Middle East Call Us – We Won’t Call You

An exchange of phone numbers is often the beginning of a romance. The exchange between the U.S. and Israel last week looked more like the prelude to a divorce. In House testimony Secretary of State James Baker complained that if Israel’s hawkish new government maintained the line of its first hours in office, Washington would have to give up trying to arrange Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. He added, “Everybody over there should know that the telephone number ((of the White House)) is 1-202-456-1414. When you’re serious about peace, call us.”

Baker’s statement touched off an avalanche of perhaps 8,000 calls to the White House Wednesday night. None, however, were from Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir or his aides. “You don’t resolve problems by impatience and rudeness,” said Yossi Olmert, director of the government press office. In the northern town of Afula, where Foreign Minister David Levy was reported in good condition after being hospitalized with chest pains, Dr. Udi Cantor asserted that no phone calls were being put through to Levy’s room. “But if Baker calls,” he said, “we will transfer the call.” An Israeli radio journalist added, “The number here is Afula 06-524-141.”

Jokes aside, the rift between Washington and Jerusalem appeared to be widening alarmingly. Senior Administration officials insisted Baker’s crack was no impulsive outburst but a calculated attempt “to lay down a marker before the new Israeli government locked itself into a position that made further progress ((toward peace talks)) even more difficult.”

Jerusalem, however, appears to be well locked in already. Shamir’s | government came to power formally committed to “strengthen, broaden and develop” Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. Its platform also insists that Arabs living in East Jerusalem will not be allowed to vote in the elections in the occupied territories that Shamir has proposed.

In an interview with the Jerusalem Post, Shamir seemed to lay down a new condition for negotiations to arrange those elections. Said he: “There is nothing to discuss with those among the Palestinian Arabs who are opposed to autonomy.” In Israel that is a code word for strictly limited self- government; the remark thus implied that Israel will talk only with Palestinians who abandon the idea of an eventual independent state. Any such condition would make it quite certain that no Palestinians would come to the bargaining table.

Not that Shamir is in any hurry. He told the Post that “negotiations for resolving territorial conflicts take years. It can’t go along at what is known as the ‘American tempo.’ ” In his view, the main irritant between the U.S. and Israel is Washington’s reluctance to break off talks with the Palestine Liberation Organization following an attempted seaborne terrorist attack on Israeli beaches by a P.L.O. faction.

Shamir might well be unable to shift away from this adamant position even if he wanted to. Any softening of his line toward negotiations with the Palestinians would be sure to be rejected by hard-line minor parties and could easily destroy his coalition. That government, which squeaked through to confirmation with only 62 votes in the 120-seat Knesset, is unlikely to last until 1992, when elections are scheduled. Its fall might be the only thing that could bring better U.S.-Israeli relations. If Baker cannot wait to see whether and how soon that happens, Shamir’s number is 011-972-2-705-555.