Informed sources said today that Simha Dinitz, Premier Golda Meir’s political adviser, has been designated as Israel’s next Ambassador to the United States, subject to confirmation by the Cabinet which is considered certain. The sources said that Dinitz, who is Mrs. Meir’s personal choice for the post, was accepted at a meeting of senior Cabinet ministers including Foreign Minister Abba Eban. Eban and Mrs. Meir were reported earlier to have been at serious odds over the appointment of Dinitz, and Eban was said at one point to have threatened to resign.
Dinitz, whose official position is director general of the Prime Minister’s Office, is due to leave this week on a 10-day visit to the U.S. where he will participate in United Jewish Appeal and Israel Bond Organization functions. Israel’s present Ambassador to the U.S., Gen. Yitzhak Rabin, is now scheduled to leave his Washington post after President Nixon’s inauguration in Jan. Rabin is currently in Israel on a private visit.
Earlier reports said he would be asked to remain in Washington until next spring to give Eban time to retreat gracefully from his opposition to Dinitz’s appointment. Eban’s objections were said to stem from a fear that the naming of an outsider to Israel’s most important diplomatic post abroad would hurt morale in the foreign service and that Dinitz, as Ambassador, would tend to report directly to Mrs. Meir, thereby by-passing the Foreign Ministry.
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