Patir Explains Israel’s Lag in Presenting Its Version of the Breakdown in Mideast Negotiations

Premier Yitzhak Rabin’s advisor on mass communications. Dan Patir, admitted today that Israel had lagged behind Egypt in presenting to the world its version of the unsuccessful negotiations for a second-stage Sinai agreement conducted by Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger. He said, however, that this was the result of a deliberate policy on Israel’s part to avoid anything that might have interfered with the progress of the negotiations while they were going on.

Patir spoke on a radio broadcast in response to mounting criticism that Israel was losing the propaganda war to its Arab foes. Much of the criticism centered on the delay of several hours between the announcements in Washington and Cairo Saturday night that the talks had broken down and Israel’s announcement and explanation of that development.

Patir explained that Jerusalem’s announcement came late because Israel wanted to avoid any “collision of ideas” with Kissinger in the mass media. He said also that the Israeli government wanted to study the texts of the announcements by the White House and by Egyptian Foreign Minister Ismail Fahmy before issuing its own and, in fact, after doing this, made certain changes in its original reaction.

Patir rejected the argument that the Egyptian propaganda drive was more successful than Israel’s. He said that Egyptian statements on the negotiations failed to achieve their objectives because many were simply untrue. He quoted one foreign newsman as describing the Egyptian Foreign Minister as a “liar.”

Nevertheless, many observers here believe a satisfactory statement by the Israeli government should have been available to the media the moment the final decision was taken to suspend the talks so that Israel’s version would have received equal exposure with the statements of Fahmy and Kissinger. (By Gil Sedan)