110. Memorandum From the President’s Assistant for Domestic Affairs and Policy (Eizenstat) to President Carter1

SUBJECT

  • Israeli Settlements Announcement

I would like to report a conversation which I had with Minister Hanon Bar-on, who is second in the Israeli embassy to Ambassador Dinitz. Mr. Bar-on had called me to discuss some economic issues. During the course of our conversation I expressed concern about the Israeli announcement on strengthening existing settlements. I indicated to him that it was very poorly timed and not conducive to the peace process. His reply is instructive and I thought you should have his view. He stated that while the visit of Assistant Secretary Harold Saunders to the Middle East was not widely reported in the United States, that it caused an absolute furor in Israel. He indicated that Mr. Saunders’ provocative statements2 stretch beyond any reasonable meaning of the Camp David accords and that together with the United States’ answers to King Hussein’s questions provoked an uproar in Israel. He indicated that just as we felt the timing of the settlements was ill-timed, so, too, did they feel that Saunders’ visit and statements and the United States’ answers were ill-timed. He stated that all of this had made the situation extremely difficult for Prime Minister Begin. The Cabinet debate which resulted was very heated and Begin, Dayan and Weizman did as much as possible to keep the situation together. He said that the Cabinet statement was undoubtedly in response to the above factors and would probably not have occurred otherwise.

  1. Source: Carter Library, White House Central File, Box CO–34, CO 74 3/1/78–1/20/81. Administratively Confidential; Personal. At the top of the memorandum, Carter wrote: “Stu—Begin’s statements are endangering the peace treaty. He’s blaming his displeasure on Saunders, who simply delivered our answers to Hussein’s questions. J.”
  2. See footnote 2, Document 100.