292. Telegram From the Department of State to the Embassy in Israel1
243592. Subject: Secretary’s Meeting With Weizman.
1. (Secret entire text.)
2. Secretary and Weizman met for about hour and one-quarter late afternoon September 14, following meetings at Pentagon2 that lasted through morning and early afternoon. With Weizman were Evron, General Tamir and Col. Tehila. With the Secretary were Ambassador Strauss, Saunders, Draper, Hunter and Korn. Following are main points of the discussion.
3. Weizman opened with discussion of Israel’s need to assure itself of modern fighter aircraft and tanks for the 1980s and its desire to produce the F–18 or an Israeli equivalent thereof. This, Weizman argued, makes sense not only for Israel but for the US, since Israel’s producing its fighter aircraft would ease the political burden on the US; for example, if Israel hadn’t produced the Kfir3 it would have had to ask the United States to furnish an equivalent number of aircraft. Israeli production of aircraft would also reduce Israel’s need for US financial assistance. Secretary thanked Weizman for his presentation and said he would be discussing the matter with Brown.
4. Turning to autonomy negotiations, Weizman said that as we knew “I’ve been autonomous on autonomy.” He had not been very happy about the way the negotiations were being conducted. GOI wants to carry out what it signed but the country is in a state of “internal crisis” and there is a lot of doubt and negative feeling about the idea of autonomy. Israeli public is uneasy and suspects that the whole point of Camp David as the Americans see it is to get Israel out of the West Bank and Gaza and set up an independent Palestinian state there. Noting that position taken by the Egyptians at Haifa was “rather mild,” Weizman said he expected Israel would have fewer problems with Egypt in the negotiations than with the United States. Weizman said the course to take is to stick to Camp David and make it work. Secretary [Page 943] and Ambassador Strauss said we agree entirely; our common objective is to make Camp David work. Secretary pointed out that Israeli fears that the US is trying to make the West Bank and Gaza into an independent state are unfounded and reviewed history of negotiations that led up to the accords.
5. Secretary said he would like to discuss Lebanon. Weizman said he expected that and asked if he could lead off. Obviously primed for the subject, Weizman then launched into a long and impassioned discourse. Fact that situation is currently quiet in southern Lebanon is mainly result of Israel’s policy, Weizman argued, though efforts of US had contributed. Basic problem is that there is no authority in Lebanon. Lebanese Government doesn’t control the country, Palestinians have wrought havoc and Syrians are in occupation of large areas; order reigns only in the Haddad area, Weizman said, terming Haddad a “genuine nationalist” and a “great man.” On top of all this there are ten to fifteen thousand armed Palestinians in Lebanon and when bombs go off in Israel terrorist headquarters in Tyre, Sidon and Beirut claim credit. What, Weizman asked, can you do with a country that harbors thousands of armed terrorists and allows its territory to be used freely to attack its neighbor? Haddad was doing a good job but couldn’t stop all attacks on Israel. UN was doing its best but there were 500 armed PLO in their area; and Israeli forces were working overtime to prevent attacks. In the past four months Israel had gone out and gotten the terrorists, and for that reason terrorists had not managed to carry out any major actions against Israel during that period. As a result the PLO had taken out its frustration on Haddad and “made life miserable for him,” Weizman said.
6. The question for Israel, Weizman said, is what does it do when it gets information that a terrorist group is getting ready to hit it? Should it wait and try to catch them or go out and get them? After returning to this point several times, Weizman said that if terrorists keep quiet, Israel will too. But if it learns that terrorists are on their way to kill Israelis he would not recommend to the cabinet that the IDF simply wait for them to arrive. Weizman repeated that in his view the current quiet is a direct result of the hard hitting done by the IDF.
7. The Secretary said we don’t question Israel’s right to defend itself but realistically both the Israelis and we know that Israel has been hurt badly by the devastation it has wrought in Lebanon. The war in Lebanon has been covered on prime time TV both in this country and in Europe, and people’s attitudes have been seriously affected by what they’ve seen. Secretary stressed that Israelis must find some different way to deal with the terrorist threat. Secretary explained that we have mounted a major effort to bring about a truce, a lasting end to the violence, and that we have been dealing through third countries in an ef[Page 944]fort to rein in the PLO. Secretary again stressed that Israel’s actions in Lebanon have done it great damage and urged that Weizman give thought to what Israel could contribute to making the truce stick, since that is so much in its best interest. Weizman said he would do so. Israelis had for some time wanted to talk to Lebanese Foreign Minister Boutros but Boutros had refused. Weizman returned to the point that the problem is that the Government of Lebanon doesn’t control Lebanon, again argued that it is Israeli actions that have brought current calm and remarked that Egyptians have not said anything to Israel about its actions in Lebanon. Secretary observed that Israelis are using American—not Egyptian—weapons in Lebanon.
8. Weizman said he would do his best to hold back but if things blow up again Israel would probably have to be more severe and might have to go into Lebanon again for an even longer time than before. Secretary pointed out that that would be even more damaging to Israel and urged again that Weizman think about ways to make the cease-fire lasting. Ambassador Strauss urged that Israel take advantage of the opportunity to get the edge on the PLO by announcing a moratorium on violence. Secretary seconded this suggestion.
- Source: National Archives, RG 59, Central Foreign Policy File, P850050–2003. Secret; Immediate; Nodis. Drafted by Korn; cleared by Stapleton (S/S–O) and Draper; approved by Saunders. Sent for information Immediate to Cairo, Jerusalem, Beirut, and the White House.↩
- The memorandum of conversation for Weizman’s September 14 meeting with Brown at the Department of Defense is in the Washington National Records Center, OSD Files, FRC 330–82–0205, Israel Oct 1979.↩
- The Kfir fighter jet was first built for the Israeli Air Force by Israel Aerospace Industries in 1975, and entered service in 1976.↩