
But the Shamir government in recent days has gotten signals from Washington that the administration will not recommend the loan guarantees even after the four-month delay, unless it is fully satisfied that none of the money will go directly or indirectly to settlement-building.
At the far right of the political spectrum, Shamir’s coalition partners are urging him to “suspend” Israel’s oft-stated willingness to participate in the peace process.
Geula Cohen and Elyakim Haetzni of Tehiya and Hanan Porat of the National Religious Party declared Thursday that this is the only way for the government to respond to the “brutal American pressure.”
But key Laborites take a different view.
Uri Baram, former secretary-general of the Labor Party, called the American position “reasonable and fair.”
Former Defense Minister Yitzhak-Rabin, Labor’s No. 2 man, told a party leadership meeting in Tel Aviv on Thursday that the Likud government had only itself to blame for the crisis because of its massive and provocative settlement-building program.
Rabin, a political centrist, said the pace of settlement-building is now almost five times what it was during the Labor-Likud national unity government that collapsed in March 1990.
The Likud government’s order of priorities is topsy-turvy, given the present historic opportunities for aliyah and peace, and the urgent economic problems, Rabin declared.
Meanwhile, Shamir aide Ben-Aharon conceded that Israel had undertaken in the past to supply Washington with complete information about settlement-building, so that the Americans would know that U.S. grants were not being used for that purpose.
But the United States was not satisfied, he said. That is because “government budgets do not distinguish between outlays on this side of the Green Line or the other,” he said, referring to the boundary between Israel and the territories.
Israel is “hiding nothing,” he declared.
ASSURANCES TO SYRIA ON GOLAN
Another issue that has raised tension between Jerusalem and Washington is Baker’s reported assurances to Syria this week that the United States supports the interpretation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 242 that would have Israel withdraw from conquered territories on every front, including the Golan Heights, West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Israel maintains its 1982 withdrawal from Sinai fulfilled the requirements of the resolution.
The American position prompted Golan Heights settlement leaders to telegraph Shamir demanding that he reiterate Israel’s firm commitment to keep the Golan Heights.
Even Health Minister Ehud Olmert, a Likud moderate, warned Baker that his “unnecessary step” in Damascus might force Israel to “reconsider the method in which it will take part in the peace conference.”
Baker, who was in Amman on Thursday, was scheduled to return to Damascus on Friday.
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.
