Jewish Leaders Urge Shultz to Get the U.S. Behind Israel’s Efforts to Normalize Relations with Leban

A group of American Jewish leaders Urged Secretary of State George Shultz to put the United States behind Israel’s efforts to normalize relations with Lebanon instead of opposing it.

Julius Berman, chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, also said that Shultz was told that while it was the Arab countries that were “procrastinating” on President Reagan’s Middle East peace initiative, Israel was being blamed for the lack of progress.

Berman spoke to reporters after he led a group of 14 members of the Presidents conference and leading Jewish Republicans in a two-hour meeting yesterday at the State Department with Shultz. Deputy Secretary Kenneth Dam; Nicholas Veliotes, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs; and Richard Fairbanks, the special envoy for the autonomy talks. The meeting was requested by Shultz.

“We would hope it (the meeting) was helpful to the Secretary in formulating the future policy of the State Department and the recommendations to the Administration and to the President,” Berman said. But he noted that before a judgement could be made on whether the comments of the Jewish leaders yesterday had any affect, they would have to see what proposals are offered by special Mideast envoy Philip Habib when he returns to Beirut.

A PERCEPTION IN THE COMMUNITY

Berman stressed that he could not reveal what Shultz and the other Administration officials said but could only report on what the Jewish leaders told the officials. He said there is a “perception” in the community that the U.S. is “not helpful” in the efforts to achieve normalization of relations during the negotiations on the withdrawal of foreign forces from Lebanon.

“Normalization is a step backwards from the peace treaty that Israel initially wanted,” Berman said. “But it is the type of normalization that leads to an ultimate peace.”

He said that “Lebanon is amenable for such relations (with Israel) and we believe it is very important that the United States support that approach and suggest to the Lebanese government that they will back them in such further discussion.”

On the Reagan peace initiative, Berman said it is “clear to us that the Arab leaders are not prepared to come to the (negotiating) table.” He said the Arab League’s Fez communique of last September offers peace based on a PLO-Palestinian state, in the pre-1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital. Berman said this “is the heart of the Reagan proposals thrown into the garbage.” He said “no indication of any forward movement” was given on Jordan entering the peace process.

However, Berman stressed, Israel repeatedly has said “It is prepared to go to the table without any preconditions whatsoever.” He said despite this, “the impression is conveyed in the community, not only in America, but in the world, that somehow it is the intransigence, or the alleged intransigence, of Israel that is the stumbling block.” He said Shultz was told this is “clearly not the case.”

Berman said there was no discussion of the possible visit of Israeli Premier Menachem Begin to Washington. Begin had to postpone his meeting with Reagan last November when his wife, Aliza, died while he was in Los Angeles. The visit was reportedly to have been rescheduled for February.

But this week there were indications that the Administration is holding up scheduling a date as additional leverage on Israel to force more rapid movement toward an agreement on the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Lebanon.

It is believed here that an agreement on Israeli withdrawal has to be reached before agreements can be made on the withdrawal of the Syrian army and Palestine Liberation Organization forces from Lebanon.