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Records pertain to the Middle East Peace Process.
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Subject Files on Israel
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THE PRESIDENT HAS SEEN
10/3/91/27495155
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
Marlin
October 1, 1991
my, but sword
COOT4
OK
MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT
FROM:
MARLIN FITZWATER
SUBJECT:
ZUCKERMAN PIECE ON ISRAEL
I have discussed the Mort Zuckerman piece on Israel
Staff. They recommend against a response, since there is no need
to continue the debate on the loan guarantees. Furthermore, if
our
the decision should be made to respond, they recommend against
e
asking Brzezinski to respond. Richard Haass has offered to talk
to Zuckerman about the article. They are personal friends.
We would then request a page in the magazine under the Pro and
Con" section for a formal response. We don't have a
recommendation yet as to who is best to respond.
Copy given
Yours cool- Autt head
to Marlin
10/3/91
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
October 1, 1991
MEMORANDUM FOR
FROM:
MARLIN THE PRESIDENT FITZWATER Marlin
SUBJECT:
ZUCKERMAN PIECE ON ISRAEL
I have discussed the Mort Zuckerman piece on Israel with the NSC
Staff. They recommend against a response, since there is no need
to continue the debate on the loan guarantees. Furthermore, if
the decision should be made to respond, they recommend against
asking Brzezinski to respond. Richard Haass has offered to talk
to Zuckerman about the article. They are personal friends.
We would then request a page in the magazine under the "Pro and
Con" section for a formal response. We don't have a
recommendation yet as to who is best to respond.
V
As
Cosa
Scowert
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
DATE: 9/25/91
FROM THE PRESIDENT
To:
MARLIN FITZWATER
Do we need a rebuttal? What about
Zbigniew Brzezinski?
CC: John Sununu
Brent Scowcroft
pending
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
9/25 Copees. been
pave district
beated
DATE: 9/25/91
700
FROM THE PRESIDENT
To:
MARLIN FITZWATER
Do we need a rebuttal? What about
Zbigniew Brzezinski?
cc: John Sununu
Brent Scowcroft
EDITORIAL
BY MORTIMER B. ZUCKERMAN
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
PLAYING GAMES WITH ISRAEL
T
hink back to June 1981: Israel knocks out Iraq's
because of the delicacy of the peace talks. Then it
Osirak atomic reactor, arguably preventing Sad-
changes its tune and asserts that the purpose is to
dam Hussein from having nuclear weapons for
make Israel freeze West Bank settlements. Yet all
use in the gulf war a decade later. Leading the charge
along, Secretary Baker stated that his achievement was
to punish Israel in the National Security Council for
specifically to get the Arabs to enter the talks without
this prudent, pre-emptive peacekeeping: George Bush
conditions. Who is fooling whom? Then Mr. Bush
and James Baker.
breaks his promise that loan guarantees would not be
To February 1991: Israel, its citizens under Scud
linked to politics, and does it by sabotaging a long-
attack, listens to U.S. pleas to restrain its legitimate
term U.S. policy to assist Soviet Jews to emigrate to
right to defend itself. Israeli lives are sacrificed
Israel - the only country that will accept them.
to confine the gulf war and defuse Saddam Hussein's
Now it turns out that the Bush administration is di-
diabolical policy to destroy the coalition.
luting the commitments it made to the Israeli govern-
To March 1991: At war's end, Bush
ment to induce Israel to attend the
asks Congress to join in public
peace conference - fudging on a
thanks - to everyone except Israel.
pledge to support Israel in the event
To July 1991: President Bush prom-
Fundamentally,
it withdraws because the Palestinian
ises loan guarantees will not be used
the new
delegation to the peace conference
to bully Israel on the peace process.
associates itself with the Palestine
No "quid pro quo," he says.
Bush-Baker
Liberation Organization.
To September 1991: In a bolt from
conditions amount
Even more fundamentally, the new
the blue, President Bush declares that
Bush-Baker conditions amount to a
he will veto any congressional attempt
to a betrayal of
betraval of their own peace program.
to guarantee loans to Israel. (Adding
their own peace
Think back to the endless peace initia-
insult to injury, he deprecates and dis-
program.'
tives in the Middle East. How many
torts Israeli restraint during the war.)
have been thwarted and destroyed by
The reason, the administration says, is
one side or another's insistence on
that the loans-needed to cope with
conditions? The only breakthrough-
the flood of Soviet immigrants
the Sadat initiative that led to the
interfere with the peace process.
Camp David Accords of 1979 came
This is patently ludicrous, since the peace process
precisely because there was no attempt by that wise
was moving along nicely without Arab states raising
man to bully Israel beforehand. He made a real offer of
postponement of the loan guarantees as a condition
peace. The Israelis responded by yielding Sinai.
for negotiations. Note that Bush's forgiveness of $7
By stipulating the cessation of settlements, which is
billion in Egyptian debts his thank-you note from the
tantamount to Israel's abandoning its claim to the dis-
American taxpayer to Cairo for its part in the gulf
puted territory, the administration has made a blunder:
war did not affect the peace process - nor did earlier
This effectively removes the main bargaining point - the
loan guarantees to Israel.
future of the West Bank from the peace table, before
Others argue that it's a financial issue - that Ameri-
the negotiations begin. Even the Arabs understood that
can taxpayers would rather use the money elsewhere.
