Lebanon War Called a ‘Diversion’ : U.S. Envoy to Israel Says It Stalled Mideast Peace Efforts

TEL AVIV — U.S. Ambassador Samuel W. Lewis says the Lebanon war was a “great diversion” that prevented a revival of Middle East peace efforts for almost three years.

“I think we would have gotten to the place we are now in trying to renew the peace process a lot sooner if there had been no Lebanon war,” Lewis told reporters during a weekend briefing.

The 54-year-old diplomat, due to retire at the end of the month after eight years as ambassador to Israel, helped negotiate the 1979 peace agreement between Egypt and Israel and the failed Lebanon-Israel accord of May 17, 1983.

‘Impossible to Continue’

“I think that the whole Lebanon war and the Lebanon era was a . . . great diversion that made it impossible for Israel, the United States or Jordan to seek a way to continue the peace process,” Lewis said.

He suggested that efforts to restart peace talks and involve Jordan were progressing well until Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in June, 1982.

Peace efforts initially stalled in 1980 after Jordan and the Palestinians refused to join the U.S.-sponsored Egyptian-Israeli talks on autonomy for the 1.3 million residents of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Lewis said one reason the autonomy talks failed was the policy of former Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin to press ahead with the construction of new Jewish settlements in the West Bank, despite an understanding that they would be curtailed.

Restraint Expected

“Whether there was to be a freeze (on settlement-building) or not, I think there was a legitimate expectation that during the period of negotiations of autonomy arrangements, maximum restraint would be used on the settlements in order to give the Palestinians . . . a sense of confidence about the process,” Lewis said.

“There was some limited restraint for a while, but it didn’t last very long. I do think the settlement policy conducted over those years was a factor in discouraging autonomy negotiations from success.”

Lewis said current peace efforts that focus on creating a joint Jordan-Palestinian delegation to negotiate with Israel show some promise of success.

“I think there is for the first time in several years enough motion . . . to give me some very modest hope that within a matter of months one might be able to launch direct negotiations,” he said.

The major stumbling block has been the role of Yasser Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Organization. Jordan and Egypt have insisted on Palestinian participation in any talks. Israel has refused to deal with the PLO, which it says is bent on destroying the Jewish state. The U.S. position is that it will not deal with the PLO until it forswears terrorism and recognizes Israel’s right to exist.

No Change Needed

Lewis said he believes a compromise can be reached without a change in either U.S. or Israeli policy regarding the PLO.

“We do think it is possible to solve this question of representation by stressing the selection of individuals rather than looking at categories,” the ambassador said.

One solution that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has hinted at in the past would involve choosing Palestinians who are not known PLO members, but who are trusted by the organization, to participate in the negotiations.