One of the most unusual developments in the first six months of the Reagan Administration has been the perception that Secretary of State Alexander Haig is the strongest supporter of Israel within the Administration, except for President Reagan himself.
The belief has always been in Washington that the State Department is pro-Arab or at least wants an “even-handed” approach. This has been true not only since the creation of the Jewish State but goes back to Britain’s enunciation of the Balfour Declaration when State Department officials sought to keep President Wilson from giving his support to a Jewish homeland.
Secretaries of State up to now have echoed the views of their Department. The professional foreign service officers at the State Department still share these views. But Haig and some of the people he has appointed around him do not.
What makes supporters of Israel look toward Haig as an ally is the view that the anti-Israeli policy in this Administration is being pressed by the Pentagon, particularly Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger, Haig’s chief rival in the Administration for controlling the shaping of foreign policy.
MORE ARABIST THAN THE TRADITIONAL ARABISTS
Writing in the New Republic recently, Morton Kondrake, the weekly’s White House reporter, said that some see Weinberger as part of the “Bechtel oil group” which they consider “further to the Arabist side than the traditional State Department Arabists. ” Weinberger was vice president of Bechtel, the California-based firm which is building billions of dollars worth of projects in Saudi Arabia.
During the Presidential campaign last year, some supporters of Israel expressed concern about the presence in Reagan’s inner circle of such people as Weinberger and George Shultz, Bechtel’s vice chairman.
When this question was raised before a Jewish audience in New York, Edwin Meese, now the President’s Counsellor, said that Reagan had supported Israel when still an actor and before he entered politics and the people he appointed would have to support his policies. Shultz was not named Secretary of State, as expected. But Weinberger, a close California friend of the new President, did get a Cabinet post.
A third Administration official who should be mentioned is Richard Allen, the President’s National Security Advisor. Allen, who entered office as a strong supporter of Israel, reportedly has little influence. He no longer briefs the President daily but provides a written briefing and waits at the door of the Oval Office for five minutes in case Reagan has any questions. Consider how far this is from his predecessors, Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Brzezinski, who spent time alone with the President each morning.
NO REAL MIDEAST POLICY
As for the President himself, one doesn’t have to be a supporter of Reagan to admit that he is pro-Israel. At his press conference after Israel’s raid or the Iraqi nuclear reactor, Reagan all but endorsed the Israeli action, even though he admitted his Administration had condemned it. When Weinberger and Deputy Secretary of State William Clark criticized Israeli Premier Begin in harsh terms for the raid on the Palestinian terrorist headquarters in Beirut, the White House repudiated them the next day.
But Reagan does not have the grasp of foreign policy that he has demonstrated on domestic issues. And Haig does not have the ability to see the President at will but must make an appointment as do other Cabinet members.
The only ones who can see the President unannounced are Meese, Chief of Staff James Baker, Deputy Chief of Staff Michael Deaver. None of them is familiar with foreign policy and yet these three are the people who will have the final talk with the President before he makes a decision. So far in all arguments between Haig and Weinberger, Weinberger has won, including the decision last April to go ahead with the sale of AWACS reconnaissance planes to Saudi Arabia.
Despite newspaper speculation that Meese, for example, favors Reagan’s old California friend, Weinberger, over Haig, the outside although experienced foreign policy hand, no one really knows how the White House triumvirate stands as a Middle East policy is being developed.
A LEARNING EXPERIENCE
Reagan stressed that his recent meeting with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat was basically a learning experience for him. The same will hold true when he hosts Israeli Premier Menachem Begin at the White House after Labor Day.
His three chief advisors are also learning. Both Israel and Egypt want the U.S. to begin pressing forward with the autonomy negotiations. The Reagan Administration has not yet shown that it has a policy on this beyond a general support of the Camp David agreements. So far it has just come up with hasty solutions to crises.
But the Administration must develop a policy before the end of the year. It may make a difference whether the President and his three chief White House aides decide that in developing such a policy they will lean more closely on Haig or on Weinberger.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
