(2 of 3)
A case can be made that the U.S. plan is indeed evenhanded. It offers Israel a way to unload the West Bank, which it cannot keep without making a fourth of its population Arab. It also provides what may well be the only moral (if not necessarily realistic) solution to the tragic dilemma of the displaced Palestinians by allowing them to choose between compensation or repatriation. Yet the plan appeared to irritate almost everyone concerned. Moscow dismissed it as an attempt "to disunite the Arab countries." Egypt's President Nasser said that no matter what the plan proposed, "American imperialistic policy is [still] behind Israel." The Israelis argued that the U.S. was giving the Arabs most of what they demanded without any commitment from them to enter peace talks.
Strong Language. The U.S. plan, in any case, created a government crisis. Ambassador Yitzhak Rabin was summoned home from Washington for a special Cabinet meeting. Deputy Premier Yigal Allon, in an interview with TIME Correspondent Marlin Levin, rejected the proposals in unusually strong language. The U.S. Jewish community was anguished by the deepest rift between the U.S. and Israel since Washington forced Israeli withdrawal from Arab territory seized during the 1956 Suez crisis. Leaders of 14 Jewish organizations called on Rogers, and a heated two-hour meeting ensued. They counterpointed another group—including Chase Manhattan Bank President David Rockefeller and other businessmen with substantial Middle East interests—that had been closeted earlier last month with Richard Nixon. Rockefeller was fresh from a meeting with Nasser, and he and the others warned of the dangers that a one-sided Middle East policy could cause. Washington, in fact, may not be altogether unhappy over the ferocity of Israel's objections. The louder the complaints, the more evenhanded the policy may appear to suspicious Arabs.
Some Israeli officials conceded last week that perhaps they have been misjudging U.S. policy for months. The shift, after all, has not been that sudden. Because Mrs. Meir was warmly welcomed when she visited the U.S. three months ago, Israel's public, basking in the glow, paid little attention to the fact that she returned from Washington virtually emptyhanded, or to Ambassador Rabin's warnings that relations were deteriorating. The only major assistance that the U.S. has given Israel during the Nixon Administration—50 Phantom jets—was originally approved during the Johnson Administration. Nothing more has been forthcoming; another 25 Phantoms requested by Israel's Premier have not been delivered.
Does Rogers really believe that the U.S. can force Israel to accept the proposed terms? Probably not; the Israelis insist that they will never accept an "imposed solution." Moreover, the Russians have engineered a 180° shift and announced that they would not accept the feature of the U.S. plan that would probably be most acceptable to the Israelis—Israeli-Arab negotiations, by means of a mediator who would carry one side's proposals to the other.