Behind the Headlines Has Israel Been Set Up for a Diplomatic ‘kill’ at the Un?

There is growing concern here in some quarters that Israel has been set up for a diplomatic “kill” in the General Assembly by the political “hitman” for the Arab-Asian-nonaligned-Communist bloc in the world body. Assembly President Abdelaziz Bouteflika who is also Algeria’s Foreign Minister.

The concern followed an unprecedented move in the UN’s 29-year history when Bouteflika last Thursday, supported by an Assembly vote of 75-23 with 18 abstentions, moved to prevent Israeli Ambassador Yosef Tekoah from the right to speak again during the remainder of the debate on the Palestine issue except for the standard and nominal 10-minute right to reply at the end of each day and at the discretion of the Assembly’s President.

There is also a gnawing feeling among some diplomats and analysts that the Assembly’s act may have set the stage for a later possible move to exclude Israel entirely from participating in Assembly activities, a move similar to that which the Assembly took earlier in the week by a vote of 91-22 with 19 abstentions to exclude South Africa for the duration of the current Assembly session which ends Dec. 17.

Although the Assembly vote Thursday, with Bouteflika’s machinations behind the scenes, also limited all other delegates, Israel was hardest hit. Before the Palestine debate began last Wednesday.Tekoah asked for the right to speak each day during the debate “because of the avalanche of Arab speeches to be expected.”

He noted that the Palestine Liberation Organization had the delegates of 20 Arab states at its disposal and that. In addition, the Arab states are a moving force in the nonaligned group that come close to 100, and the Soviet Union which supports the Arabs. Tekoah said that this lineup against one Jewish State made it imperative for Israel to be allowed to speak each day to present a balanced view on the issue, but added that he might not necessarily speak each day.

MOVE MAY JEOPARDISE OTHER COUNTRIES

The “hit” came 24 hours after Arafat’s speech in the Assembly in which he issued a thinly veiled threat that Israel might be suspended from the Assembly the way South Africa was the day before.

Tekoah received word early Thursday after his name had been placed on the speakers list for that day that Bouteflika had removed his name without any explanation. The Israeli diplomat protested to Secretary General Kurt Waldheim about this arbitrary move. Shortly after Tekoah held a press conference where he disclosed the removal of his name from the speakers list and charged that this was another attempt by Bouteflika to “muzzle Israel’s freedom to speak.” he was told that his name had been re-placed on the list for Thursday’s session through the intervention of Assistant Secretary for the General Assembly Bradford Morse.

What is of particular concern to the U.S., most West Europeans and some South American countries and Spain and Japan, all of whom opposed limiting Israel’s right to speak. is that the Assembly move may jeopardize the right of other minority countries to make fair presentations of their views. Aside from dealing a crippling blow to the very nature of the UN, the action is also seen as a dangerous precedent that may also lead to further limitations and abrogations of the right to speak as well as exclusions from the Assembly of countries whose views may not be to the liking of the Arab-Asian-nonaligned-Communist bloc.

But the latest move indicates to many that the UN may become–if indeed. it has not already be-come–a place where this bloc may succeed in the Assembly, where there is no veto and where-every vote is equal whether cast by a super-power or a small nation, in effectively stifling at will all minority points of view on various issues.

The earlier move to exclude South Africa, according to some, may very well have been a harbinger of a move against Israel. There is no doubt that many of the nations that voted against this exclusion or abstained are repelled by the apartheid practiced by South Africa. But the violation of the UN Charter’s principle of not excluding any state from the world body is now endangered by the bloc intoxicated with their seeming unrestricted power to provide a forum for those who reflect their own point of view as it did in the case of Arafat by a vote of 105-4, and to use their clout to gag those nations whose views are deemed antithetical.

BOUTEFLIKA’S INORDINATE, ARBITRARY POWER

Another concern is the inordinate and arbitrary power that Bouteflika accorded to himself, a power that may later be used by other Assembly Presidents for whom a precedent has been established. Throughout the UN’s history there has been an understanding that the Assembly President will eschew political remarks and remain neutral, a practice common even to chairmen of any meetings adhering to the Roberts Rules of Order.

But Bouteflika has violated this understanding at almost every crucial turn of Assembly developments since he was installed in his position at the beginning of the current Assembly session in mid-September, no doubt with the blessings of the anti-Israel bloc. He began by delivering a diatribe against the big powers, notably those of the West, and mounted an unabashed defense of the non-aligned nations and the so-called “freedom fighters” among which he included the Palestinians.

The political “hit man” again displayed his bias when he arbitrarily ruled, and then maneuvered to get the endorsement for his move, to exclude South Africa. It was Bouteflika. again, who arbitrarily, extended the protocol to Arafat normally reserved for heads of states or governments by arranging for the terrorist leader to be escorted into the Assembly hall and to the podium by the UN Chief of Protocol. Sinan Korle.

It was also Bouteflika who postponed the opening session of the Assembly debate on the Palestine issue for 90 minutes to assure that Arafat would be the only speaker at the morning session, a courtesy extended only to heads of states. Outraged at this, the Israeli delegation protested by boycotting the morning session. And it was also Bouteflika who introduced the terrorist leader as the chairman of the PLO executive and the “commander in chief of the Palestine revolution.”

RECOGNITION IN PRINCIPLE

Meanwhile, according to knowledgeable sources, pro-Palestinian delegates were busy this weekend drafting a resolution on the Palestinian issue that will call on the Assembly to “recognize in principle” the right of the Palestinians to statehood based

The feeling among the pro-Palestinian delegates, sources say. is that “recognition in principle” will be easier to get across among some Western and Latin American delegations at this time than the outright call for immediate recognition of statehood pegged to a timetable. It is felt that should a resolution calling for the principle be adopted it would be a sufficient signal to the PLO to go ahead with a struggle on all levels to establish a state and then try to have its supporters push through another resolution “legitimatizing” this state at next year’s Assembly session.

The substance of all these developments is that what the Arab states have been unsuccessful in accomplishing on the battlefield is taking place openly and behind the scenes at the UN: dismantling Israel diplomatically and isolating her from the body of world opinion. There is also concern that it is only a matter of time before the anti-Israel bloc in the UN captures the world body in a bloodless coup and transforms the UN into a diplomatic battering ram against its opponents.