Asserting that Israel’s relations with the United States have never been better, Ambassador Yitzhak Rabin said last night that he did not believe President Nixon would sacrifice Israel at the current Moscow summit meeting. “Nixon will not reverse his attitude towards Israel, in any case not in an election year,” the Israeli envoy to Washington told the international relations circle of the Labor Party’s youth group here.
Rabin, who is on home leave, said in reply to questions that from Israel’s standpoint the best that could emerge from the Moscow summit is that no decision will be reached on the Middle East. At most, the Ambassador said, the US and USSR may reach the conclusion that since both parties are adamant, they should be left to sit together to reach a partial settlement.
U.S.-ISRAEL GOALS OUTLINED
Rabin said that Israel has four main goals in its diplomatic dealings with the US, the first of which is the assurance of the US as a source of arms. “For the time being we never had it so good,” he said. “All we asked we got, even if sometimes we received arms against the demands of the American military men.” Rabin said that Israel has given no official undertakings as to the use of the arms received from the US.
He said that as for Israel’s second goal–the US as a deterrent against the Soviet Union–“Our position here is not bad but still far from what we desire.” According to Rabin, Nixon’s militant policies in Vietnam could serve as a deterrent against Russia in the Middle East. On American financial assistance, Rabin said Israel may be satisfied at present but the needs of Israel are immense.
Israel’s fourth diplomatic goal, he said, was the achievement, as far as possible, of a proximity of Israeli and American views. While this may be less important than the other practical matters, the US and Israel see eye-to-eye on a number of points, he said. These points are: no Israeli pull-back prior to a peace settlement; no use of force to push Israel from the present cease-fire lines; a peace settlement based on mutually agreed and recognized borders and other terms.
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