Rabin Raps Begin’s Foreign Policy

Former Premier Yitzhak Rabin has expressed the first public criticism by an opposition leader of Premier Menachem Begin’s conduct of foreign policy during his visit to Washington last week. He charged specifically, on an Army Radio interview over the weekend, that Begin had neglected an opportunity to change the American position on territories and the Palestinians and claimed that, as a result, U.S.-Israeli policy will not be coordinated when the Geneva conference is reconvened and Israel will go to the peace table totally isolated.

Reports from New York today indicated that Begin was angered by Rabin’s critical remarks while he was still on his mission abroad. Rabin praised Begin for his “impressive and honorable” appearances in Washington. He explained, however, that he was forced to speak out on political matters because “a senior Israeli official” criticized the former government’s policies during a briefing of Israeli correspondents in Washington. Rabin also noted that the official part of Begin’s trip to the U.S. had ended before he spoke.

A clash over policy is expected to develop in the Knesset Wednesday when Begin reports on his talks with President Carter. The report will be followed by a debate. Begin will brief his Cabinet on his trip before appearing in the Knesset.

Rabin criticized the Begin-Carter tactic of a political truce which, he said, avoided a confrontation during the Premier’s visit but made one inevitable when the Geneva conference resumes. He said that Begin himself called for a “political truce” and thereby, in effect, agreed to differ with Washington over the substantive issues of territorial withdrawals and a Palestinian homeland. But Begin failed to launch a major effort to shift U.S. governmental and public opinion away from the views on those issues which are detrimental to Israel’s interests, Rabin said.

He said that Begin’s declaration that the friendship between Israel and the U.S. was deepened as a result of his visit was pernicious because it effectively legitimized the American position. “How will it be possible to fight for a change of view in U.S. public opinion if the Premier, who is well aware of the President’s position, declared that the friendship has been deepened?” Rabin asked.

He said that Labor-led governments were never so fulsome in their praise of U.S. “friendship”. According to Rabin, it was in fact possible to alter America’s position. He claimed that Premier Golda Meir had done this in 1969 when she persuaded the Administration in Washington to shelve the Rogers Plan. Rabin predicted that the wide gap between the Israeli and U.S. positions on key issues would leave “no alternative” but to seek further interim agreements with individual Arab states.