Special to the JTA Klutznick Denies Report He Advised Administration to Lean on Israel

Philip Klutznick, president of the World Jewish Congress, today strongly rejected a report on Israel Radio that he had advised the Carter Administration to persuade Israel to be more flexible in the Middle East negotiating process.

In a telephone interview from Chicago with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Klutznick also denied that he had attended a private dinner with President Carter and other American Jewish leaders at the White House last Wednesday night or a meeting with President Anwar Sadat of Egypt and prominent American Jews at Blair House last Monday in his capacity as president of the WJC. He said he was invited and came as an individual like all the others, and that included his private conversation with Sadat that preceded the general meeting.

Klutznick, a former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations who has served several national Jewish organizations in leadership capacities, was responding to an Israel Radio report broadcast last week which claimed that he had suggested that Carter “show Sadat that the U.S. could influence Israel in order to preserve U.S. credibility.” The original report and a firm denial by Klutznick were carried by Israel Radio and television over the weekend.

Klutznick told the JTA today: “I am not privileged to know who the rumor-mongers are and I normally would not comment about the rumors. But the charge is so grave, not only discourteous, that I deny not only the paraphrasing but the implications of what is alleged to have been said.”

NEVER SAID SO ANYWHERE

Klutznick said he has “heard this rumor now from a number of sources. Each time it is different I hope soon to hear it from the people who are spreading it. In my judgement, I have never said anywhere, publicly or privately, that the U.S. should lean on Israel.”

“On the other hand,” Klutznick observed, “if the U.S. is to be a middleman, it does not take a genius to understand that it must have credibility with both sides to the controversy. That is a far reach from suggesting that the U.S. should lean on Israel.” He recalled that when former Undersecretary of State George Ball made such a proposal “last April in Foreign Policy magazine, I wrote a complete rejection of that viewpoint” which appeared in the next issue of the magazine. “That’s the record and that’s what I stand on,” Klutznick said.

He pointed out that in the course of a three-hour meeting such as that at the White House, “there can be any kind of misinterpretation.” He said “I made notes” about the dinner. “I consulted them this morning. I saw nothing in them that closely resembles this rumor. They are my own notes and naturally, they are self-serving,” he added.

However, Klutznick related that David Blumberg, president of B’nai B’rith, who also attended the dinner, had telephoned him after the Israel radio report. He quoted Blumberg as saying, “Was I asleep? I didn’t hear any such thing.” Asked by JTA whether he had said this, Blumberg responded: “Yes. I did not interpret his (Klutznick) remarks to bring that conclusion.”

DIFFERENCES OF NUANCES

With regard to the Israel Radio report’s claim that others at the White House dinner had differed with him, Klutznick said: “There were differences between us, but I am not about to say what those viewpoints were or who was right and who was wrong in my opinion. None of the differences were substantive. Actually, one could say the differences were more in the form of nuances and in procedure rather than substance.”

Klutznick noted, “This was a dinner with the President and there is a certain respect one must observe.” He said he did not know who might have said something that gave rise to his rumored remarks.

With respect to the allegations that he attended the White House and Blair House meeting as WJC president, Klutznick affirmed: “I have said I was invited as an individual. But I am not two people. I am also president of the WJC. I don’t know how I can dissociate myself from that. That’s why I was so careful to consult resolutions of the WJC to make sure I did not say or propose anything that was contrary to WJC policy.