As he disembarked from his Boeing 707 at Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv, U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz seemed the soul of optimism. “The friendship and ties between Israel and the U.S. have never been so strong,” he declared. “The time is right to move ahead. The time is right, together, to make decisions of historic proportions.”
Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir quickly brought Shultz’s lofty rhetoric down to earth. “The timing is not particularly good for anything,” he told the newspaper Yediot Aharonot. The remark got Shultz’s latest Middle East mission off to an inauspicious start. Rarely, in fact, has a U.S. diplomatic initiative been accompanied by more forecasts of failure. Said a senior Israeli official: “I’m not far from thinking this mission is impossible.”
Shultz carried with him a U.S. plan that features three key points. It envisions an international “event,” the latest buzz word for a multicountry conference, to sanction the peace process. Then negotiations would be held between Israel, Jordan and the Palestinians to establish self-administration in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip by a council of Palestinians selected in elections to be held no later than the fall. Finally, by December, negotiations on a permanent solution would begin, based on the principle of exchanging territory for peace.
The plan appeared to face daunting obstacles. Shamir gave no indication that he was prepared to accept the land-for-peace idea. Nor did Shultz receive any encouragement from the Arab camp. After shuttling to meetings with Jordanian Crown Prince Hassan and Syrian President Hafez Assad, the Secretary of State reported that there had been no agreement. Said Shultz: “The idea in negotiating at this time is to get people to be realistic. We are not there yet.”
The Palestinians refused to sit down with Shultz at all. Reason: boycott instructions from officials of the Palestine Liberation Organization, who fear ! that the U.S. might try to encourage non-P.L.O. Palestinians to take part in negotiations. President Reagan did not make Shultz’s job easier when he told a Washington press conference just before the Secretary arrived in the Middle East that the unrest in the occupied territories was being fomented by “outsiders.” Shultz corrected the President, explaining that the anti- Israeli demonstrations and rioting by Palestinians were “essentially indigenous.”
In the West Bank and Gaza, Palestinians made their feelings known with violent demonstrations and a near total general strike. At least six more protesters were killed by Israeli gunfire last week; that raised to 69 the number of Palestinians who have died in the protests since early December. In one particularly chilling incident, a Palestinian suspected of collaboration with Israel was seized by a mob from his own West Bank village and hanged from a utility pole.
The turmoil and intransigence that greeted Shultz in the Middle East contrasted with the warmth he encountered during a brief visit to Moscow earlier in the week. There, officials made optimistic pronouncements on the progress of strategic arms-reduction talks and on plans for a summit — now said to be set for the last week in May — between President Reagan and Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev. The only point of contention was the Middle East, with the Kremlin expressing skepticism about Shultz’s plan.
Shultz took little notice of the Soviet view or that of others who said his Middle East mission was a fool’s errand. “You can’t be too afraid of failing,” said the 67-year-old diplomat, who is probably serving in his last Government post. “What am I saving myself for?”
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