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Friday, January 14, 1983
Volume 5
29TEVETH5743
Number 2
Official Says Iraq Won't Oppose
Negotiations With Israel
By EDWIN EYTAN
PARIS (JTA) Vice
Premier Tapek Aziz of Iraq
said here that his govern-
ment "is not opposed to
negotiations between Israel
and the Palestinians" and
that Iraq wants to see Syria
withdraw its forces from
Lebanon "so as not to give
Israel a pretext to maintain
its forces there."
Aziz's remarks in an interview
with Le Monde last Friday came
a few days after the Iraqi govern-
ment made public a conversation
President Saddam Hussein had
with U.S. Rep. Stephen Solarz
<D.. NY.) on Aug. 25 in which
the Iraqi leader was quoted as
having linked his call for the
security of Israel with a demand
for the creation of a Palestinian
state. Hussein said he believed in
the "existence of an independent
Palestinian state accepted by the
Palestinians and it is also neces-
seray to have a state of security
for the Israelis."
IRAQ HAS long been one of
Israel's most implaccable foes
and diplomats could not recall
any previous such statements by
Iraqi leaders. There was no
explanation why Iraq decided to
release the text of the conversa-
tion at this time.
In his interview with Le
Monde, Aziz also called for
Egypt's "unconditional" rein-
tegration into the Arab world. He
said "we must reestablish a
dialogue with Egypt. There are
no conditions as far as we are
concerned."
The Iraqi Vice Premier, who
conferred with President Fran-
cois Mitterrand, Premier Pierre
Mauroy and half a dozen French
ministers during his three-day
stay here last week, reportedly
negotiated an extension of Iraq's
debt repayments to France.
Baghdad owes France close to $2
billion for various arms pur-
chases in 1981 and 1982.
FRENCH SOURCES said that
Aziz also obtained additional
credits for future arms sales.
Baghdad, according to reports, is
counting on France to modernize
and to re-equip its armed forces.
It plans to acquire a large
number of Mirage-2000 combat
planes as well as French-made
missiles, gun boats and electronic
equipment. Some sources say the
new arms deal is for close to S3
billion.
According to French sources,
Aziz did not raise, more than in a
perfunctory way, the issue of the
nuclear reactor in Tamuz
destroyed by Israel in June, 1981.
While here, Aziz had an un-
scheduled meeting with Egyptian
Minister of State for Foreign Af-
fairs Boutros Ghali. It was the
first such encounter between an
Iraqi and Egyptian minister
since 1979, when Iraq, as well as
most of Arab states, severed
diplomatic relations with Egypt
in retaliation for President
Anwar Sadat's historic visit to
Jerusalem and his subsequent
signing of a peace treaty with
Israel.
Three other Arab states 
Jordan. Morocco and Lebanon 
have also renewed their contacts
with Egypt since Hosni Muba-
rak's election as President.
Mubarak also attended the
funeral of Saudi Arabia's King
Khaled in Riyadh last summer.
Reagan Sends Habib
Back to Middle East
To Break Deadlock
By DAVID FRIEDMAN
WASHINGTON -
(JTA) President Reagan
said last week that he is
sending his special Middle
East envoy, Philip Habib,
back to the region in an
effort to break the deadlock
in the negotiations between
Israel and Lebanon. Habib
was summoned to Wash-
ington from his vacation in
Florida.
Although the Reagan Admin-
istration it reportedly concerned
about the lack of progiess in the
talks. Reagan did not indicate
this feeling in his nationally-tele-
vised press conference. "It is not
unexpected to us," he said. "We
would have liked to have had this
whole thing move faster. But in
view of the situation, not only in
Lebanon but the whole Middle
East, we never had any illusion
that this could be done over-
night."
HE ADDED that the negotia-
tions that are now going on "will
lead to the removal of the foreign
forces." Israel and Lebanon have
not been able to agree on the
agenda for the negotiations be-
cause Israel wants to discuss
some sort of normalization of re-
lations agreement while Lebanon
wants to concentrate on the re-
moval of the Israeli troops from
its territory. Lebanon will also
have to open negotiations with
Syria and with the Palestine Lib-
eration Organization for the
removal of their fc
Reagan said that it was a
"tragedy" that fighting was
going on in Tripoli. The fighting
is between pro and anti-Syrian
groups. Reagan noted that the
fighting is another reason "why
we want the outside forces out, so
that the new government of Leb-
anon can begin to keep order it-
self and establish its sovereign-
ty."
Gesture Of Agony
Wiesel Turns on Jacobo Timerman
By ARNOLD AGES
Eli Wiesel, probably the
world's most widely-read
Jewish novelist, essayist
and commentator, has had
some disquieting experien-
ces in recent months.
In an interview on Miami
Beach. Wiesel revealed that he
had been in Israel when the inva-
sion of Lebanon occurred. While
he had some reservations about
the implications of the war,
Wiesel has been scandalized by
some of the reactions to it,
notably that of Jacobo Timer-
man, the former editor of a news-
paper in Buenos Aires who was
arrested by the Argentine
authorities and who is now living
in Israel.
