The Continuing Education Of Ambassador Arens

...protest was not in order—because there had in fact been no recent decision to establish six settlements...

...But no one should get carried away into assuming that Arens, since arriving in Washington, has become a veritable dove...

...Ted Koppel, the popular anchorman on ABC's "Nightline" news program, interviewed him in March...

...Tragically, he has actually aligned himself with radical organizations that support the PLO...

...The Reagan administration had quickly issued a sharp statement condemning those reports...

...The envoy, Nelson said, walks into a room "talking mile-a-minute American . . . It is hard to remember that he is not in fact an American...

...I cannot refer to our communications...

...Congress and the Jewish leadership...

...He flew to New York City from Denver where he had addressed the Union of American Hebrew Congregations...

...Still, he would not react directly to the reports...

...The issue that day was the administration's sharp opposition to Congressional initiatives to increase assistance to Israel...

...Shmuel Katz, who once served as Begin's advisor on overseas information but who split with the Prime Minister because of Camp David, asked: "Does Arens not understand the implications of such a 'freeze...

...See the interview with Arens in November's moment...

...Nelson's analysis was certainly true when it was written...

...He has come to respect their views, and, clearly, they have affected his thinking on tactics...

...These days especially, that's no small thing...

...That speech must have been somewhat uncomfortable since earlier in the convention, the UAHC's President, Rabbi Alexander Schindler, had further distanced himself from Prime Minister Menachem Begin by declaring that the incorporation of Judea and Samaria into Israel "represents a threat to the Jewish essence of the State and the unity of the Jewish people...

...Arens is smart and savvy...

...While Katz and the others were clearly charging that Arens' basic positions had weakened in the face of Washington pressure, The Jerusalem Post, in an editorial, quickly came to the opposite conclusion...

...For tactical reasons, they, too, have urged Israel to adopt a temporary settlement freeze...

...But since then, there have been some important changes in Arens' political style— changes which call into question his earlier, well-earned reputation as one of Israel's leading hawks...

...Katz went on to complain about the way Arens reacted to reports that Israel was about to establish six more settlements on the West Bank...

...When they talk, therefore, Israeli ambassadors listen...

...Like all previous Israeli envoys serving in the U.S...

...Referring to the reported call for a temporary settlement freeze, the editorial said that "Arens is no more 'soft' on the intention to keep the territories in perpetuity than is Mr...

...Monday, December 6, for example, was typical...

...He had absolutely no intention of cooperating with it...

...The Council of Jewish Settlements in Judea, Samaria and Gaza sent a telegram to Arens expressing its anger at the reported suggestion...

...Moreover, he has always been (and remains, as he reaffirmed a few days ago) a vigorous proponent of Jewish settlement in every part of Eretz Yisrael—as a vital element in Israel's security and in consummation of the right of the Jewish people to its homeland...

...has grown so great that it is foolhardy indeed to send a leading political figure of the ruling party to keep a finger on America's political pulse and then deliberately ignore his readings of that beat...

...That it will be interpreted as acquiescence in the monstrous Arab charge that the absence of peace is due to the presence of Jews in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, and not to successive Arab aggressions...

...But these largely predictable official statements have by no means been as critical in shaping and moderating earlier positions as those comments privately expressed by Israel's best friends in Washington...

...Only several months later did Begin manage to convince Arens to succeed Ephraim Evron as Israel's Ambassador in Washington...

...It was, simply, a bombshell...

...instead of giving expression to the resentment and anger among the people at this constant hectoring of Israel to please the Arabs, the Ambassador complained that the U.S...

...Begin...

...He has not...

...That, of course, is quite true...

...He arrived in Washington to much fanfare about his hardline stance...

...Katz continued: "The list of questions is endless...

...Arens, a political appointee, was blunt in letting everyone know that he opposed the strike...

...is, in fact, an 'obstacle to peace...

...The American-educated Israeli Ambassador, as has been recently widely publicized in the Israeli news media, has also faced some other personal problems in grappling with his own views...

...Arens apparently has that ability...

...From New York, he flew back to Washington for an important meeting with Deputy Secretary of State Kenneth Dam, the number-two man in the Department...

...To get a sense of the real mood of the U.S., Arens might call in several other longtime pro-Israel Washington hands, such as lawyers Leonard Garment or Max Kampelman or columnists William Safire or George Will...