such unilateral concessions would never precede negoti-
This, too, is disingenuous. The U.S. government is
ations and were prepared to meet with the Israelis with-
merely being asked to guarantee bank loans, which Is-
out such advance surrender. The U.S. objective is to
rael would be obliged to repay in full, plus interest.
force Israel back to pre-1967 borders, with minor adjust-
Since Israel has a perfect record of repaying such
ments. To force such a unilateral cessation abrogates
loans, the entire transaction would not cost U.S. tax-
United Nations Security Council Resolution 242, which
payers a cent.
calls for all states to negotiate "secure and recognized
What is really happening here? First the administra-
tion wants to postpone the loan guarantees 120 days
CONTINUED ON PAGE 109
110
U.S.NEWS & WORLD REPORT, SEPTEMBER 30, 1991
EDITORIAL
(CONTINUED FROM PAGE 110)
has transformed a friendly administration into one that
boundaries free from threats or acts of force." The
is deeply allergic to Israel. They see a double standard:
record supports the Israeli view that it cannot concede
For example, Israel is attacked for expelling four Arab
any land without a real peace. Think what would have
terrorists with long records of murder and violence,
happened if Israel had yielded all of the West Bank
but the administration remains silent in the face of a
territories before the gulf war. There is little doubt
forced exodus of thousands of Palestinians from the
that Jordan and the new Palestinian entity would have
gulf states, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
joined Hussein. Instead of Scuds from 400 miles away,
Are the Israelis blameless? Hardly. They have been
Israelis would have faced lethal mortar and artillery
provocative and difficult, particularly on settlement
attacks launched near their main population centers.
announcements that often came just as Baker was
As long as the region breeds Saddam Husseins, Ha-
about to arrive for talks. But gestures and fine-tuning
fez Assads, Muammar Qadhafis and Yassir Arafats
come hard to a country constantly struggling to sur-
with miserable regularity, no government in Jerusalem
vive. "We may have the same values," Israeli Prime
can forfeit control of the high ground of the West
Minister Yitzhak Shamir told Bush, "but we don't live
Bank. Virtually all Israeli settlements have been placed
in the same neighborhood."
on this high ground to forestall the
Is the situation so bad that a peace
nightmare of Arab armies reaching
conference without conditions, now
the heart of Israel in a single night's
jeopardized, would be a waste of
movement. That is why both major
"There are various
time? No again. There are various
political parties in Israel insist on re-
possibilities for
possibilities for ceding land consistent
taining those parts of the West Bank
with Israeli security. Three or four
essential for strategic security.
ceding West Bank
large enclaves where the vast majority
They are not alone in this judg-
land to the
of Palestinians live could be returned
ment. The chairman of the U.S. Joint
to Jordan. Jewish settlements within
Chiefs of Staff in 1967 studied the situ-
Palestinians
these enclaves would have to be re-
ation on the ground and wrote that
consistent with
moved, but Israel would still retain
Israel requires far more than minor
settlements in those other areas es-
modifications to the pre-1967 bound-
Israeli security.
sential to its security. With such an
aries to withstand aggression. Thus
arrangement, the Palestinians would
our most experienced military officers
get most of the West Bank, extricate
directly contradicted Mr. Bush's cur-
most of their people from Israeli con-
rent position. The record also shows
trol, participate in a Jordanian-Pales-
that Israel needs a buffer zone. Before 1967, Israel was
tinian government and retain the Arab character of
constantly vulnerable to attacks from both armies and
their environment. Alternatively, sovereignty could be
terrorists. Yes, its efficient Army has defeated the Ar-
divided between domestic matters under Arab control
abs in each war between them. But times have changed.
and security matters under Israeli control. But these
In the gulf war, America had to deploy a far larger and
things can be explored only in the context of direct
vastly stronger force than Israel possesses just to defeat
negotiations between the parties without conditions.
Iraq. How much more power would have been needed
None of these possibilities should be preordained by
if Iraq had been joined by Syria, Jordan, the Palestin-
the forced cessation of Israeli settlements under Ameri-
ians and Saudi Arabia - the coalition facing Israel?
can pressure. Real peace requires giving more than lip
Many in the Bush administration propose U.S. and
service to Resolution 242's clause on "secure and recog-
Soviet guarantees of Israel's security in lieu of the land
nized" boundaries. The only secure peace in the region
buffer. Yet Soviet guarantees are worthless and Amer-
will be obtained by negotiating in good faith, not by
ican guarantees difficult to enforce. America could not
Israel-bashing. The latter approach consolidates Israeli
rescue Kuwait in time to avoid the rape, pillaging and
public opinion in the most defensive of postures. The
murder of Arabs by Arabs. It would be far worse for
former opens up negotiations with all kinds of hope. To
Israel. As Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir once said
seek a Middle East solution by pressuring only Israel
of guarantees, "By the time you get here, we won't be
and not the Arabs is like searching for a coin where
here." The Israelis are to be forgiven for wondering
there is light rather than where it was lost. That is why
how much faith they can put in a U.S. guarantee, when
the series of violations of America's commitments, im-
a change in political leadership, from Reagan to Bush,
plicit or explicit, is so foolish - and so cruel.
U.S.NEWS & WORLD REPORT, SEPTEMBER 30, 1991
109