Official circles in Jerusalem charged flatly today that “certain quarters” in Washington were conducting a deliberate pressure campaign against Israel following the breakdown of Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger’s efforts for a second-stage Israeli Egyptian accord. However, there was some basis for hope, it was reported, that a meeting Kissinger scheduled for today with Israeli Ambassador Simcha Dinitz, after several days of no contact between the two officials, might signal the start of a thaw in the frosty U.S.-Israeli relationships since the breakdown.
The allegations of pressure emerged after a report in Newsweek stated that Kissinger would reject Foreign Minister Yigal Allon to represent Israel in any proximity talks in Washington, a proposal which has been floated in the wake of the collapse of the Kissinger mission. Kissinger reportedly was said to feel that Allon carried little weight in Israel’s government and that his views were therefore misleading. Circles here attributed the Newsweek report to the purported pressure drive mounted from Washington against Israel.
The same circles attributed the same motives to another Newsweek report that Dinitz would soon be replaced as Ambassador because Kissinger allegedly accused him of misleading the U.S. in the pre-shuttle contacts. The circles stressed there was no basis for that report.
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