Premier Yitzhak Rabin president at his last Cabinet meeting yesterday before taking a leave of absence and naming Defense Minister Shimon Peres to serve as Acting Premier in his stead. The Premier will officially start his vacation next Friday, after Israel’s Independence Day celebrations. He is expected to remain at his Tel Aviv home and will be briefed on affairs of state.
At the Cabinet session, Rabin reviewed U.S. Israeli relations with emphasis on the new role that Egypt is playing in Africa as a buffer against Soviet ambitions on that continent. According to Rabin, who met with President Carter and top U.S. officials in Washington last month, the U.S. attaches considerable importance to Egypt’s 180 degree turn–from a spearhead of Soviet influence in Africa to a champion of Western interests there.
The immediate effect of the turn-about was the affirmative replies Egyptian President Anwar Sadat received when he visited Washington this month to his requests for American arms–ostensibly to defend Egypt against threats in Africa rather than for use against Israel. Rabin said. In the long run he thought this could affect the Arab-Israel conflict but he did not elaborate.
BASIC U.S.-ISRAEL UNDERSTANDING
Rabin said there was a basic understanding between Israel and the U.S. on the Palestinian issue and on the nature of a future Middle East peace. The main differences, he said, were over America’s basic support for Israel’s pre-June 1967 borders “with minor adjustments.” He said American support for “defensible borders,” stated by President Carter, has not yet been made clear. According to Rabin, the U.S. wants to reach an overall settlement in the Middle East within a period of 4-8 years “and perhaps longer.”
Rabin announced at the beginning of the session that he was going on leave, starting Friday. There was no further discussion of the subject. He announced last Thursday that he would hold a series of meetings with Peres who was elected leader of the Labor Party after Rabin resigned that post. He said the meeting were to help Peres gradually take over the functions of Premier. While Rabin is on leave, Peres intends to run the government from Defense Ministry headquarters in Tel Aviv rather than from the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem.
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