Word: young
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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After waiting a few days, the Israelis made public the Young-Terzi meeting, presumably to interrupt the U.S. encounters with the P.L.O. But Young feels that Jerusalem might have had another motive in breaking the news. He told TIME: "I think the Israelis were after the President, and I think we have desperately got to move the Camp David discussions forward. But Israel does not want to move anywhere. Nobody in Israel is capable of statesmanship at this time because everybody's playing domestic politics...
Israel leaked the fact that Young and Terzi had met to Newsweek magazine. That prompted a query to the State Department. This was the first that Foggy Bottom had heard of the matter and Young was asked for an explanation. His story: he had been out strolling with his son, decided to stop in to see Bishara, and there accidentally found Terzi, with whom he engaged in nothing more than "15 or 20 minutes of social amenities." Later, when this account was branded a lie, Young did some semantic acrobatics. "I did not lie, I didn't tell...
Secretary Vance, flying back from a visit to Ecuador, got a cable informing him of Young's explanation. Naturally believing his ambassador and relieved at hearing that this had been only a chance encounter, rather than a violation of the U.S. pledge on the P.L.O., Vance authorized State Department Spokesman Tom Reston to release Young's explanation. He did so Monday noon...
With the news of some kind of a meeting out, Young decided to call on Israel's U.N. Ambassador Yehuda Blum, a Czechoslovakian-born expert on international law. What Young especially wanted to accomplish, he said, was to assure the Israelis that they were wrong to feel that "there was some grand conspiracy to change our policy toward the P.L.O...
That was exactly what Young already intended to do. During his 90-minute talk with Carter in the Executive Mansion's family quarters, the ambassador offered to resign. Young later hinted that he might have been able to keep his job if "I could promise that I wouldn't continue creating incidents. But I can't promise that." But some White House aides quibble with Young's recollection; they say that the President did not give his errant ambassador any real alternative to resignation...