The authoritative view in government circles of what Israel can expect from the United States in the course of the Security Council’s Middle East debate opening tomorrow is that the U.S. will strongly oppose any attempt to change Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338 or to shift Mideast peace efforts from Geneva to the Council. The U.S. will continue to oppose participation by the Palestine Liberation Organization in the Geneva sessions when they are reconvened unless the PLO changes its position to conform to U.S. demands.
It was understood here, however, with respect to the possibility of an American veto of any draft resolutions that may come up at the Security Council session, that the U.S. will make its decision on the merits of the draft. This assessment of the situation on the eve of the Council’s debate was presented by Premier Yitzhak Rabin at today’s Cabinet meeting.
He based it on the reports from Foreign Minister Yigal Allon who met with Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger and other U.S. officials in Washington last week and is returning to Israel tonight. Rabin added that Allon and Kissinger had agreed to consult during the course of the Council’s debate.
Government circles believe that Allon’s visit to the U.S. had achieved all that could have been reasonably expected. There was disappointment at the failure of Israel to secure a firm pledge from Washington to veto any draft resolution in the Security Council that Israel regarded as dangerous to its interests. But officials here conceded that it was unrealistic to assume that the U.S. would commit itself in advance to exercise its veto at Israel’s behest.
MOST SERIOUS CONCERN
The most serious concern here is that the Arabs will propose a draft couched in moderate terms which the U.S. would find difficult to veto. Although there is no indication before the debate starts as to how the Arabs will act, there have been some reports that the Soviet Union and Egypt were working in close collaboration to prevail upon Syria to agree to a moderate draft in the hope of securing American support.
Such a draft would possibly refer to Palestinian rights–which are not specifically mentioned in Resolution 242–but would not refer directly to the PLO. Nevertheless, it would carry the clear implication that the PLO would be present at the Geneva conference as representative of the Palestinian people.
The U.S. and Israel see eye-to-eye up to a point on the issue of the PLO. The U.S. insists that the PLO recognize Israel’s existence and accept Resolutions 242 and 338 in their present form as a precondition for their inclusion as a negotiating partner at Geneva. Israel has the additional demand that the PLO renounce its “Palestine Covenant” which calls for the replacement of Israel by a “secular democratic state.”
Israel is also totally opposed to the creation of a separate Palestinian state between itself and Jordan regardless of whether the PLO changes its attitude toward Israel. The American position in that hypothetical eventuality is not clear.
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