...The degree of Israel's military, economic and political dependence on the U.S...

...He would seem to be, however, an intelligent hawk aware of the real forces operating in that great big world out there, which Israel must take into account at least tactically, even if strategically its government is intent on a policy of creeping annexation...

...Nixon had requested the rare meeting...

...He also likes button-down, light blue shirts—preppy style...

...One of the better decisions of the second Begin government, which came into office in the summer of 1981, was the appointment of Moshe Arens as ambassador to Washington," it wrote on November 1. Despite Arens' hawkish background, the newspaper said, he was "one of the most capable of the group of men who took over the reins of government with the Likud's advent to power five years ago...

...Science and Infrastructure Minister Yuval Ne'eman of Techiya said that it was not an ambassador's job to suggest government policy...

...In many respects, Moshe Arens, 57 years old, is not your typical Israeli...

...Katz wrote: "Instead of rejecting the protest on principle, for the very good reason that Israel is not only within her rights in enabling and helping Jews to settle anywhere in Eretz Yisrael, but also did not intend to be harried into making further concessions...

...Both he and Begin, no doubt, still have the same overall objective in mind—namely, that Israel should forever control the West Bank and Gaza...

...he said...

...He doesn't, for example, dress like most Israelis...

...But he has not only spoken out against the Likud-led coalition government in Jerusalem...

...Israeli officials were quoted by Wallfish as saying that Arens' recommendations were "purely tactical since the Ambassador was known to be as inflexible on the Israeli claim to Judea and Samaria as any hawk in the cabinet—if not more so...

...His oldest son, a computer science graduate student in California, has emerged as an outspoken critic of Israel...

...The Middle East Policy Survey reported that Arens premised his proposal on the assumption that Jordan's King Hussein would first enter into direct talks with Israel...

...Begin is more concerned about his right-wing critics and their hold on his government...

...Without their support, Israel would be in very big trouble...

...after Begin's 1977 election victory, told the Reform leaders: "While I understand and appreciate Israel's historical claims to Judea and Samaria, I believe it necessary for the sake of peace and justice that these claims be moderated...

...He had voted against the Camp David framework agreements because he opposed the withdrawal from Sinai...

...Schindler, who probably more than any other Jewish leader was active in strengthening the Prime Minister's credibility in the U.S...

...What Arens and his predecessors have heard from senior officials at the State Department, the White House, the Pentagon and elsewhere in the U.S...

...When I suggested that his silence would tend to leave the impression that the reports were in fact true, he replied that he understood this but was still bound to remain tightlipped...

...Understandably, those developments have deeply disturbed the Ambassador...

...The approximately 1,000 career foreign service officers of the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem had called a one-day, around-the-world strike to protest their compensation (less than their colleagues in the Defense and Finance Ministries) and related working conditions...

...Arens' presence in Washington is a special asset to Israel in the context of the Begin government and its basic policies...

...In recent months, he has become increasingly critical of the Israeli government and especially of Prime Minister Begin...

...He grew up with a different mentality...

...In politics the ability to adjust your position to changing circumstances can be an impressive asset...

...He introduced Arens as "a man who's been described as more hardline than Menachem Begin...

...Thus, Arens has been deeply impressed by the statements he has heard from Israel's most sincere and loyal supporters in the U.S...

...Several other Israeli officials have since confirmed that Arens had indeed sent such a cable, which Begin quickly rejected...

...Asher Wallfish, who covers the Israeli cabinet for The Jerusalem Post, reported that Arens had in fact made a number of proposals in September for thawing relations between Israel and the United States, including one for a three-month settlement freeze...

...One Israeli official surmised that the leak to Israel Radio was part of an effort to smear Arens by rivals in the Herut Party...

...Arens' brother, a lawyer in Connecticut who never made aliyah, recently signed a petition calling on the U.S...

...Thus, Ariel Sharon, who voted for Camp David and who was later reluctantly tapped by Begin to become Defense Minister (after a nearly one-year gap in which Begin himself filled the office), can partially thank Arens, who was then chairman of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, for his job...

...He has been impressive on American television in defending Israel's cause...

...As Lars-Erik Nelson, the Washington bureau chief of The New York Daily News, wrote just prior to the Ambassador's arrival in Washington, Arens prefers "an Ivy League tweed jacket...

...On that day, Arens was— as usual—doing what he does best: trying to win friends for Israel (not always an easy job these days...

