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The Jerusalem Post blasted the regime's response as "irrelevant" and "neither a yes, nor a no, nor even a maybe" —although, in fact, it confirmed Begin's continued unwillingness to give up any part of what he regards as the historic land of Israel. The mass-circulation daily Ha'aretz noted: "If even members of the Israeli Cabinet voted against the reply, one can hardly expect the Israeli answer to be welcomed enthusiastically in Cairo." Ma'ariv, the afternoon daily, was equally foreboding. "It may be possible to gain a few weeks' breathing space," said the paper. "But it will not be possible to ease American pressure or improve relations with Washington, which are at a distressingly low level." On the same theme, Post Columnist Meir Mer-hav predicted: "There will be a gradual disengagement, not between us and the Arabs, but between the U.S. and Israel. Formerly open doors will become closed, listening ears will turn deaf, and warm sympathy will become icy scrutiny."
Indeed, the U.S. response was chilly. While the State Department, after a three-day pause, merely expressed "regret" that Israel had not been more forthcoming, Washington's mood was spelled out more bluntly by one of Israel's leading champions, New York's Republican Senator Jacob Javits. On the Senate floor, Javits said unhappily that the Begin government's answer was "a disappointment," a petulant declaration that is "the wrong signal, at the wrong time, and argues with the wrong party ... I hope this is not Israel's last word."
Israel, Javits added, must "come forward with a more precise statement of its views as to the permanent status of the West Bank and Gaza." Otherwise, he said, the U.S. might be driven to try to impose its own peace plan on the Israelis and Arabs alike.
Javits also rapped Sadat for not following up his peace initiative with much more than "public rhetoric," and he urged the Egyptian to take a more active role in the negotiations. Yet all that certain U.S. Jewish organizations and "spokesmen" seemed to notice were the Senator's comments on Israeli policy. Some organizations, like the American Jewish Committee, backed Javits and described him as "a very, very good friend of Israel." Other groups had much different feelings. The American Jewish Congress, which tends to shoot from the hip and almost automatically supports Israel's position in any Middle East argument, criticized Javits for climbing aboard the "Let's-put-more-pressure-on-Israel bandwagon." Richard Cohen, a New York spokesman of that organization, declared: "We believe that the life-and-death decisions involving Israel's security can only be made by the people who will have to pay with their lives for those decisions." National Director Bonnie Pechter of the radical Jewish Defense League angrily denounced the Senator as "a Jew who has forgotten he's Jewish."