Word: rabin
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...provide more than that for Egypt. As Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said last week, "I wouldn't be surprised to find a rifle or two on the list." But such arms deliveries may have trouble getting by a tough "Israel lobby" in Congress, especially since Israeli Premier Yitzhak Rabin promised that his government would oppose them...
...signifies a key change in governmental policy. But by and large, policy statements from Israel are taken at face value, as they probably should be, and little code-reading goes on. That Israel has not been treated as a political mystery-land is in a way unfortunate for the Rabin government, since within the last month an internal personnel change has taken place which might be a signal for a major change in policy. Shlomo Avineri, a noted scholar of Marx and Hegel who served as Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem...
...Avineri appointment does not point however, to a substantive change in Israel's position on negotiations with the Arabs. It is probably no more than an indication of the desire of the Rabin government--a government headed by a former professional soldier and composed in large part of men who have made their careers in politics--to develop a better working relationship with the academic community. It is possible that Foreign Minister Yigal Allon, who apparently was the moving force behind the Avineri appointment, is seeking to establish the Foreign Ministry as the conciliatory, doveish wing of the government...
Nonetheless, from a public relations standpoint, Israel would have done well to use the appointment to set critics of Israeli policy slightly off balance--the speculation about whether a new set of peace proposals was in the offing could have given Rabin and his government a brief respite from condemnation and rhetorical attack by most of the world, including Israel's former allies in Western Europe. Unfortunately, no such public relations opportunity is available, since Israel has never been a code decipherer's paradise, and the Avineri appointment remained no more than an Associated Press dispatch...
...Before Rabin flew to the U.S., Labor expected to win the next election handily. Now the Premier appears to be on a kind of political probation. Israeli voters are in a hawkish mood these days, even though hawkishness in the past has achieved far less for Israel than moderation and openness to negotiation. Remembering David Ben-Gurion and Golda Meir, Israelis seem to be looking for more charisma than Rabin can provide. Meanwhile, he is being pushed by his opposition. Shimon Peres has indicated that if he decides he cannot go along with any government policy, he will bolt...