Carter Criticizes Israel, Endorses Egyptian Position

President Carter has come down hard publicly against Israel and has given a strong endorsement of Egypt’s positions in their negotiations with the U.S. for a peace treaty that the President wants signed by this Sunday, Dec. 17.

In extemporaneous remarks last night to a dinner of the Business Council here, the President expressed himself as “very frustrated at this point” over the negotiations and voiced the “hope” that Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, who has been conferring in Cairo and Jerusalem for the last four days, “has better news from Israel for me than I acquired from him at noon” yesterday.

Today, White House Press Secretary Jody Powell, responding to questions on the President’s remarks, told reporters that the issue of a peace treaty is “essentially” up to Israel. He said Carter praised President Anwar Sadat of Egypt last night but had no words for Premier Menachem Begin of Israel because “the process (of a treaty) is already completed with Sadat.”

Asked if that means the U.S. has endorsed the Egyptian position, Powell said, “obviously, our position is what the parties agree upon.” He said that should Israel accept the terms that Vance gave to Begin after his talks with Sadat, “we will have peace.”

But if Israel does not accept, Powell said he did not know what the next step will be. He appeared to rule out a new Camp David-type summit conference and spoke of the vast amounts of time the President and others in his Administration are spending on these negotiations. A State Department spokesman said later that he expected “a pause” in the treaty negotiations.

Vance is returning to Washington tomorrow after a meeting with Begin and a brief stopover in Cairo to inform Sadat of the results of his discussions in Jerusalem. Powell was not sure when Vance and the President would meet but indicated it would be shortly after the Secretary’s return.

TERMS SADAT ‘VERY GENEROUS’

In a long review of the Middle East issue last night, Carter said that the Israeli Cabinet had adopted the text of the treaty but rejected “the accompanying document which was an integral part of the mandatory agreement.” This was a reference to the side letter Vance proposed that would link the treaty with Palestinian elections by the end of the coming year. “President Sadat then objected strongly to certain provisions of the treaty text itself,” Carter said, “and made public statements that they could not accept them.”

He added, “I sent Secretary Vance over to try to resolve this apparent impasse. He had very good success in negotiations with President Sadat. With some possible change, with which I am not familiar, President Sadat has accepted the text of the treaty. I don’t believe there are any exceptions. And he has adopted a time schedule that was originally proposed by (Israeli) Foreign Minister (Moshe) Dayan himself, that a goal would be agreed of holding elections and the establishment of self-government in the West Bank/Gaza by the end of 1979.”

The President said that “Earlier, they had talked about a much earlier date or even no date. But Sadat was very generous, in my opinion, in adopting basically an original Israeli position.” Referring to Article VI of the draft treaty — the priority of obligations clause — Carter described it as “contrary to what any other nation has ever been asked to do.” However, he added, Sadat has accepted the treaty text, “I understand.”

Continuing, Carter said “There will be an exchange of letters between the U.S. and Sadat based on the opinions of international lawyers and the lawyers at the State Department about what this particular section means.” The President followed that remark by saying, “Israel would not be required to endorse that language.” He did not elaborate but informed sources here felt Israel would be under permanent U.S. pressure to agree to the language that the U.S. finally adopted with Egypt.

“So the essence of it is that at noon (Wednesday) the Egyptians had accepted the treaty text completely and had adopted our proposal on the ancillary documents and my understanding is that the Israelis have some problems in accepting those ancillary documents, including the interpretation of what Article VI means about the priority of obligations,” Carter said.

The President also said that Vance had told him that “the Israelis are reluctant to accept the goal, even for 1979, for the linkage element.” He said “We pray that both nations will ultimately accept the same documents.”

Powell was asked at his press briefing if the U.S. position is now a take-it-or-leave-it one or if Vance is returning with understandings that are still negotiable. Powell replied angrily, “God knows we’ve been negotiating.” He said the President has spent more time on the Middle East issue “than any other two or three matters, including employment of our citizens, SALT and the budget.” He emphasized again that “Sadat has been generous and forthcoming on various positions.”