Political Scientist Says Israel’s Replies to U.S. Cannot Revive Peace Process

Dr. Landrum Bolling, a prominent American political scientist, said here that the replies Israel gave to the American questions on the future status of the West Bank and Gaza Strip Sunday cannot help to revive the peace process. The U.S., Bolling said, had hoped for clear, more positive replies that would have given it the tools to press President Anwar Sadat of Egypt to resume the peace talks with Israel that he broke off last January.

Bolling was the recipient of an honorary fellowship bestowed by the University of Haifa at the opening Monday night of an international workshop on the resolution of conflicts between nations. It drew sociologists, psychologists, political scientists and Middle East experts from Israel and overseas.

Bolling heads the American Council on Foundations, a prestigious clearing house for public and private grants in the U.S. He was awarded the fellowship in recognition of his efforts toward improved relations between nations and the promotion of peace. He recently headed a Quaker group which in 1970 proposed a possible solution of the Middle East conflict by a federative arrangement between Israel, a Palestinian state and other states in the region. He is one of the promoters and supporters of the Jewish-Arab Center of the Institute of Middle East Studies at Haifa University. In the 1940s, Bolling was an editor of the Overseas News Agency, a subsidiary of the JTA.

Bolling said that Sadat found himself under heavy pressure from inside and outside Egypt that could compel him to end his peace initiative begun last November. He said there was a possibility that the U.S. would produce a peace plan of its own if Sadat drops his initiative. But he did not think that Vice President Walter Mondale will be bringing such a plan when he visits Israel at the end of the month.