The Year in Review Shifting Patterns for Israel

Premier Yitzhak Rabin observed recently that not a single Israeli, civilian or soldier, was killed along the borders during 1976. The year just ended was, in fact, a good year for Israel in terms of the calm that prevailed on its frontiers and demarcation lines from the Golan Heights to Sinai. It was a good year too with respect to relations with the United States, although it ended on a slightly sour note supplied by the outgoing Ford Administration.

At the United Nations and in its various agencies such as UNESCO, Israel’s travails persisted. The automatic majority of Arabs, Communist and Third World states had little difficulty ramming through resolution upon resolution condemning Israel for everything from its alleged mistreatment of West Bank Arabs to its alleged destruction of the Golan Heights town of Kuneitra. Except in one case, the U.S. was Israel’s most faithful ally.

The peaceful situation on the borders resulted from the smooth functioning of the disengagement accords with Egypt and Syria. But most observers acknowledge that it stemmed mainly from the bitter civil war in Lebanon which seriously divided the Arab world and battered the PLO and other terrorist groups.

OPEN FENCE POLICY GAINED GOOD WILL

During the turmoil to its north, Israel gained prestige and international good will by its open fence policy. Although not without political intent this was largely a humanitarian gesture aimed at providing medical treatment and other assistance to Lebanese cut off from all forms of aid in their own war torn country.

Originally only Christian villagers in southern Lebanon sought help in Israel. But soon the open fence was being crossed daily by Moslems and Druze, many from the northern regions of Lebanon. The ill or wounded were hospitalized or given free out-patient treatment at border clinics. Several hundred Lebanese found jobs in Israel and a brisk trade developed between Israelis and Lebanese farmers whose markets were cut off by the war.

The open fence policy did much to obliterate the harsh image Israel gained abroad when its soldiers and police fought Arab rioters in Galilee and on the West Bank earlier in the year.

NEW ISRAEL-U.S. HONEYMOON

There was a new honeymoon in relations between Israel and the United States attributable in large measure to the American election campaign. The U.S. was reluctant to press Israel for any far-reaching concessions, a move that might have alienated a large segment of Jewish voters. The Ford Administration met most of Israel’s essential military assistance needs–not all of them–but enough to ensure a new generation of highly sophisticated combat planes for the 1980s.

Only a few days before the November elections. President Ford announced a very generous program of future military assistance for Israel. It was obviously a gesture toward Jewish voters but Israelis accepted it at face falue and felt an added sense of security.

At the UN virtually the entire world seemed arrayed against Israel. The anti-Israel resolutions in the Security Council and General Assembly were adopted by overwhelming majorities. In some cases, Israel was supported by a number of Latin American and Western European countries.

The U.S. consistently raised its hand on the side of Israel, except on the issue of Jewish settlements in the administered territories when it sided with the Arab bloc. Some circles here saw that vote as a form of punishment administered by the Ford Administration after losing the elections. A majority of American Jews had voted for the Carter-Mondale ticket.

HURDLES ON PATH TO MIDEAST PEACE

The year just ended saw the momentum toward peace in the Middle East faiter, partly as a result of the Lebanese war, partly due to the U.S. elections and, in the past two weeks, because of the government crisis in Israel.

Nevertheless, Israel seems ready to go to a reconvened Geneva peace conference, provided it is limited to the original participants. The Arabs want the PLO at Geneva, preferably as an independent delegation, but, if necessary, through the “back door” as members of an all embracing Arab delegation. This issue will have to be settled before the Geneva talks can resume.

A further delay seems inevitable because of the early elections in Israel, probably this May. When Israel does go to Geneva it is expected to seek an overall settlement with the Arab states to be formalized by peace treaties. If this proves impossible to attain, Israel is prepared to settle for non-belligerency pacts that would end the state of war in the Middle East after nearly 30 years. Those are issues that must be confronted in 1977.