Rabin Hints Israel May Not Boycott Indefinitely UN Council Sessions

Premier Yitzhak Rabin hinted today that Israel may not boycott Security Council sessions indefinitely despite the Council’s invitation to the Palestine Liberation Organization to participate in them. Replying to questions on an Army Radio program, Rabin observed that the Cabinet decision to boycott the Security Council’s deliberations on the Middle East because of the PLO presence applied only to the meeting scheduled for January 12.

Asked whether that meant Israel would change its mind with respect to subsequent Council sessions, Rabin replied that the Cabinet has not yet reached a decision. It was reported yesterday that Foreign Minister Yigal Allon told a Cabinet meeting Sunday that there was no change in Israel’s firm resolve to boycott the Security Council meetings dealing with Israel’s raid on Lebanon (which she did) and the Council’s Middle East debate, set to open Jan, 12, to which the PLO was also invited. Allon indicated that there has been U.S. pressure on Israel to reverse its position and attend at least some of the Security Council meetings. But Israel is resisting this pressure, he said.

Rabin, in his radio interview today, appeared to express understanding, though not approval, of the U.S. failure to veto the Soviet-Syrian motion in the Security Council last month which linked the Palestinian issue to the extension of the mandate of the United Nations Observer Force (UNDOF) on the Golan Heights. Rabin said the U.S. followed that course because it did not want to take responsibility for ending the UN presence on the Golan.

SEBASTIA COMPROMISE UNDER FIRE

Meanwhile, the Premier has been trying to defend the compromise agreement reached yesterday with the illegal Gush Emunim settlers in Samaria. The deal, which secured the evacuation of most of the squatters from a site near Sebastia and avoided the use of force by the army, has come under mounting criticism from members of Rabin’s Labor Alignment.

Because the agreement permitted a token group of about 30 families to remain in the Samaria district under army protection, many Laborites have charged it was a surrender by the government to the Orthodox zealots who claim the right to settle in the administered territories in defiance of government policies.

Health Minister Victor Shemtov, of Mapam, one of the severest critics of the compromise, was summoned to a meeting by the Premier today and assured that the Gush Emunim were given no commitment that they would be allowed to settle in Samaria in the future. He said the transfer of a number of the squatters to a military camp was not a fait accomplished likely to influence upcoming Cabinet discussion of the settlement problem in the administered territory.

Shemtov told the Premier that large segments of the Labor Alignment viewed the compromise as a sell-out to the Gush Emunim that severely compromised the government’s authority. Some Alignment members said that most Cabinet ministers had opposed the compromise at last Sunday’s Cabinet session as “opening the way for additional unauthorized settlements.”

IMPORTANCE OF ‘SUMMIT’ CONFERENCE

In his radio interview today, Rabin also stressed the importance of the world Jewish conference on solidarity with Israel and Zionism held in Jerusalem last week. He said it differed from previous international Jewish gatherings in that it dealt with specific issues and arrived at practical resolutions. Replying to criticism that the diaspora Jewish leaders invited to attend the conference did not include many prominent Jews unaffiliated with any organization, Rabin said “The purpose of the conference was not to count the number of Nobel Prize winners who were Jewish, Jewish professors, writers and poets, but to generate action within the existing frameworks.”