Time Editor Optimistic About Kissinger’s Current Effort

Hedley Donovan, editor-in-chief of Time, Inc., said today that he was optimistic about the chances of success in Secretary of State Henry A, Kissinger’s current effort to negotiate a second-stage agreement between Israel and Egypt and thought the possibilities were better than the 50-50 odds given by Kissinger himself.

Speaking to some 100 persons at a luncheon meeting of the Columbia Business School Club of New York at the Roosevelt Hotel, he said “1975 is quite critical” because the Arab leaders do not expect American diplomatic efforts in a presidential election year. Donovan re cently led a group of 53 business executives on a Time magazine news tour of the Middle East which included talks with Israeli Premier Yitzhak Rabin, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, Syrian President Hafez Assad, and other Arab leaders, He said he was optimistic because of what he sees as a new “reasonableness” on the part of the Arab leaders. But he stressed that “reasonableness” is a relative thing and has to be taken in the context of past Arab policy.

CLAIMS ARAB VIEWS HAVE CHANGED

Donovan noted that Sadat has based his policy on reaching an agreement through American diplomacy and he must show some results within the next few months. Donovan said that Sadat told the Time group that he understood the special relationship between the United States and Israel but also wanted to be friendly with the U.S. He said Sadat would not have said it when the Time group visited him last year and the late President Nasser, who Donovan interviewed five or six years ago, would “certainly” have never said this.

He said while Assad would not go this far, the Syrian president was ready to discuss the demilitarization of the Golan Heights — an issue which he would not discuss with the Time group last year.

In Israel, Donovan said that he found tough talk, almost “intransigence,” but believed this may have been only a tough line prior to negotiations. He said more and more Israelis are beginning to see that they cannot rely on borders and military strength alone.

SAYS CRISIS MUST BE SOLVED BY TRUST

Donovan said the Middle East crisis must be solved by trust. He said for Israel this means giving up territory on the trust that this will continue the momentum for peace even though there is no assurance it will happen. He said the Arabs also have to accept not only the State of Israel but its existence as a strong state.

Illustrating his talk with a map of the Middle East, Donovan said reaching an agreement on the Sinai is the easiest of the Mideast problems, He said negotiations on the Golan Heights would be tougher, and if that problem was solved the real hard issues would then come next — the issue of a Palestinian state on the West Bank and the question of Jerusalem.

Donovan said he found a tremendous reservoir of good feelings toward the United States in the Arab countries. “For one reason or another they like us better than any other big country,” he said. Looking back over the past 25 years of U.S. Mideast policy, Donovan said he would not have changed American sympathy and admiration for Israel but would have sought more insight and knowledge of the Arab world. Although the Time group met with representatives of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Donovan did not mention the PLO in his presentation.