Deny U.S. Pressure on Israel

Foreign Minister Yigal Allon told the Cabinet today that there was no American pressure on Israel to come forth with new proposals on which to base a second stage of negotiations with Egypt and that Israel has made none beyond what the Foreign Minister conveyed during his visit to Washington earlier this month. Allon was commenting on press reports that the U.S. was demanding new ideas from Israel. He said all such reports, “both local and foreign,” were incorrect.

Earlier “official sources” in Jerusalem also denied current reports from Washington of United States pressure on Israel for more generous concessions to Egypt in advance of Soviet Communist Party Secretary Leonid I. Brezhnev’s visit to Cairo next month. The sources said such reports were “without foundation.”

The reports, citing sources in Washington, have been current in the Israeli press for several days. They gained a measure of confirmation from the recent reports of President Ford’s meeting with pro-Israel lawmakers in which Ford reportedly implied that America would like to see more generous Israeli offers which it could submit to Egyptian President Anwar Sadat before the Brezhnev visit, scheduled for mid-January.

There have also been some private indications from well-placed officials in Jerusalem that the U.S. is using the upcoming Brezhnev demarche in to Egypt as a means of pressure or leverage in the on-going dialogue with Israel to urge greater concessions.

The “official sources,” in their statement, however, asserted that “since Foreign Minister Allon’s return from Washington (two weeks ago) Israel has not been asked, and has not intended, to make any new proposals beyond those made by Allon. All reports of U.S. pressure for concessions by Allon are without foundation,” the official sources added. Keen observers noted that the statement was carefully phrased in the past tense. It did not, therefore, rule out the possibility of an Israeli reconsideration of offers and demands in the future.