Rehind the Headlines Average Israeli is Confused

The rapid-fire events since Egyptian President Anwar Sadat launched his historic peace initiative nearly two months ago has the average Israeli more confused than ever. His confidence that Sadat genuinely seek an accommodation with Israel has been shaken by the Egyptian leader’s public comments–most recently his pessimistic interviews with the Jerusalem post and the Egyptian magazine October in which he accused Israel of failure to reciprocate his peace moves and warned that he might resort to “another stand.”

If the Israeli man-in-the-street wonders who is the “real Sadat”–the one who proclaimed “no more was” in Jerusalem last November or the one who spoke somberly to reporters last week–he is also confused by his own government’s positions. Israelis generally accept the need to maintain a military presence on the West Bank.

But when Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan said several weeks ago in the Knesset that Israel would use its army to forcibly prevent the creation of a Palestinian state, many of his countrymen felt uneasy. Even the “hawks” agreed that Dayan should not have spoken so bluntly on the eve of delicate negotiations with Egypt.

Israelis have also been critical of Agriculture Minister Ariel Sharon who is urging the creation of new settlements in Sinai at a time when that issue is acknowledged to be one of the chief obstacles to an Israeli-Egyptian agreement. But they were puzzled and disturbed when Premier Menachem Begin declared that there were no private Sharon initiatives for more settlements. The implication was that Sharon was simply echoing Begin’s views.

MODERATES CHANGING THEIR ATTITUDE

Is Begin being a moderate when he offers return almost all of Sinai to Egypt, Israelis ask, or is he his old hard-line self when he offers the West Bank Arabs limited autonomy, implying a permanent Israeli military presence in the territory?

But even Israeli moderates are beginning to believe that Israel must take a hard position considering the tough stance of Egypt at the very outset of negotiations. They recall that Sadat himself said that 70 percent of the Arab-Israeli conflict is psychological. But he seems to be ignoring his own words in his series of interviews, supported by even more extreme statements in the Egyptian media.

Israeli hawks argue that a long-term settlement cannot be based on the good-will of one Arab leader alone, meaning Sadat. But now even Sadat’s good-will is being questioned. Less than two months after laying a wreath at the Yad Vashem, he seems capable of threatening statements which leave many Israelis in doubt that there is in fact, one Arab leader they can talk to.