Behin the Headlines the Booming Sound of America’s ‘quiet Diplomacy’

The White House and State Department have been telling reporters for weeks that “quiet diplomacy” is necessary to prevent the negotiations between Israel and Egypt from collapsing. “Quiet diplomacy,” they argued after President Anwar Sadat of Egypt suspended the political talks in Jerusalem on Jan. 18, would allow Egyptian and Israeli leaders to discuss their problems without making debating points and passing insults for the benefit mainly of television cameras.

But the first violator of the “quiet diplomacy” dictum was the United States Foreign affairs establishment. President Carter himself, doubtlessly on bad advice, has contributed to American “mistakes” committed, it would appear, “accidentally on purpose” to besmirch Israel’s record in the court of world opinion.

When the controlled Egyptian media unleashed invectives and insults against the Jewish people in general and Premier Menachem Begin of Israel personally, no sound whatever was emitted from U.S. official sources for the Egyptians to half their anti-Semitic campaign. When the Jewish community in this country, along with its press, zeroed in on this campaign and made it a public issue, the State Department invoked” quiet diplomacy” by refusing to condemn the Egyptian media anti-Semitism. The Egyptian campaign ground to a halt when Begin warned that Israel would not return to the military talks in Cairo until the anti-Semitic tirades were halted.

LEAKING WRONG INFORMATION

Suggesting a practical application of quiet diplomacy, Sen. Frank Church (D.Id.) told Secretary of State Cyrus Vance that the U.S. should not make any “new” commitments on arms to Saudi Arabia, Egypt or Israel until the Egyptian-Israeli negotiations get back on the track. But the word that went out from the State Department to the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv was that Church had urged a freeze on weapons for Israel.

The U.S. delegation in Israel proceeded to leak the wrong view of Church’s suggestion and Begin , nothing the media reports, expressed surprise that his “old friend” would take such a position. Church set the record straight by bluntly declaring that the State Department had “misinterpreted” him since he was talking about “new” commitments, not previous commitments to Israel which, he emphasized, must be kept.

CIA TROTS OUT MEMO

No sooner had that “mistake” been rectified when the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) made public a memorandum presenting a “belief” that Israel has atomic weapons. The belief, the CIA said, was “based on Israeli acquisition of large quantities of uranium, partly by clandestine means; the ambiguous nature of Israeli efforts in the field of uranium enrichment; and Israel’s large investment in a costly missile system designed to accommodate nuclear warheads.” There was no hard, specific evidence to substantiate the CIA’s “belief.”

The media promptly played up the “belief” as corroborated fact. The subsequent claim by CIA press spokesman Herbert E. Hetu that the memorandum was a “mistake,” was heavily discounted by pro-Israeli Capital sources. They noted that before the CIA would make public any document, let alone such an analysis, it would have to pass through many hands and go to the highest levels in the CIA and get White House approval. The White House later set aside the memorandum’s allegations. This action, however, received short shrift in the media, presumably because it was not as newsworthy and headline-making as the original allegations.

ISSUE OF SETTLEMENTS

A series of sonic booms characterized U.S. “quiet diplomacy” last weekend. When word came that the Gush Emunim marked Tu B’Shvat in Shiloh in Samaria by planting some trees and engaged in “diggings” there, American Middle East specialists notified Carter that another of those Israeli “obstacles” to peace was being constructed.

Without quietly going through normal diplomatic channels by asking the Israeli Embassy to verify the report, the White House drafted a harsh memo to Begin and Carter approved it. The text of the message was leaked to selected media and embellished with asides that the President was very angry with Begin because he felt Begin had broken a personal commitment. Four days later, at a press conference, Carter stated: “I think the Israeli government has not authorized the Shiloh settlement other than as an exploration project” and that “this is not an authorized settlement.” This public statement was also downplayed in the media.

Another allegation touching on Israel, but by implication, was the Energy Department’s report that Saudi Arabia would be willing to help the U.S. on oil increase. This item, out of the blue, was seen at the Capital as a U.S. propaganda exercise to influence Congress on the Saudian request for 60 F-15 warplanes.

Meanwhile, a different deluge shattered whatever credibility remained of “quiet diplomacy.” Carter invited President Anwar Sadat of Egypt to Washington for a weekend at Camp David in Maryland and the world media immediately began preparations to cover the event.

The following day, an open letter by Sadat to American Jews which had been solicited by the Miami Herald, appeared in a number of American newspapers, including, of course, the Miami Herald. The letter appeared to many Jewish leaders in this country as an obvious design to weaken American Jewish support for Israel’s peace policy. In Cairo, meanwhile, Assistant Secretary of State Alfred Atherton contributed to “quiet diplomacy” by holding a news conference.

Now the Egyptians have booked Sadat for an appearance at the National Press Club and to meet with Congressional committees during his five-day American visit. After that he will go to four European capitals while his aides room Africa and Asia drumming up support for pro-Arab terms that run contrary to the letter and spirit of United Nations Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338 that Carter has said underpin Mideast negotiations.