Open Letter from Ambassador Rabinovich
(cont’d from preceding page)
and therefore have a built-in interest in acquiring our trust and
good will. This whole arrangement can therefore be seen as an
impressive testing mechanism.
We will negotiate on the assumption that they will not have to
be used, but it is important to know that they are there. In gaining
the Israeli public’s confidence it will be crucial for the PLO to
live up to its commitment to renounce and suppress terrorism as
well as to seek an end to violence. Zealots in the Arab and Muslim
camps will undoubtedly seek to derail the process. The will and
the ability to stop them are two criteria to be used by Israelis to
measure the value of the new arrangements. We and the Palestinians
still have some divergent goals, but for the agreement to work,
we must make the transition from violent conflict to practical
competition. Rhetoric will have its own importance. We understand
the need of the PLO’s leadership to adress its own and its Arab
galleries. The temptation to inflate Palestinian achievements and
to argue that some traditional goals have not been abandoned and
may yet be obtained will be there. But it will be crucial that, in
word as in deed, the Palestinians remember how crucial it is now
to build and maintain confidence and good faith.
Second comes the will and the need to continue the peace
negotiations in the other tracks. The Madrid framework remains
in place and the Washington negotiations continue. Israel and
Jordan have just agreed on a common agenda for peace; it should
now be converted into a full-fledged agreement. Important progress
has been made in the Israeli-Syrian negotiations in Washington
and we are committed to continuing them with a view to making
a peace agreement with Syria as well. Lebanon is the fourth partner
to the peace talks and the area of the Israeli-Lebanese border remains
an area of potential conflict but also an important sphere for
confidence building.
In the next few weeks we will be investing considerable efforts
in seeking ways to move the negotiations with Syria, Lebanon and
Jordan ahead while implementing the agreement with the
Palestinians. It is important that our partners to the Washington
talks cooperate with us in finding the best ways for making tangible
progress in these talks.
Finally, the process of Arab and Muslim reconciliation with Israel
should proceed. It may take some time before full-fledged diplomatic
relations are established with Arab states other than Egypt, but
the construction of a new relationship between Israelis and Arabs
is a feasible task. Normalization can be started and boycotts, political
as well as economic, can be eliminated. The General Assembly of
the United Nations, a familiar arena of Arab hostility to Israel,
can serve as an early symbol of a new relationship.
Israel will have to cope with more ambiguity and gray tones
than we have been used to in previous years. The new phase in
our life as a state will be more promising but not necessarily easier.
One measure of the new complexity will be the need to strike another
fine balance between vision and lingering politics. In the aftermath
of the breakthrough, many Israelis would like to move to a new
era of Arab-Israeli relations and to a new phase of Israel’s own
life: free from conflict with the Arabs focused on the development
of our society and culture. But this quest is tempered by the
cautiousness of a policy that has never been free from external
conflict. This cautiousness directs our gaze to the difficulties that
are inherent in the new agreement as well as to the hopes and
prospects that it raises. We will continue to marshall our resources
for coping with the complexities of this new phase. We trust that
we will be able to rely on you as we have until now.
COimEYlELDS,
Randolph Road Office 375-2265
SouthPark Office 365-0577
.,BANK OF
MECKLEP^BURC
Mcmlx'r hDIC
reenspon
A I Inc.
• Estate and Personal Financial Planning
• Group Medical and life Programs
• Individual Life, Disability and Health Insurance
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376-7434
U.S. Will Deduct
$437 MUIion
In Loans to Israel
WASHINGTON (JTA) — In
a move that could embarrass the
Israeli government at a sensitive
time in relations with the Pales
tinians, the United States has
decided to deduct $437 million
from Israel’s next installment of
U.S. loan guarantees because of
Israeli settlement activity in the
administered territories.
The U.S. loan guarantees to
Israel, which total $10 billion
over a five-year period, have
been controversial from the
start.
After a lengthy battle pitting
the Bush administration against
much of the American Jewish
community, the U.S. last year
started providing Israel with $2
billion annually in loan guaran
tees over a five-year period.
However, under terms of the
arrangement worked out be
tween the U.S. and Israel, the
U.S. will deduct from each
installment — beginning with
this second one — the amount
the two countries agree was
spent on settlements in the
territories during the previous
year.
While Israel has agreed to that
arrangement, it now appears to
be concerned about the message
a $437 million deduction will
send just as it has concluded
major agreements with both the
Palestinians and Jordan.
Perhaps in response to this
concern, the State Department
did not officially announce the
deduction and, when asked
about it, stressed that it was not
a new policy but an implemen
tation of an existing agreement
between the two countries.
The department said the U.S.
government would provide Isra
el with up to $1,563 billion in
loan guarantees for the 1994
fiscal year, which began Oct. 1.
Israeli officials here said that
more than half of the settlement
spending consisted of commit
ments to settlements made by the
previous Likud government that
the current government was
honoring.
The Israelis said the current
Labor government is planning in
the future to decrease the
amount it spends on settlements,
especially in the wake of the
historic agreement it signed at
the White House with the PLO.
Page 3-THE NEWS-November 1993
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