Long Shadow of the Reactor

The raid hangs over the Israeli election and the region's future

It was his last big chance for victory, and he made the most of the opportunity. In a televised debate with Prime Minister Menachem Begin, Labor Party Leader Shimon Peres charged that his opponent not only was responsible for Israel's faltering economy but that he and his Likud coalition had fought a dirty election campaign. Declared Peres: "There was an attempt at character assassination of me as a man, and of Labor as a party." Peres called the campaign "the most violent, the most insulting, the most difficult that Israel has ever known."

In his most condescending manner, Begin urged his opponent to be calm ("Sit down and be quiet, Mr. Peres, and teach yourself some precision") and defended his spotty economic record as well as he could--a claimed 13.5% rise in real wages during his four years in office. (Understandably, he said nothing about Israel's 130% inflation rate.)

Peres accused Begin of making "highflying speeches" about the Syrian missile crisis, and criticized the bombing of the Iraqi nuclear reactor because it jeopardized the Egyptian-Israeli peace process and put Egyptian President Anwar Sadat "in an impossible position." Begin replied that Sadat was still friendly toward him. As the campaign headed into this week's election, some polls showed Likud in the lead, 39% to 32%, but others called the race virtually even. Trying to pick up the large number of undecided votes, Peres offered the post of Defense Minister in his shadow cabinet to former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, a longtime foe.

Meanwhile, a broader debate raged over the wisdom of Israel's raid on the Iraqi reactor. At a committee meeting in the Knesset, Begin said that U.S. authorities had given him a document that supported his suspicions that Iraq was indeed planning to build a bomb. In fact, the document, although raising concerns about Iraq's ultimate intentions, stopped far short of what Begin claimed. Admitted a highly placed Israeli source: "The aim of the paper was to play down the possible danger of the reactor."

The main casualty of the Israeli attack on the reactor appeared to be the peace mission of U.S. Special Envoy Philip Habib and his efforts to resolve the issue posed by Syria's missiles in Lebanon. Even the moderate Saudis were distinctly cool during Habib's last round of visits before he headed home for consultations. Said a Lebanese official who is in close touch with the Palestinians: "The Arabs view the raid on Iraq as a demonstration that the Israelis are America's policeman in the Middle East."

Another aftermath of the raid was the appeal last week by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein for international help to provide the Arabs with nuclear bombs. This, said Saddam, would establish "a balance of terror" between the Arabs and Israel. Begin seized on Saddam's statements as proof that Israel had been right in its contention that Iraq was developing nuclear weapons and thus justified in bombing the facility. Moshe Dayan, former Israeli Foreign Minister, then became the first leading Israeli politician to admit publicly that Israel has "the ability to quickly produce nuclear weapons." However, Israel has said nothing about allegations that it already has a nuclear arsenal.

About the only good news in the region last week was the fact that the U.S., Israel and Egypt had finally agreed on the multinational force that will police the Sinai after the final Israeli withdrawal next year. About half of the 2,500-man unit will be American, with the remainder coming from Australia, Canada, Ecuador and other countries. At least the basic Camp David peace accord was still intact, even if the Israeli-Egyptian normalization process had lost some momentum.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.