Israeli President Chaim Herzog met with President Bush on Monday and said afterward he anticipates no change in U.S. policy toward Israel when the president leaves office in January.
Herzog said he visited Bush to pay his respects and to “express our appreciation” for his sponsorship of the Middle East peace talks.
He also said he expressed gratitude to Bush for his leadership in the Persian Gulf War, which he said helped curb dangerous aggression and enhanced Israel’s security.
The Israeli president said he did not discuss with Bush the details of the peace talks, which he conceded are not progressing rapidly.
“It’s going to take a lot of time,” he said. “But I’m convinced a process has begun which will ultimately conclude successfully.”
Herzog said he believed the administration of President-elect Bill Clinton would bring continuity to U.S. relations with Israel, because it is in the “permanent interest” of the United States.
U.S. “interests happen to (coincide) with Israeli interests in favor of the close relationship that we have,” he said.
Herzog refused to be drawn into discussion with reporters outside the White House about American Jewish opposition to Bush for being “harder on Israel” than some other presidents. About 80 percent of Jewish voters backed Clinton on Election Day.
Herzog’s White House visit followed a meeting Friday in New York with U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, which was described as a “courtesy call” by a spokesperson for the Israeli Mission to the United Nations.
The two talked generally about the changing role of the United Nations and U.N. -Israeli relations. The meeting came the same week the United Nations sent a representative, for the first time and with Israel’s approval, to multilateral talks in Ottawa on the Middle East refugee situation.
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.
