Triple Trouble in Israel

...Nimrodi, a very successful arms dealer and former Israeli military attaché in Teheran who had long ago retired from government service, was the man with access to the right people in the Iranian capital...

...consequently, in the long run Iran will remain Israel's strategic ally...

...After the scandal broke into the open, Israelis were slow to appreciate its gravity...

...Through these contacts it learned that, despite the virulent antiAmericanism of Khomeini's cohorts, there were important elements in Teheran who wanted improved relations with Washington...

...was stipulated as a sign of good faith...

...Indeed, an arms sale by the U.S...

...Moreover, some of the African states in the forefront of the anti-apartheid campaign have more commerce with South Africa than Israel does...

...And on March 18 the government here formally announced that it would neither sign new military contracts with South Africa nor renew existing ones...

...It promptly agreed that the Intelligence Subcommittee of the Knesset Foreign Affairs Committee, under Abba Eban's chairmanship, should begin hearings of the affair...

...Prior to the baring of Sella's participation and the subsequent sentencing of Pollard, the case did not generate too much noise in Washington...

...So, ultimately, the question may be whether the Israeli public on the one hand, and the American public and Washington on the other, can convince Israel's Cabinet—particularly the Forum of the Three Prime Ministers—that making a clean breast of it is the best way to close the episode...

...It will be difficult to mislead an old fox like Rottenstreich and an experienced officer and businessman like Tzur...

...It accounts for only 2-3 per cent of that country's foreign trade—a figure greatly exceeded by the U. S., the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and many others in Europe...

...Finally, Israel played too active a part...

...The two investigators appointed by the Cabinet are Yehoshua Rottenstreich, a highly respected Israeli lawyer who is head of the National Press Council and has chaired many explorations of delicate affairs, and General Zvi Tzur (retired), a former chief of staff who has headed some of Israel's major industrial enterprises since leaving the military...

...Nobody knew Colonel Aviem Sella was Pollard's original contact (which may explain why no secret was made of Sella's appointment as commander of the important Tel Nof Airbase...

...The Forum of the Three Prime Ministers thus grossly underestimated the eventual impact it would have both on Israeli-American relations and on American Jews, who suddenly felt suspected of dual loyalty...

...State Department report is said to place the Jewish State among the nations most "culpable" in this respect...

...Their motive was obvious: to obtain arms for the war with Iraq...

...Somewhere around this point Israel made the mistake of changing its intermediaries...

...Botha's regime, and to set up a committee that will recommend areas for possible economic sanctions...

...American investigations have indicated that it went beyond serving as Washington's opening to Teheran and arms delivery intermediary...

...Most Israelis accept the consensus of Iran experts both in government and academe: Whereas Khomeini is a passing phenomenon, Iran's hostility toward the Arabs is fundamental...

...It was not hard to believe that Rafael Eitan, having been pushed out of the Mossad and placed in command of the much smaller Lekem (a scientific and technical organization in the Ministry of Defense), wanted to show his former bosses and colleagues how good he was at getting hold of really first-class information...

...Eliahu Salpeter, a regularNLcontributor, is a correspondent for Ha'aretz...

...At the time, President Reagan was under considerable pressure to do something about the American hostages believed to be held by pro-Khomeini Hizbollah terrorists in Lebanon...

...During Prime Minister Shamir's visit last February, U.S...

...Returning home, Shamir accused the Israeli press of "creating a hysteria" that might infect the United States...

...Nobody, that is, except Air Force Commander Amos Lapidot and then Chief of Staff Moshe Levi, the officials evidently responsible for permitting Sella's involvement in the first place...

...Israeli-South African cooperation" has for decades been an Arab propaganda byword in black Africa and, lately, in the West...

...Now the liaison was transferred to Amiram Mr, Yaakov Nimrodi and Al Schwimmer...

...The success or failure of the Independent Investigation Committee will depend on the government's readiness to provide all requested information, and on its attitude toward the committee's recommendations...

...The Cabinet was apparently in the dark, and the Forum of the Three Prime Ministers claimed ignorance too...

...No one was surprised, therefore, when the Reagan Administration, on its part, called for the release of the hostages as proof of the proposed interlocutors' influence...

...The government's contention that it was a "rogue operation" was widely accepted—not because of naïveté, but because this jibed with stories about rivalries between the secret services...

...Most politicians and the public expected it to blow over...

...A U.S...

...Polite columnists began to call them "the Triumvirate...

