Professors' Israel Tour Plumbs Leaders' Opinions

Members of a group of academics who returned last week from a tour of Israel yesterday said the Israeli government is extremely satisfied with last month's disengagement agreement in the Sinai and identified the west bank of the Jordan River as the most intractable problem blocking a broad peace agreement in the Middle East.

The 22-member group, organized by Martin H. Peretz, lecturer on Social Studies, and Michael L. Walzer, professor of Government, spent ten days in Israel interviewing government officials, including Prime Minister Golda Meir, Defense Minister Moshe Dayan, and Foreign Minister Abba Eban.

The professors' visits with these leaders took place in the immediate aftermath of the successful air-shuttle diplomacy of Henry A. Kissinger '50, during which the disengagement plan was finalized.

The tour was sponsored by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and paid for by the Israeli government.

Egyptians Flexible

Peretz said yesterday that the disengagement agreement on the Egyptian front essentially paralleled Israeli proposals advanced in 1969 and 1970. The Egyptians were more flexible than the Israelis in the bargaining following the October ceasefire and Israel obtained more than it expected in the final agreement, Peretz quoted Israeli leaders as saying.

He added that Meir told the group that the reason such an agreement had not been reached before a war broke out was that the Egyptians "had no chips with which to bargain" before their military successes in the war.

The disengagement plan has fundamentally affected Israeli negotiating positions by taking away the offensive option of continuing a state of war both because the big powers have closed off this course and because the Israelis "recognize that capacity to win is no longer in itself a deterrent" in the wake of increased Arab military strength, one of the members of the group said yesterday.

Arabs Underrated

The Israelis are "thoroughly aware" that they underrated the Arabs both militarily and in their efforts to isolate Israel politically, and this has led to a leftward move in Israeli policy toward a more dovish political stance vis-a-vis the Arab countries, several members said.

This movement has been reflected in the Israeli policy toward giving up the occupied territories--chiefly meaning the west bank of the Jordan--as part of a comprehensive peace agreement. Walzer said Meir told the group that the so-called Allon Plan was now official Tel Aviv policy; previously it had been considered a somewhat dovish alternative.

The Allon Plan is named after Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Yigal Allon, who proposed it shortly after the 1967 war. The plan provides for Israeli surrender back to Jordan of all of the west bank except for a chain of fortified outposts along the Jordan River, with a corridor between the two ends of the pincer-like line of Israeli positions. The corridor would be gradually widened by Israeli withdrawals if peace then continued to prevail.

The professors said they believe that the issues of Israel's withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights were relatively easily solved, but that a solution to the west bank problem and a definition of the status of Jerusalem were issues requiring careful negotiations and much time, if they were to be settled at all.

They quoted many Israelis, including academic specialists in Arab affairs, as being generally pessimistic about this ultimately occurring.

Panel Discussion

Eight members of the group spoke yesterday at the Center for West European Studies in a panel discussion on their findings. The group has not issued a report, so each member spoke as an individual.

Peretz said the group was not restricted or limited by the Israeli government, even though the trip was government sponsored.

He added that he thought one of the reasons for the tour was so that the Israeli government could communicate to American intellectuals the multiplicity of political views within Israel.

"One of the points they were trying to make is that Americans, especially those of liberal or radical persuasion, feel that Israel has become a Sparta, a garrison state. If there is anywhere that is less like that it is Israel," Peretz said