United States Observers Ask ‘what Does Even-handed Mean?’

The statement in Israel yesterday by Gov. Scranton that the U.S. should adopt a “more even-handed” Middle East policy than in the past drew cautious reaction here. What observers want to know was: What does “even-handed” mean”

Rep. Leonard Farbstein. New York Democrat, demanded that Gov. Scranton clarify his statement. He wondered whether “even-handedness” signified a change in Mr. Nixon’s foreign policy position on the Middle East conflict.

The executive director of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, I.L. Kenen, termed the remark a “diplomatic cliche” and said that “one should not jump to conclusions” about its significance. “What is more ominous,” he says, “Is that the U.S. is seemingly coming closer to the Soviet position with reference to pressures on Israel to withdraw” from occupied territories. Mr. Kenen said that “even-handedness” is a term normal in the vocabulary of State Department diplomats. They use it “in Washington all the time” and intend by it to show there is no favoritism. In the Middle East dispute it Is intended to “reassure all the parties,” he said.

The Washington Post reported yesterday that an informed Israeli source said the U.S. has outlined plans for settling Israeli differences with Egypt that would not involve a formal treaty, thus shifting from support for a direct settlement between the parties to support of what appears to Israelis like an imposed settlement. The source said the U.S. seemed to Israelis to be willing to sacrifice some Israeli priorities to re-establish diplomatic ties with the Arabs broken during the Six-Day War.

In Washington yesterday. State Department spokesman Robert McCloskey said there would be no U.S. “follow up” to a reported Egyptian reply to a U.S. seven-point peace proposal. He said the U.S. position on achievement of Middle East peace was identical to the one enunciated last year by President Johnson following the Six-Day War. Mr. McCloskey admitted that the U.S. had taken a new initiative’ to achieve peace in the Middle East. Another source said that the new effort could be on considered as parallel to the work of UN envoy Jarring.