Government’s Position Supported

Israelis of all political persuasions appeared today to stand fully behind Premier Yitzhak Rabin’s government’s refusal to agree to major territorial withdrawals in Sinai without a formal declaration of non-belligerency by Egypt.

Histadrut, Israel’s powerful labor federation, issued a statement this morning pledging its fullest support of the government’s policy. Secretary General Yehuram Meshel said Israeli workers back the government’s decision, and although they ardently desire peace, they understand that the Egyptian attitude made it impossible for Premier Rabin to accept Cairo’s territorial demands.

Naftali Feder, political secretary of Mapam, said that party, a member of Rabin’s Labor Alignment, supports the government’s decision although it deeply regrets the failure to reach a second-stage accord with Egypt. Mapam urged continued efforts to seek a peace settlement.

The Civil Rights Movement, headed by Shulamit Aloni, also declared its support for the decision but at the same time accused the Rabin government of misrepresenting Israel’s case, both internally and abroad.

Tzvi Bernstein, secretary general of the National Religious Party, a member of Rabin’s coalition, said the latest developments made it all the more urgent to establish a government of national unity. He said this was now possible as a result of the “rapprochement” between Rabin and Likud leader Menachem Beigin. He was referring to the fact that Rabin telephoned Beigin Friday night to report the situation to him and personally briefed Beigin and other Likud leaders on Saturday.

TWO SUPER-POWERS CRITICIZED

If Israelis generally did not hold their own government to blame for the collapse of the second-stage peace talks, and put the onus squarely on the Egyptians, there was also bitterness against the two super-powers expressed in editorials today in the country’s two mass circulation evening newspapers.

Maariv acknowledged the danger of a serious erosion of American-Israeli relations and said the delay in inviting Israeli pilots to train on the new F-15 jets was symptomatic of the American attitude even before the failure of Kissinger’s talks. The paper added that while Israel has no desire to split with the U.S., it must be prepared for such an eventuality and must mobilize for a vast political and propaganda campaign in the international arena and especially in the U.S.

Yediot Achronot suggested that Egypt’s tough stand may well have resulted from behind the scenes maneuvers by the Soviet Union and also by the collapse of the American strategic position in the Far East. Whatever the case, Kissinger should have realized where his “Chamberlainian” line (appeasement) would lead his own country and the entire free world, the newspaper said, adding that Kissinger’s failure in the Middle East should sound the alarm for a change of American policy in general.

Random samplings of public opinion included the view that the United States was blaming Israel for denying it a much needed diplomatic triumph in the Middle East at a time when its policies in Indo-China are in shambles and its Western alliance is endangered by the sharp leftist swing in Portugal, a NATO member. Some Israelis expressed the view that the U.S. had pressed Israel hard for concessions and was now attempting to hold the weaker party responsible for its diplomatic failure. Others disagreed and claimed that was not the genuine American attitude. (By Yitzhak Shargil)