"I WAS one of those people
who went to Argentina to plead
with the authorities there to re-
lease Timerman," Wiesel said.
"It was because of the interven-
tion of Israel and its offer to
accept Timerman that he was
finally able to leave his jail cell."
Wiesel feels that Timerman's
new book on Israel, "The Long-
est War, Israel in Lebanon"
(Knopf), is unsavory. It is in-
tended as an expose of Israel's
"unwarranted" invasion of Leb-
anon published in advance of
the findings of the judicial com-
mission of inquiry.
His recent appearances on
American television notably
the CBS "60 Minutes" program,
where his unrelenting criticism of
Israel prompted Mike Wallace to
ask. "But is there nothing posi-
tive about Israel?" brought
more of the unsavory in him. He
displays both a lack of grateful-
ness and a certain "shallowness"
in his thinking.
WIESEL IS exercised not only
by Timerman's statements about
the "wickedness" of Israel but
about his assertions of longtime
Zionist and Jewish commitment.
"That's not the impression I got
when I was in Argentina trying
to secure Timerman's release,"
Wiesel stated.
"Members of the Jewish com-
munity there asked me why I was
wasting my time on a person who
had never displayed any Jewish
loyalties.
"When Timerman occupied his
position as editor of one of
Buenos Aires' best newspapers,
he had no time for the Jewish
people or for Israel that's what
I was told by Argentinian Jews."
Elie Wiesel
(Timerman does say in his book,
"Prisoner Without a Name, Cell
Without a Number," that he
wrote about Israel in his paper;
he does not provide details about
the extent of his coverage.)
If Wiesel has had second
thoughts about Timerman, he
has gone through a similar pro-
cess with regard to his own recent
response to the Beirut massacres.
In the wake of the Shatila and
Sabra murders, Wiesel had rush-
ed into print with some strong
articles about the moral lapses of
certain Jews.
"I WENT so far as to suggest
that this calamitous event meant
that we had failed as a people,
that there was something wrong
with our educational system. I
said that the time had come for a
Heshbon Ha-nefesh, a reckoning
with our souls. I could not under-
stand how such a monstrous
thing had transpired."
When the reaction of the
world's press began to filter
through Wiesel's consciousness,
he soon realized that he had been
precipitous in his reaction. The
orgy of condemnation which was
visited upon Israel was too much
for Wiesel. "The condemnation
was not inspired by a sincere
search for truth but by a hidden
agenda, to wipe clean the Holo-
caust slate. The world seemed to
be saying to us: 'Now that you
too have been involved in human
brutality, however indirect, we
can now close the chapter on the
Holocaust.' The relish that ac-
companied the world condemna-
tion of Israel was transparent."
WHILE WIESEL was in
Israel during the war, he is not
prepared to offer analysis of the
political or military aspects of tbj j
conflict. "I am not a political]
person and am therefore unable'
to comment on whether tht'
invasion was justifiable or not
When it comes to matters of
security, I do not presume to tea
the people on the scene what a i
appropriate or not."
Wiesel was, however, ready to'
make some observations on the
war as he witnessed it from hit j
perspective.
"The first inkling I had t
something was wrong was w
heard a radio announcer say:!
Katavenu me Beirut moser, (our
correspondent from Beirut re-
ports ."). The media coverage]
of the fighting was unprecedent- ]
ed. Hour after hour, Israeli TV j
crews filled the screens not onlj|
with shots of the fighting but]
with programs featuring debate, (
among soldiers about the moral- <
ity of the war all this occurring
while the fighting was going on!
"My general impression is that]
this was a war, the first one in Is-
rael, that was waged without a
general consensus. I felt a cor-|
porate sense of sadness. The peo-1
pie were split, and you could feel
it clearly "
WHILE WIESEL is hesitant I
to comment on the moral issued
the war itself, he is not reticent to
speak to specific aspects of itt
conduct.
"I was horrified when, during!
the bombing of Beirut, organized
'missions' and tours went to the,
city to view the spectacle. Hen*
was a city in the process of being
mutilated; people were dying,
and tour buses were bringing
people to gawk."
A Midrash from Exodus cam*,
to Wiesel's mind to emphasize"
the point: "When the Egyptian!
are drowning in the Sea, and you
sing songs of rejoicing."
WIESEL'S moral position isi.
simple one. "I do believe in the"
double standard when it comes to
I srael. I am not embarrassed by
it. I believe that the State of Is-
rael should be better than other
states. What is Israel's purpose if
it is only to become another
Levantine entity?"
That is the message Wiesel
communicates to the students a
Yale (where he recently received
the Henry Luce Chair in Hu-
manities) and Boston University,
as well as to the thousands of
peoples he lectures to annually.
JTA Feature Syndicate
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