...media, Jewish community and Congress—and mentioned the potential effect on American aid—did the Cabinet realize the seriousness of the situation...

...That led to its involvement in the Nicaragua-contra side of the affair, and in the subsequent tensions between the Reagan Adminstration and Congress...

...Although Nir's official title was Adviser to the Prime Minister on Combatting Terror, he was a one-time military correspondent personally close to then Prime Minister Shimon Peres and was essentially an amateur...

...Israel conveyed the information directly to the White House...

...The least justified—and perhaps least important—of the three concerns dealings with South Africa...

...Only when Israeli correspondents persisted in reporting the angry reactions in the U.S...

...Washington must share some of the blame for Israel's failure to quickly recognize the seriousness of the Pollard breach...

...As for military sales, no country makes such figures public, but reliable sources indicate that Western Europe's arms traffic with Pretoria is much larger than Israel's, which has been cut back in recent months anyway...

...Israel also made the mistake of dealing directly with the White House and the National Security Council instead of going through regular State Department channels...

...In retrospect, it is obvious that none of the three was equipped to cope with the broader political, diplomatic and strategic aspects of the operation...

...The initial contacts with Washington had been handled by veteran diplomat and former high-ranking Mossad operative David Kimche, who was at the time Director General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a trusted aide of Foreign Minister Yitzchak Shamir, himself a former Mossad executive...

...officials did not make it a major topic of the talks, thereby giving the erroneous impression that it wasof secondary importance...

...It is hard to avoid the conclusion that some Leftwing circles have seized upon the South Africa issue as a convenient and fashionable stick to beat Israel with...

...So was Schwimmer, until recently head of the Israeli Aircraft Industries...

...Meanwhile the Arab states are major suppliers ofoilto,and buyers of gold from, South Africa...

...anti-Arab—side of the Gulf War...

...Jerusalem had close economic and military ties with Teheran during the days of the Shah, and has maintained private contacts with certain Iranian figures since the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini took power...

...THE THIRD THREAT tO U.S.-Israeli relations is, of course, the Pollard spy case...

...The Cabinet further resolved to reduce official, cultural and tourist relations with P.W...

...FROM PRETORIA TO POLLARD Triple Trouble in Israel By Eliahu Salpeter Tel Aviv Israel finds itself these days in probably the most difficult—and certainly the most unpleasant—situation of its 39-year existence...

...At the same time it set up an Independent Investigation Committee—a compromise between Shamir's opposition to any investigation and the call of several ministers (and of the press) for a formal commission of inquiry with full subpoena powers...

...Three critical issues threaten the country's vital links with the United States, upon whose economic and military assistance it depends and will continue to depend for the foreseeable future...

...In fact, Israel is way down on the list of those doing business with South Africa...

...Nor did it connect the weapon transfers with the fact that Iranian equipped and directed Shiite bands have become the most dangerous anti-Israel terrorists in southern Lebanon...

...When the U.S.Iran talks flagged, Jerusalem reportedly urged their resumption, creating the suspicion in Washington that its main interests were in selling weapons and tying the United States to the Iraqi—i.e...

...Once the press and some politicians in Israel began clamoring for explanations of the Iran affair, a new, unofficial entity emerged: the "Forum of the Three Prime Ministers...

...the less circumspect dubbed them "the Gang of Three...

...Outside a small intelligence circle, very few, if any, were aware of Jonathan Jay Pollard's activities before he was arrested...

...And they cannot understand why America is so excited over the whole business...

...If the government instructs Eitan, Sella and company to testify—as it has publicly promised— I he chances of an effective inquiry are good...

...Far more serious is the matter of Israel's role in the U.S.-Iran arms deal...

...Comprising present PM Shamir and past PMs Peres and Yitzchak Rabin, it took responsibility for the key decisions in the arms deal (and in other weighty international matters as well...

...Even though Shamir and Peres are party and ideological opponents, and Peres and Rabin are longtime personal rivals, the three firmly backed one another in public—as if acting on the principle that it is better to hang together than to hang separately...

...There is not much prospect, either, that such men will cooperate in any government coverup...

...Yet beyond some acerbic press reaction and opposition criticism, the public was not particularly exercised by the question of why its government was supplying arms to a country whose leader had openly declared that the ultimate aim of the war with Iraq was "to liberate Jerusalem and the Holy Land" from the Jewish infidels...

...As they see it, their country simply tried to do a service for a friend, nothing more...