There has been no official reaction here to the resignation of British Foreign Secretary Lord Carrington amidst the crisis between Britain and Argentina over the Falkland Islands. However, few Israelis expressed regret over Carrington’s fall, as he was never regarded a friend of Israel.
His last major political mission was his visit to Israel last week, during which both he and the Israeli officials he met with agreed that they had little to agree on regarding the Middle East situation. Nevertheless, Carrington’s visit was described as a new leaf in the relatively cool relations between Britain and Israel. A tentative dialogue had begun and Israeli officials said today, barely hiding their grins, that it was too bad he had to resign now.
Shortly before it was learned here of Carrington’s resignation yesterday. Premier Menachem Begin was still criticizing him. In a speech in Dimono. Begin recalled that Carringtar last week had asked that Israel make concessions to allow for an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel.
While Israel had made it clear to the British diplomat that such a state would endanger the population centers of Israel and Israel had to take measures to protect itself from Palestine Liberation Organization-inspired violence on the West Bank, Britain responded to what it considers a crisis to its commonwealth by dispatching a fleet to the Falkland Islands, 8,000 miles from her shores, Begin said almost mockingly at the Dimona meeting.
CRITICAL OF CARRINGTON’S MIDEAST POLICY
The Premier has never hidden his reservations about Carrington’s Middle East policy, specifically his endorsement of the European Economic Community’s Venice declaration of June 1980 which included a call for the PLO to be associated with the Mideast peace process, a call Israel viewed as tantamount to supporting an independent Palestinian state.
It was Carrington who almost jeopardized the multi-national peacekeeping force in the Sinai by repeatedly stressing his belief in a European initiative in the Mideast, an initiative Israel rejected. In general, he was considered her as an advocate of a pro-Arab line, which was dramatically expressed in the recent visit by British Minister Margaret Thatcher to the Persian Gulf states.
Trus, the feeling in Jerusalem is that Carrington managed to aggravate even the United States with his insistence that any settlement in the Mideast required the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Israel signaled Carrington that it was unhappy with his line when it refused last week to allow his aides to meet with the ousted mayors of Nablus and Ramallah. The message was strikingly clear: Lord Carrington, stay out of the Palestinian issue. But Carrington made it equally clear that he would not desist from his course, noting that the issue was of great interest to Britain and its partners in the EEC.
Therefore, it is felt here that Carrington’s resignation is not a negative development from the Israeli point of view, and that his successor, Foreign Secretary Francis Pym, cannot be worse. Pym is known here as a person who is well acquainted with Israel’s problems and who in the past expressed support for Israel’s right to exist within secure borders.
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