Israeli Premier Yitzhak Rabin, who arrived here this afternoon, will have a busy schedule meeting with President Carter and top Administration and Congressional leaders until he leaves Wednesday for Miami. Rabin will also meet with leaders of the Jewish community here. New York and Miami before departing for Israel on the night of March 12.
Upon arriving at Andrews Air Force Base, Rabin declared: “I can assure everybody in the Middle East and in the United States that Israel will do its utmost to help advance the cause of peace.” He said Israel would participate in “whatever framework of negotiations that might be devised to bring about peace and postpone war and maintain tranquility in the area.”
Rabin was met by Deputy Secretary of State Warren Christopher. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Roy Atherton, Deputy Chief of Protocol Stuart Rockwell and Israeli Ambassador Simcha Dinitz. The Premier and his wife went directly to Blair House where they will be staying until Wednesday.
Rabin and Carter will hold their first and possibly only working session tomorrow morning for about two hours at the White House. Their meeting, the first ever between the two officials, will follow the President’s official welcome at the White House that will include marching units of the American military forces and a 19-gun salute. However, time has been left open in the Rabin program for a possible second meeting with Carter Tuesday morning.
Premier and Mrs. Rabin will be guests of President and Mrs. Carter at the White House state dinner tomorrow night. Rabin’s meeting with Carter is the first in a series of meetings between the President and leaders of Middle East countries, all of whom have been invited by Carter to confer with him over the next three months in his search for an end to the Arab-Israeli conflict.
TO DISCUSS POLICY COORDINATION
Carter Administration officials have consistently made it clear that the U.S. will not propose any plans for a settlement in the President’s meetings with leaders of Israel. Egypt, Saudi Arabia. Syria, Jordan and Lebanon. But the officials are also insistent on movement in the political process that will lead to Arab-Israel discussions in the second half of this year.
In Israeli circles here, the view is that the main emphasis of the Rabin visit is to lay the foundation for a coordinated U.S.-Israeli policy within which the two countries will make an effort to reach a Mideast settlement during the latter half of 1977. Reflecting confidence that Rabin will remain Premier after the Israeli election May 17. Israeli sources here note that it is important for the two countries to coordinate their policies afresh since the U.S. has a new President and he and Rabin will have to work closely together in a relationship of mutual trust.
Israeli sources also say that while individual matters such as U.S. opposition to Israel’s sale of 24 Israeli-made Kfir war planes to Ecuador, Israeli drilling for oil in the Gulf of Suez and the U.S. cancellation of cluster bombs will doubtlessly be among the bilateral topics in the Rabin meetings with American leaders, their discussions will center on the broader subjects of ongoing U.S-Israel relationships and cooperation in economic and military matters.
OTHER MEETINGS SCHEDULED
A curious development in the Rabin program is his scheduled hour-long session with U.S. energy chief James Schlesinger who is said to have asked for the meeting. Their session Tuesday afternoon will follow Rabin’s news conference and before his meeting with Treasury Secretary W. Michael Blumenthal. Immediate speculation is that Schlesinger is acting as the Carter Administration spokesman on the U.S. and Western powers’ need for Arab oil and that he would point this out to Rabin as a factor in the U.S. response to the Saudi Arabian call for “appreciation” of its oil policy. The Suez Gulf oil dispute is also expected to come up in a direct way in the Rabin-Schlesinger meeting.
Rabin’s program tomorrow includes meetings with Secretary of State Cyrus Vance and Defense Secretary Harold Brown. The problem of southern Lebanon and the Palestinian threat there to Israel is expected to be taken up at these sessions. On Tuesday. Rabin will meet with key Senators involved in foreign affairs and with Congressional leaders. Tuesday night Israeli Ambassador Simcha Dinitz will host a dinner for Rabin and Vice-President Walter Mondale.
Following a meeting Wednesday morning with White House members prominent in international relations. Rabin will receive an honorary Doctorate of Law from the American University at a special convocation at the Kennedy Center. Later Wednesday. Rabin will attend a luncheon with the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and leave for Miami to address an Israel Bond Organization meeting.
On Thursday. Rabin will be in New York to attend a special 1977 campaign luncheon sponsored by the United Jewish Appeal and the New York UJA-Federation of Jewish Philanthropies Joint Campaign. Later in the day he will meet with religious leaders of the New York-New Jersey-Connecticut Jewish communities. This meeting has been arranged by the Consulate General of New York and co-sponsored by the National Council of Young Israel.
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