Strong misgivings have surfaced over the proposed appointment of Soviet Jewry activist Natan Sharansky to be Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations.
Liberal and leftist circles fear Sharansky’s strong anti-Soviet stance could compromise Israel’s policies at time when relations with Moscow seem to be warming.
According to the Jerusalem Post, U.S. State Department officials have expressed similar concerns, which have been conveyed to Jerusalem by the Israeli Embassy in Washington. Sharansky is an outspoken critic of Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. He calls his “glasnost” (openness) policy more cosmetic than indicative of long-term, substantive changes in the Soviet system.
Moreover, some argue, the Soviets are likely to take offense if a man they convicted of spying for the United State — however trumped-up the charges may have been — heads the Israeli delegation in the world organization.
But a spokesperson for the Soviet Mission to the United Nations in New York, quoted by Ma’ariv Wednesday, said Sharanky’s appointment would be of no concern to the USSR.
“Whatever we think about him, you are entitled to make your own diplomatic appointments,” the spokesperson was quoted as saying.
Media reports Tuesday said Sharansky was approached informally for the U.N. job by Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, Foreign Minister Moshe Arens and Deputy Foreign Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.
But Shamir later appeared to distance himself from the offer.
PICKED BY NETANYAHU
A spokesman said the prime minister was not asked officially to approve Sharansky’s appointment. It must also have the consent of Shamir’s coalition partner, Vice Premier Shimon Prees, who heads the Labor Party and also serves as finance minister.
It was in fact Netanyahu, Israel’s U.N. ambassador until he quit last year to run for the Knesset, who picked Sharansky as his successor.
Arens reportedly agreed readily to the choice. Sharansky has strong backing in Likud and among right-wing hard-liners in general.
But Sharansky has carefully refrained from expressing a preference for any political party during the three years he has been in Israel.
He has strong support in the Soviet Jewish emigre community here. Many believe that his appointment to the prestigious U.N. post would encourage more Jews leaving the Soviet Union to go to Israel instead of the United States.
Foreign service careerists, unlike Netanyahu and Arens, are less than enthusiastic at the prospect of Sharansky heading Israel’s U.N. delegation.
They point to his lack of formal diplomatic training and experience. They also note that it has been standard procedure not to name anyone to an ambassadorial post who has lived in Israel for less than 11 years.
Sharansky arrived here in February 1986, after spending 13 years in Soviet prisons and labor camps.
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