Japan as Mideast Middleman

...That is, Israel in return should let the Palestinians set up their own state in their own homeland...

...To the taxpayers and the American people," his message was "to stop paying the price of cluster bombs, fragmentation shells, rockets, F-15s, F-16s which my people are facing daily...

...with the objective of peaceful talks aimed at a lasting, comprehensive and fundamental peace in the Mideast," said a Foreign Ministry spokesman in a typical report on the Suzuki-Arafat meeting...

...Arafat's visit to Japan...

...He revealed the basic intransigence of his position when he said he could hardly comment on the eight-point proposal put forward by Saudi Arabia last August until the Arab summit in Rabat next month...

...That evening, meeting reporters at the Japan National Press Club, he said he had managed during his visit "to feel and touch the whole feeling of the Japanese people toward our just cause...

...I respect international law, and Begin is still wanted by Interpol, according to British police documents," he responded, referring presumably to Begin's activities with the Irgun while the British still ruled Palestine...

...If there is any erroneous report, it will be taken by the Jewish people to antagonize opinion against the Arabs-and Japan...

...By the third day of his visit the Japanese were offering their good offices in negotiations...

...America's Jewish community, reasoned the analysts in the Foreign Ministry, could throw its considerable weight behind pressure for tariffs and quotas on Japanese imports into the U.S...

...He would play his foray into the camp of an American ally for all the propaganda points it was worth...

...Nevertheless, basically the visit was of little import except as a demonstration of Japan's keen desire to have it both ways...

...It was a simple enough routine, one that seemed to fit in with the view from Washington...

...But the Japanese are worried that the reception accorded Arafat could have an unfortunate impact on public opinion in the United States...

...The authorities would only "take care of necessary arrangements for the safety of Mr...

...Questioned by somewhat more skeptical foreign journalists an hour or so later at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan, Arafat was back in his usual form...

...will dry up as a source of oil by the end of the century, and they look to the Arabs to supply the country with most of its needs regardless of the development of "alternative" energy sources...

...Rather, the handout went on, he was coming on October 12 "at the invitation of the Parliamentarians' League for Japan-Palestine Friendship, a su-prapartisan organization composed of Japanese Diet Members...

...There was some mild talk prior to Arafat's arrival from Pyongyang that the Japanese would just as soon he drop Tokyo from a tour that otherwise was restricted to Communist states-vietnam and the Soviet Union in addition to China and North Korea...

...Did he have a message for the United States...

...Foreign Minister Sonoda prattled away about "tete-a-tete talks without reaching agreements," and said Japan would like to confer with "all the parties," including Menachem Begin...

...The Japanese, in Donald Kirk regularly reports for The New Leader on Japanese affairs...

...Could he ever talk with Begin...

...Arafat had barely taken off for Hanoi, the next stop on his itinerary, when Japanese diplomats were passing along assurances to their worried Israeli counterparts that this country's policy had not changed at all...

...In a whirlwind of press conferences he grinningly played the role of "moderate," to the relief of his "hosts," anxious lest he repeat his performance in Peking and again characterize the assassination of Anwar Sadat as "a good joke" and the beginning of a new "dawn" for the Mideast...

...But there is no doubt the Japanese would be happiest if the conflict could be resolved to the satisfaction of everyone involved...

...Arafat's stay in Japan...

...The time was propitious, they thought, for "moderation" on all sides...

...He could only suggest that Reagan himself "read the comments" and form his policy accordingly...

...The fact that Reagan tried to squelch any thoughts of a shift in U.S...

...Arafat would have liked nothing better than to have his presence mark the elevation of his Tokyo establishment to diplomatic status, but he was delighted with the degree of recognition being extended to him by this nation ever wary of its supply of oil, the source of 70 per cent of its energy needs...

...It seemed a somewhat fatuous claim, considering that Suzuki is planning to journey to most of the Middle Eastern countries, excluding Israel, at the beginning of next year...

...The trouble was the semantic exercise merely gave Arafat the chance to proclaim his own dedication to the search for peace without committing himself for a moment to anything so conclusive as Israel's "right to exist...

...Arafat, however, was on strictly good behavior...

...Arafat and other members of the delegation...

...If it is possible for Japan to be a mediator between Israel and the Arab interests, it would be best for Japan," said the diplomatic spokesman...

...Quite aside from his success in gaining entree into Japan, Arafat reveled during his visit in the comments of former Presidents Ford and Carter, made en route home from Sadat's funeral, that ultimate recognition of the PLO was "inevitable...

...If there is some campaign by the American Jewish people that Japan is against Israel, that would be dangerous," a diplomatic spokesman told me...

...Japan has been consulting with the U.S...

...It is correct to say, though, that there could have been no more hypocritical official effort to have it both ways...

...They pointed to the government statement issued in advance of the trip, saying "Japan's position that it does not recognize the PLO as the sole and legitimate representative of the Palestinian people will be in no way altered by Mr...

...Paragraph two of the same statement, in its entirety, read: "It is not correct to assume, as some newspapers have suggested, that he will be received as a semi-official state guest...

...Arafat confirmed that view by assuring them the PLO did not support the Japanese Red Army, the radical group that had participated in the Lod airport massacre...

...The trip was the brainchild of former Foreign Minister Toshio Kimura, head of the League for Japan-Palestine Friendship...

...Could he recognize Israel's "right to exist" if it agreed to the Saudi package...

...Arafat will not be made at the invitation of the Japanese government," began a government statement entitled "Nature of the Visit of Mr...

...In confessing that the Japanese "are apprehensive about Jewish pressure," the spokesman claimed they were "still more interested for peace to prevail in the Mideast...

...He had engineered the invitation in several trips to the Middle East, just as the PLO's "friends" had wangled permission for it to establish an office here several years earlier...

...And the same week that the government was receiving, if not officially hosting, Arafat, it was welcoming another Mideast potentate, the oil minister of the United Arab Emirates...

...The PLO leader's three days of jam-packed "unofficial" meetings with politicians and businessmen included lengthy hearings granted to him by Prime Minister Zenko Suzuki and Foreign Minister Sunao Sonoda...

...Suzuki ritualistically reiterated Japan's position "that Israel's right to exist should be recognized based on mutual recognition...

...No other "Western" country had deigned before to give him such a hearing...

...Arafat, Chairman of the PLO...

...the meantime, could luxuriate in a newly discovered role as middleman?perhaps even "honest broker," if not matchmaker-between him and Israel...

...If not for that, he could say he welcomed it-a seemingly forthright remark that convinced the Japanese of his bona fides...

...This was evident from the persistence of diplomats here in casting their country in the middleman role...

...Always you are looking from the Israeli angle," he countered, "but we are the victims...

...policy before the PLO had recognized Israel's right to exist, hardly deterred Arafat from quoting Ford and Carter...

...Japanese leaders, too, sensed a softening in Washington's stance...

...Japanese experts also have been saying they are sure the U.S...

...Further, it was "clearly understood that the League is to deal with all arrangements and to bear all expenses connected with Mr...

...Whenever anyone tried to get Arafat to commit himself just slightly to the Saudi proposal-which provides for recognition of all the combatants' "right to exist," along with the formation of a single Palestinian state headquartered in the Arab section of Jerusalem-he either evaded the issue or resorted to his old cliches...

...He was not in the least miffed when the Tokyo metropolitan police refused to let him pack his customary pistol...

...Arafat was even quoted, by a Japanese press spokesman, as having asked Japan "to take the initiative for talks with all the parties concerned, including the United States...