Rabinowitz Due in Washington to Finalize Seral Economic, Financial Accords Pending for Almost a Year

Finance Minister Yehoshua Rabinowitz is to visit Washington within a week or so to finalize a number of economic and financial agreements that have been under preparation between the two governments for almost a year. The Cabinet today approved the minister’s trip which has been postponed several times in recent months.

Cabinet Secretary Gershon Avner said the issues to be discussed were now “ripe for finalization.” He said they included raw material supplies from the U.S. to Israel, action in the U.S. against the Arab boycott, tourism from the U.S. to Israel, and encouragement of American investments in Israel. The issues were originally outlined in a joint communique issued in Jerusalem last June at the end of ex-President Nixon’s visit here.

Since then talks have proceeded between officials of both sides, and U.S. Treasury Secretary William Simon has visited Israel. Rabinowitz’s own visit to the U.S. has been postponed repeatedly. One of the reasons has been Washington’s inability to persuade 10 top U.S. businessmen to join a panel designed to encourage American investments in Israel. Sources here say that hopefully this obstacle has been overcome, but they did not elaborate.

The sources stressed that the purpose of Rabinowitz’s visit was not to press for the $2.5 billion of aid for new fiscal year programs which Israel has requested from the U.S. No doubt, the sources said, this matter would be taken up in his Washington’s discussions, but this was not the primary aim of Rabinowitz’s visit. It was not Israel’s practice to send its Finance Ministers to Washington to press for acceptance of the annual aid requests, the sources explained.

NO COMMENT ON APPARENT SNUB

At the same time, though, observers saw the “ripening” of the economic issues, coupled with last week’s invitation to Premier Yitzhak Rabin to visit Washington in June, as part of a general easing of the tension that has characterized Washington-Jerusalem relations in the weeks since the Kissinger shuttle was suspended.

Rabin himself formally informed the Cabinet of President Ford’s invitation. The White House had announced last Friday that Ford would meet with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in Salzburg. Austria on June 1-2 “for the discussion of matters of mutual interest and ways to further strengthen relations between Egypt and the United States.” Subsequently it was also announced that Ford would meet with Rabin later. Although there have been press reports from Washington that the sequence of meetings is a deliberate snub to Israel, there has been no comment on this from officials here.

Avner said that the Cabinet would hold its planned “political debate” (decided upon last week) before the Premier sets out for Washington. No firm date has yet been set for Rabin’s visit, but sources here say it will be in mid-June.