Observers said here today that it was timing and the forum of U.S. Ambassador William Scranton’s remarks in the Security Council Tuesday night rather than their content which surprised and dismayed Israelis and created a widespread belief that American policy toward Israel has undergone a change. Sources here are convinced that Scranton’s speech was delivered with the foreknowledge and consent of Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger and, indeed. may have been inspired by Kissinger.
The statement by the new U.S. envoy to the United Nations that Jewish settlement in the administered territories created an obstacle to peace negotiations and that the status of Jerusalem must be decided by negotiation was in itself not a departure from the American position held since 1967, sources here conceded.
As Scranton mentioned in his statement–and as White House Press Secretary Ron Nessen pointed out yesterday–the American position on the occupied territories has been stated over the past nine years by other American envoys at the UN, notably Ambassadors Arthur Goldberg. Charles Yost and George Bush. Similarly. Washington’s refusal to recognize Israel’s sovereignty over all of Jerusalem has persisted ever since the city was unified in the Six-Day War.
But for Scranton to have reiterated this as strongly as he did during the course of a Security Council debate in which Israel has come under bitter attack by the Arab states, the PLO and their allies for alleged civil and religious repression on the West Bank, is seen by many Israelis as a stinging rebuke from the one country that Israel has counted on for support. Likud leader Menachem Beigin has called for an urgent Knesset debate on Scranton’s speech.
Some observers said today that even if Scranton exercises the U.S. veto to kill a Security Council resolution condemning Israel, his speech has already damaged Israel’s position. The government so far has refrained from any official comment on Scranton. However, Israel’s Ambassador to the U.S. Simcha Dinitz. visited the State Department yesterday to express Israel’s dissatisfaction with the form and substance of Scranton’s remarks. (By Tuvia Menelson)
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