The View from Washington Toning Down an Attack

The Dec. 17 “deadline” President Carter has been insisting on for an Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty came and went and consultations by the United States with Egypt and Israel are to be resumed after a “decent interval,” U.S. official sources indicated. Despite what a State Department source described as “slippage” in the Dec. 17 deadline, he added that “we will, however, continue our conversations on the diplomatic level.”

These ameliorative remarks, together with Carter’s own softened tone last Thursday night in an interview with Barbara Walters on ABC-TV followed an outburst of anger at the White House by friends of Israel and Jewish organizational leaders, who protested the President’s ardent praise of President Anwar Sadat of Egypt while unmistakably blaming Israel for the impasse in the peace talks during an address Wednesday night at a dinner of the Business Council. (See related story, P. 3.)

In his television interview, Carter said “I consider the December 17 date to be quite significant, but if we don’t succeed in getting an agreement by them–it is certainly a strong possibility–then we will continue tenaciously to pursue the peace prospects and to try to reach an agreement between Israel and Egypt at a later date.”

Another summit between Premier Menachem Begin of Israel, Sadat and Carter “is always a possibility but that would not be my preference,” the President said. He stated that he “would encourage at any time” that Sadat and Begin get “together themselves,” but added, “I think for them to plan on coming over here anytime in the future would probably be a mistake because I have other pressing international problems.”

He named the Chile-Argentina dispute, the situation in Nicaragua and the SALT talks with Secretary of State Cyrus Vance meeting Soviet Foreign Minister Andrew Gromyko in Geneva Dec. 21. On Friday night Carter announced that the U.S. will establish full diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China on Jan. I and at the same time terminate diplomatic relations with Taiwan and cancel its mutual defense treaty with that country.

SECURITY OF ISRAEL STRESSED

Asked during his interview with Ms. Walters about the possibility of a U.S. “reassessment” of its policy toward Israel, Carter replied, according to the White House transcript of the interview: “No. Our policy with Israel–and with the Middle East–is that the security of Israel is paramount, the continued existence of Israel, their ability to protect themselves adequately, and the ability of the Israeli people to live in peace is paramount above anything else that relates to the Mideast.”

After Ms. Walters said that “Israel was reported to be very upset” over Senate Majority Leader Robert Byrd’s remarks that the Senate may not increase aid to Israel if it builds settlements in the future, Carter replied that “I can say with assurance” that Byrd “was speaking for himself.” Asked whether Byrd’s remarks represented his own viewpoint the President replied, “not necessarily.”

However, Carter said that the “settlements in the occupied territories are illegal” and “they are a genuine obstacle to peace.” He added: “Whenever the Israelis publicize with varied voices that there will be $35 million spent on new settlements or a billion dollars spent on new settlements or another new settlement is going to be created, it really puts a damper on cooperation from the Jordanians, from the Palestinians who live on the West Bank, and even from the Egyptians in carrying out the spirit of Camp David.”

CARTER ADMINISTRATION REBUKED

Meanwhile, the Carter Administration was rebuked by friends of Israel for assailing Israel with such vehemence after Israeli leaders openly and directly rejected the escalated Egyptian demands on the peace treaty with full support of the U.S. Friends of Israel said that U.S. officials in the party headed by Vance, returning from the Mideast after failing to bridge the gap between Israel and Egypt, hid behind anonymity in charging Israel with responsibility for the breakdown in negotiations.

A senior American official on the Vance plane was quoted as saying that the Israel Cabinet’s rejection last Friday of the U.S. -Egyptian proposals was “not worth commenting on; it doesn’t deserve any comment.” Accusing Israel of distorting facts and “being misleading,” the U.S. officials reportedly adopted the tactic they have criticized the Israelis and Egyptians for having used earlier.

The American officials read to reporters from the text of still unpublished letters in an attempt to disprove the Israeli view that the letters changed the spirit and intent of the basic peace treaty between Israel and Egypt that the U.S. had proposed and which both Israel and Egypt had accepted.

The fact that the U.S. officials refused to lend their names to their charges against Israel caused a reaction here that the charges they made were not in keeping with the facts as they had emerged since the Camp David frameworks were announced Sept. 17 at the White House.