Report Gemayel and Israel Leaders Held Secret Meetings

Bashir Gemayel, President-elect of Lebanon, held several secret-meetings with Israeli leaders recently, including some in Tel Aviv, during Israel’s “Peace for Galilee” operation, Maariv reported today. Quoting foreign sources, Maariv said Gemayel met several times with Defense Minister Ariel Sharon.

According to the paper, Gemayel began his series of secret visits to Israel in 1976. He met with various Israeli personalities, including Labor Party chairman Shimon Peres who at the time was Defense Minister in the government of Yitzhak Rabin. In 1976, when Peres launched the “good fence” policy along the border with Lebanon and extended Israeli aid to the Phalangist forces in Lebanon, Gemayel visited Peres at his home in Tel Aviv.

According to another report, as yet unconfirmed, the Israelis early in July arranged a meeting between Gemayel and Maj. Saad Had-dad, the leader of the Israeli-backed Christian militia. That report said the two Christian leaders arrived at an understanding regarding spheres of influence in Lebanon which is now controlled by the Israel Defense Force.

This meeting, too, was unpublicized. As a rule, Gemayel carefully kept his distance from the Israelis during the war in Lebanon and declined to provide the IDF with any political or military assistance. The Israelis reportedly expected Gemayel to employ his Phalangist forces to complete the drive that IDF had begun in Lebanon to oust the PLO terrorists. But Gemayel left that task for the IDF.

PROSPECTS OF A PEACE TREATY

With Gemayel’s election yesterday to the Presidency, Israel would like him to sign a peace treaty, but so far no Israeli leader has said so publicly. Gemayel reportedly told on Israeli personality a few days ago in Beirut that he intends to sign “a peace treaty with Israel within six or seven months.” But in public announcements including the one he made yesterday following his election, Gemayel said the new government would have to decide on signing a peace treaty.

According to Maariv, Gemayel asked the Israeli personality not to rush things and push him into an early peace treaty. Gemayel reportedly expected the personality to understand the difficulties he was facing with rival factions and communities in Lebanon and with neighboring Syria which opposed his candidacy and election.

Sources in Jerusalem expressed satisfaction with Gemayel’s election, but would not go beyond the very general statements issued yesterday by Premier Menachem Begin and the Foreign Ministry wishing him success in his efforts to reestablish Lebanese sovereignty and independence, precisely because of the problems the President elect is facing.

Mideast experts in Israel noted that Gemayel’s election portended a significant change in the life of Lebanon, with prospects for a strong and stable central government. Gemayel, the experts pointed out, won by a majority vote in Parliament despite death threats and terror against Deputies voting for him.

They noted as well that even the U.S., which was skeptical of Gemayel’s chances, is now expressing satisfaction at his election. Within hours of Gemayel’s election, President Reagan sent him a congratulatory message and the White House said the U.S. would “work closely with the new government in the complex and difficult task ahead.”

The acts of violence which followed Gemayel’s election — the houses of 15 Deputies who had participated in the election were blown up by leftists — indicated that Internal strife and factional rivalry could heat up into another civil war. Various elements in the country — Shiite and Sunni Moslems, leftwing groups, segments of the Christian community — are not ready to accept a Maronite Christian leader of the rightwing Phalangist Party and a man who is considered a “collaborator” with Israel as the President of their country.