U.S. Trying to Convince Other Governments to Persuade Israel to Be More Flexible in Talks

Officials high in the Ford Administration appear to be mounting a concerted but discreet campaign to convince other governments that Israel had been intransi- gent during the latest effort by Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger to help achieve a second-stage accord between Egypt and Israel, and to urge other governments to persuade Israel to adopt a more flexible position.

This campaign, according to sources, emerged yesterday after a meeting between Secretary of State Kissinger and Allan J. MacEachen, the Canadian Secretary of State for External Affairs. Kissinger reportedly urged MacEachen to use his influence to urge Israel to adopt greater flexibility in the negotiating process. In addition according to sources, the view that Israel was less than flexible during Kissinger’s latest shuttle effort was also transmitted through Administration channels to the governments of West Germany and Holland.

However, State Department spokesman Robert Anderson told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency today that “no request has been made to any government to intervene with Israel in any way.”

Publicly, Kissinger has refused to apportion blame to either Egypt or Israel for the breakdown of the latest talks. Privately, however, he is known to have expressed some bitterness over what he considers to be a hard stand by Israel. President Ford expressed anger with Israel publicly, most notably in a March 24 interview in Hearst newspapers in which he blamed Israeli intransigence for the failure of Kissinger’s latest effort.

BRAIN TRUSTING REASSESSMENT

Meanwhile, Kissinger met yesterday with a group of prominent public figures to obtain ideas from them on how to advance Mideast negotiations following the breakdown of his mediation efforts. Participants in the private three-hour session included George W. Ball, former Undersecretary of State, George P. Shultz, former Treasury Secretary, David Rockefeller, chairman of Chase Manhattan Bank, Dean Rusk, former Secretary of State, W. Averell Harriman, former Ambassador to the Soviet Union, Robert S. McNamara, former Defense Secretary, and David K.E. Bruce, presently assigned to NATO.

The meeting was seen as part of the Administration’s current reassessment of U.S. policy in the Middle East. There was no immediate information as to the specifics discussed during the meeting nor whether any decisions were taken. A similar meeting is scheduled for tomorrow before Kissinger flies to Palm Springs, California to consult with Ford on the Mideast and Indochina. None of those present at yesterday’s meeting are considered Mideast experts although many of them have dealt with that area in public discussions.