Meir Rosenne, Israel’s Ambassador to the United States, said last night that he does not believe published reports that the Reagan Administration conducted secret discussions through an intermediary with PLO chief Yasir Arafat over a nine-month period ending in June, 1982.
“I refuse to believe this is true,” Rosenne said at a press conference at the Zionist Organization of America headquarters prior to his address at the ceremony marking the opening of the Jacob Goodman Institute for Middle East Research and Information. But the Israeli envoy said he is going to meet with Secretary of State George Shultz “in the next few days” and discuss the issue with him.
The Ambassador refused to speculate about any possible change in American-Israeli relations as a result of the reported contacts between the U.S. and the PLO. “I have no comment to make” until the issue is cleared up, Rosenne said.
SHULTZ: LITTLE CAME OF THE CONTACTS
Earlier in the day, Shultz told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the Reagan Administration did have indirect contacts with the PLO but that little came of them. “As I have looked at the record of those meetings, what was talked about in private was identical with what was talked about in public,” he said.
“And if it proved anything, it was that the constant refrain we hear — that if only we would sit down with the PLO and talk with them everything would start falling in place — is simply not the case.” Shultz said there were numerous discussions with the PLO through Arab states.
The New York Times, in its account last Sunday of the indirect talks identified the American intermediary with the PLO as John Mroz, as the president of the East-West Security Foundation, who was director of Middle East Studies at the International Academy of Peace in New York when the effort with the PLO began.
CHARGES UN IS CENTER OF ANTI-SEMITISM
In his address at the opening ceremony of the Jacob Goodman Institute, Rosenne said the United Nations has become the world center of anti-Semitism. He charged: “We are all victims of the villification of the Jewish people by the United Nations.” He said that the UN General Assembly 1975 resolution equating Zionism with racism has been the source of anti-Semitic attacks the world over in recent years.
Ivan Novick, Board chairman of the Institute and immediate past president of the ZOA, declared that the establishment of the Institute is “the beginning of a special national educational effort to provide accurate information and understanding of Zionism as the historic movement of the Jewish people for self-determination. The Institute will also be an important resource for students, academicians and organizations who need pertinent data on Zionism, anti-Zionism and related subjects.”
The Institute has been established by Libby Goodman in memory of her late husband. At age 18, Jacob Goodman enlisted in the Jewish Legion and fought under General Allen by in World War I. He subsequently played a crucial role in advancing the Zionist cause in America.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
