June 1992, Page 19

Diplomacy

Peace Talks, New Loan Guarantees, Israel Arms Transfer Charges

By Eugene Bird

Midway in the projected yearlong road to autonomy, the key talks between Israel and the Palestinian delegation appear to be stuck until the June 23 elections in Israel. All five delegations, Israeli, Jordanian, Lebanese, Palestinian and Syrian, left Washington after the fifth round ended April 30, agreeing to continue the talks in Rome, probably at an early date. Also present in Rome will be the "shepherds" of the talks, who dialogued daily with each of the delegations and provided much of the quiet encouragement the parties needed to keep going.

Everyone departed Washington with something to use in persuading constituents and officials at home that they had little choice but to show up for the next round in Rome. For the Palestinians, however, it was a totally unsatisfactory and only oral Israeli concession to permit "pilot" municipal elections in the occupied territories. The Palestinians rejected the limited proposal and pressed for broader elections under U.N. supervision.

The Palestinians had the satisfaction, however, of receiving a mountain of mail from ordinary Americans urging them to persist in their efforts. Palestinian spokeswoman Hanan Ashrawi also spoke at the prestigious World Affairs Council of Washington, DC before 350 leading citizens interested in the Middle East who gave her a standing ovation.

The Syrians labeled Israeli proposals in their negotiations irrelevant, since they did not deal with the Golan. And the Israelis are reported to be drilling for oil there, hardly an indication they intend to give back the Golan to Syria. But the Syrians are working on a paper for the next round to present their ideas on how to implement relevant U.N. resolutions. That will be the first time they have laid papers on the table.

For the Jordanian-Israeli negotiations, praised by Israeli spokesman Benjamin Netanyahu as "very smooth" and characterized by Jordanian spokesman Marwan Muasher as "going nowhere," there was still the satisfaction of knowing that the talks would continue, perhaps with a new Israeli set of negotiators after the elections.

For the Lebanese, the negotiations are a time for waiting until the Syrian army completes its scheduled pullback from positions in and around Beirut to the Bekaa Valley in hopes that this would elicit an Israeli offer to pull out of its southern "security zone."

The multilateral Middle East talks on water, environment, refugees, economy and arms control are considered by the U.S. Department of State as equal in importance to the bilateral talks. The second rounds of multilateral talks are being held at sites all over the world with various parties, some from outside the Middle East, attending.

The Israeli strategy at the bilateral peace talks is to reach agreement with individual parties, perhaps Jordan first, then Lebanon and Syria, on the road to a comprehensive "house of peace" in the Middle East. For the Arab delegations, however, the Palestinian problem is central, with everything possible in a settlement granting Palestinians their political and human rights, and little else negotiable until that is assured.

In a London Independent newspaper story in mid-April, hard-line Israeli Labor Party leader Gen. Yitzhak Rabin was quoted as admitting that he could contemplate a Palestinian state someday. The Palestinian negotiators seem unlikely, however, to get any such concession or to cut any kind of deal with the Shamir government before the June 23 Israeli election.

No Elaborate Scheme to Get Around Loan Guarantees

Israeli newspapers have reported that elaborate and "secret" U.S.-Israeli negotiations have been undertaken to "restructure" the Israeli economy, with pro-Israel former U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz slated for a prominent role from the American side. Some $1.5 to $2 billion in "investment guarantees" would then be made available to privatize the Israeli economy, selling off state-owned businesses, according to the Israeli reports.

The story has been denied flatly by an administration source, who said, "There will be no massive U.S. additional assistance to Israel." Further digging by the Washington Report found that the Overseas Private Investment Corporation does have a $50 million "Israel Growth Fund" investment guarantee almost ready to be announced. But, at 1/200th of the total, it would be no substitute for the $10 billion loan guarantee.

Israeli Weapons Transfer Charges

Department of State Inspector General Sherman Funk's report criticizing Assistant Secretary of State for Politico-Military Affairs Richard Clarke for failure to act on intelligence reports of secret transfers by Israel ever since 1983 of U.S. arms and technology in violation of agreements with the U.S. is still awaiting comment from relevant bureaus of the Department. The comments may or may not be classified when they are finally drafted, and there appears to be no plan for a congressional review of the report.

Sherman Funk, the inspector general, who is Jewish, gave a frank and moving interview to the Washington Jewish Week concerning the reports of multiple Israeli violations, allegations that a State Department officer was disregarding them and not taking steps to prevent further transgressions, and his own motivations, as an American combat veteran and as inspector general, in pursuing his investigation, wherever it led.

Eugene Bird, a retired U.S. foreign service officer, is diplomatic correspondent for the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.

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