...He wears his MIT graduation ring...

...In fact, there are political pundits in Israel who are beginning to think that Arens might one day follow the example of Yitzchak Rabin, who returned from Washington to Jerusalem to become Prime Minister...

...Wolf Blitzer is The Jerusalem Post's Washington correspondent and the author of the forthcoming novel, Between Washington and Jerusalem: The United States Relationship With Israel, to be published by Oxford University Press in 1983...

...In New York that morning, Arens met privately with former President Richard Nixon...

...Arens is clearly much more sensitive to American public opinion...

...There are limits within which any Israeli ambassador in Washington must operate if he is to be at all effective in this country...

...So how does one explain the flap that developed in November when Israel Radio reported that Arens, the alleged hawk, had sent a cable to Jerusalem recommending that Israel impose a three-month freeze on new settlement construction on the West Bank...

...He knows that what they have to say comes from the heart and the mind...

...He had also turned down Begin's offer to become Defense Minister after Ezer Weizman's resignation because he did not want to be in charge of implementing that painful pullback...

...He knows they represent the foundation of overall American support for Israel...

...Those with the most credibility include such senators as Democrat Henry Jackson of Washington State and Republican Rudy Boschwitz of Minnesota...

...But that should not have come as any great surprise...

...He is an Israeli hawk...

...Interior Minister Yosef Burg of the National Religious Party said he was shocked...

...capital—Eliyahu Eilat, Abba Eban, Avraham Harman, Yitzchak Rabin, Simcha Dinitz and Ephraim Evron—Arens has been influenced by what he has seen and heard in Washington and throughout his travels around the country...

...And he assuredly has the ability to win the respect and admiration even of those who continue to disagree sharply with his arguments...

...Deputy Prime Minister Simcha Erlich, a member of the Liberal faction of the Likud, said an ambassador should confine himself to reporting on the mood and the currents of the country where he serves...

...His article "The AlPAC Formula" appeared in moment in November 1981...

...Yet at the same time, they have developed different tactics to achieve that goal...

...The truth is that Arens knows all the answers...

...THE CONTINUING EDUCATION OF AMBASSADOR ARENS WOLF BUTZER Since his arrival in Washington last February, the life of Moshe Arens, Israel's seventh ambassador to the United States, has been quite hectic...

...to cut foreign aid to Israel because of the settlements...

...We were taught not to break strikes...

...They discussed the situation in the Middle East as well as other global problems facing America and Israel...

...But it is an asset in danger of being frittered away if his reasoned advice is consciously ignored...

...He comes from a different background than us," one of the strikers said...

...That by agreeing to it, Israel would be embracing the principle that the settling of Jews in Eretz Yisrael is a bad thing...

...He told me that his views on settlements were well known and had not changed since arriving in Washington...

...That Arens has moderated the tone— if not the substance—of his policies since arriving in Washington cannot be denied...

...They also proposed that Israel take a less hostile stance toward President Ronald Reagan's September 1 peace initiative—as did many other well-regarded American Jewish organizations and leaders...

...For one thing, he doesn't look like one...

...I grew up in the socialist movement: Labor Zionism...

...The idea, so alien to his outlook, of making this 'gesture' is purely the consequence of intimidation, of the fear that 'intransigence' [the label attached by State Department propagandists during the last 20 years to any refusal by Israel to be dictated to] might be met by 'sanctions'—that is, a stoppage of economic aid...

...If that schedule were not enough, Arens also faced the extraordinary complication that same day of having to work at an Israeli Embassy which was on strike...

...Bernard Gwertz-man, the diplomatic correspondent of the New York Times, wrote this: "Moshe Arens, Israel's new Ambassador to the United States, has been in Washington about one month and is living up to his reputation as a plain-spoken hawk whose views on most Middle Eastern issues sometimes make Prime Minister Menachem Begin seem like a moderate...

...Arens, since then, has refused to comment on the news reports...

...He sees them all the time...

...government has, of course, been important in affecting their views...

...They have a proven track record...

...His appointment as ambassador put an end to the anomaly of Israel's envoy in Washington— a post more important than most of the ministries in the cabinet—not having the constant ear and confidence of the Prime Minister, which was the case in the four years of the first Begin government...

...Whatever the specifics of the cable, the fact remains that Arens quickly came under sharp criticism at home from some of those very same politicians who were once his closest political and ideological friends...