Israeli Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin conferred Monday with U.S. Defense Secretary Frank Carlucci and Secretary of State George Shultz on the first full day of a three-day visit to Washington.
Yosef Gal, the Israeli Embassy spokesman, said Rabin focused on the Palestinian uprising in his 45-minute formal meeting with Carlucci. Rabin and Carlucci met privately, without their aides, for an additional hour.
The two men reportedly agreed on the threat of nuclear proliferation facing the Middle East.
Gal said that Rabin explained how Israeli soldiers are not trained in riot control, such as how to defend against Molotov cocktails and firebombs. Rabin also said Israel’s handling of violence should not be compared to similar situations in other countries, such as in South Korea.
Rabin said the national consensus in Israel is not to give into violence, without the promise of peace, because doing so would be “an invitation to more terror,” Gal said. Rabin discussed recent meeting he has had with Palestinian leaders.
At a news confereence later in the day, after he had met for 50 minutes with Secretary of State George Shultz, Rabin said, “the basic question is whether to give in or not to give in to violence.”
The answer, he said, was clear. “Violence will be met by force.”
An emerging theme of Rabin’s visit is the new threat of surface-to-surface missiles facing Israel from Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia.
DESCRIBES MISSILE THREATS
Rabin described those threats in detail, both in his meeting with Carlucci and Friday at a breakfast meeting in New York sponsored by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.
Carlucci acknowledged Monday, in an appearance before the National Press Club, that he told Rabin of his “considerable concern” about the “proliferation of missiles in the area.”
The secretary also reiterated that the United States does not “support beatings or deportations, but we do recognize that the Israelis have a security responsibility in the West Bank.”
Speaking in New York to the Conference of Presidents, Rabin outlined both the military and terrorist threats facing Israel. He said that 80 percent of Israel’s defense budget is allocated to respond to the military threat.
He explained that Iraq can fire a missile to Tel Aviv from Iraqi soil, and that Saudi missiles have a 1,500-mile range.
Rabin emphasized that missiles cannot be stopped once they are fired, and that they undoubtedly put the population centers of Israel at risk for the first time since the War of Independence in 1948.
President Reagan is to meet Rabin Tuesday, following the defense minister’s meetigs on Capitol Hill with members of Congress.
Rabin also met Monday with Colin Powell, the national security adviser. He was to dine with Carlucci at Fort McNair, a U.S. army base, Monday evening.
Gal said the two defense officials did not discuss a new yet-to-be-completed Memorandum of Understanding on Israeli participation in the U.S. “Star Wars” program.
The memorandum would permit further development of the Arrow anti-tactical ballistic missile, whose purpose would be to shield Israeli cities against Soviet SS-21 missiles in Syria.
NEW DIALOGUE ON HUMAN RIGHTS
At the State Department Monday, spokesman Charles Redman confirmed that a new “channel of consultaion” was recently established by Rabin and Richard Schifter, assistant secretary of state for human rights and humanitarian affairs, for monitoring human rights abuses in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
During Schifter’s visit to Israel earlier this month, the United States “agreed with the Israelis on a systematic approach to the exchange of information on allegations involving human rights concerns,” Redman said. “The Israelis have assured us that they will be fully responsive.”
At Rabin’s news conference late Monday afternoon, the first half which he conducted in Hebrew, the defense minister said that on the topic of human rights, there were “differences in interpretations” between the United States and Israel, but that “we act in accordance to our laws.”
Rabin also said, regarding deportations, that “Israel does observe the 1949 Geneva conventions.” If an individual chooses, he said, he or she can bring his or her case to the Supreme Court.
Rabin, who arrived in New York Friday, first met former President Richard Nixon.
He also lunched with The New York Times editorial board, and will do the same with The Washington Post board of editors on Tuesday.
Before Rabin departs on Thursday, he is scheduled to appear on the “CBS Morning News” and on Cable News Network, Gal said.
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.
