Rabin Spotlights ‘large Difference’ Between Israel and the U.S. on Border Issue, Palestinian Questio

There is “a large difference” between the positions of Israel and of the United States on two “central issues” in the Mideast conflict, Premier Yitzhak Rabin told the nation tonight: the issue of borders and the Palestinian question. In a radio interview after the weekly Cabinet meeting, Rabin said Israel would have to “fight” for public opinion in the Congress, the Administration, and among U.S. opinion molders on these two issues.

The Carter Administration’s positions on these two issues “did not come as a surprise” to him, the Premier said, since all U.S. Administrations since 1967 had in fact favored Israeli withdrawal and a solution of the Palestinian problem which perhaps did not accord with Israel’s own views. But so long as the step-by-step policy was in progress, the disputes over the basic questions tended to be forgotten, he noted.

Observers saw this as the strongest statement yet by Rabin on the differences of opinion which have emerged with Washington over the past 10 days.

Rabin’s tone was echoed in the Cabinet’s official communique, which, while pointing up the favorable aspects of President Carter’s position–especially on the nature of the peace–noted that “Ministers did not ignore the indications that in certain central issues there is still a substantial gap between the U.S. and Israeli positions.”

Observers saw today’s developments as indicating a decision to no longer seek to downplay the differences, but rather to state clearly and publicly both the points of concurrence and the points of discord.

It remains, of course, to be seen how the silhouetting of the points at issue will affect Labor’s situation on the eve of the elections. Rabin is possibly banking on the contention that the voter will decide that whatever are the disputes between Israel and the U.S. under Labor, they would be much sharper under Likud, some political analysts observed.