Premier Yitzhak Rabin of Israel today outlined two “options” toward a Middle East peace settlement–reconvening of the Geneva conference or “quiet diplomacy” to test Arab intentions. He also expressed satisfaction over future U.S. arms deliveries to Israel resulting from his talks with President Ford and bitterly deplored the absence of protest in the UN Security Council over the slaughter in Lebanon while it was dealing for two weeks with “the nonsense of the so-called PLO.”
Rabin made his remarks on NBC’s nationally televised “Meet the Press” program. His appearance there was marked by dramatic exchanges with an arch critic of Israel, syndicated columnist Rowland Evans of the Chicago Sun-Times, who challenged Rabin over Israel’s air raids on terrorist bases in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon and the Premier’s contention that the refusal of the Arab states to recognise Israel is the core of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Evans asked whether what he claimed was the $833 that U.S. taxpayers are providing every Israeli could have a “backlash” in this country. The Premier responded that he could not “pretend to answer from an American point of view.” He observed, however, that American support of Israel brought the U.S. “certain achievements that served American policy.” He cited as an example Egypt’s change of attitude toward the U.S. which, Rabin said, served a “vital interest” of American policy. He added that “without a strong Israel” the U.S. could not have brought the Arabs into a more favorable policy toward this country.
EXPLAINS ATTACKS ON CAMPS
When Evans asked “by what right” does Israel presume to use American weapons to attack Palestinian camps in Lebanon. Rabin replied, “By the rule of self-defense that is respected all over the world.” He said, “We attacked bases that carried out all kinds” of atrocities against Israel. Rabin then told Evans that in the last 10 months, 10,000 people were killed and 20,000 were wounded in Lebanon. “The Christian community was forced to accept the terms” of the Moslems. “I never heard you saying any word about it,” Rabin told the columnist.
Referring to the Palestinian refugees, Rabin pointed out that the Arabs refused to accept the UN partition plan when Israel was formed “and now they claim to be suffering from a war they began.” He said to Evans, “Turn, please, your question to those who were responsible for it” (the war).
When Richard Holbrook, of Foreign Policy magazine, asked the Premier moments later whether the changes in Lebanon pose a threat to Israel, Rabin replied that “for the outside world” the Lebanese strife serves as a warning “because Lebanon was the only one among 17 Arab countries in which Islam is not the official religion.” He said the effort to force the Islamization of Lebanon “serves as a warning to us” and “we have to draw a lesson from that.”
Rabin added that it is “too early” to tell what the final developments in Lebanon hold for Israel because at present Syria “won’t dare to make a move hostile to Israel.” But “in the longer term the change (in Lebanon) won’t be favorable to Israel,” Rabin said.
Towards the end of the program, Evans challenged Rabin’s view that recognition of Israel by the Arab states is the core of the Arab-Israel situation. He noted that Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Harold Saunders had testified that the Palestinian issue is the heart of the matter. Rabin replied, “I don’t accept Saunders’ concept and there are people in the Administration who know better than he.” When Evans asked, “He (Saunders) does not speak for Kissinger?”, Rabin retorted, “I don’t have any evidence for that.”
Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger has dismissed Saunders’ testimony of last November before a Congressional committee as “academic” but has not precisely disavowed it.
NEED ARMS MORE THAN COMPLIMENTS
During questioning on U.S. military aid for Israel. Rabin was reminded that the Defense Department and the CIA have praised Israel’s fighting ability. The Premier replied, “We need more than compliments. We need hardware.” He noted that for each tank the 0.8 delivers to Israel, the Soviet Union delivered 45 tanks to four Arab countries. He said the CIA and the Pentagon estimates of the military balance of power in the Middle East were wrong because “they excluded the Jordanian army from any calculations,”
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.
