Middle East Brief Encounters

By Robert T. Zintl

Initially, the trip had been planned as a senior statesman's pilgrimage to Yad Vashem, Israel's memorial to the Holocaust. But by the time U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz arrived in Jerusalem last week, his first visit to the Middle East in nearly two years was freighted with diplomatic responsibilities: assuring Israel, Egypt and Jordan of U.S. interest in reviving the stalled Middle East peace process and soothing Israelis offended by President Reagan's Bitburg visit.

Although Shultz's homage to the Holocaust victims had been scheduled several months ago, it became particularly important after the Bitburg controversy. Israeli Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin called Reagan's visit to the German military cemetery a "historic mistake"; Yitzhak Arad, chairman of the Yad Vashem Commission, later told Shultz that the event was "painful" for Israelis.

At Yad Vashem, Shultz laid a wreath at the stark, imposing monument. He declared that the Holocaust was the reason that "the American people are forever committed to the security of Israel." Said Shultz: "We honor the pledge of 'Never Again' by standing beside the state of Israel."

After meeting with Israeli leaders, the Secretary was to fly to Cairo for a get-together with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, and then to the Red Sea port of Aqaba for discussions with Jordan's King Hussein. The King has been urging Washington to assume a role in mediating direct negotiations between Israel and a joint Jordanian-Palestinian negotiating team. But few of the participants were hopeful that his visit would get Hussein's proposal off the ground.

The best that Shultz and Hussein could expect from their meeting would be agreement on a list of Palestinians acceptable to the U.S.--and, by extension, to Israel--as negotiators. While the U.S. has promised Israel that it will not talk with members of the Palestine Liberation Organization (P.L.O.), the State Department said last week that it would not object to representatives of the Palestine National Council (P.N.C.), the Palestinian parliament in exile. The U.S. concession at first seemed agreeable to P.L.O. Chairman Yasser Arafat, but was later repudiated by some of his aides. The Israelis were equally divided. Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir insisted that P.N.C. members "are the same as P.L.O. people." But one senior official encouraged "any contact with non-P.L.O. members that is conducive to direct talks with Israel."

The Hussein-Arafat proposal has already come under attack from Syrian President Hafez Assad, who calls it "the policy of the surrenderists" and insists that any talks that do not include an international conference under U.N. auspices would be hostile to Arab interests. Assad pledged last month to defeat any U.S. peace undertaking in the Middle East. Said he: "The U.S. is only interested in securing the aggressive interests of its spoiled ally, Israel."

Syrian determination to impose a settlement of the continuing civil war in Lebanon was also in evidence last week. Under intense pressure from Damascus, the Lebanese Forces, a 6,000-strong Christian militia, replaced its commander, Samir Geagea, with Elias Hobeika. Geagea had instigated a revolt last March against President Amin Gemayel, accusing him of doing Syria's bidding. Geagea's downfall was marked by intense fighting in Beirut along the "green line" dividing the Christian and the predominantly Muslim sectors. Hobeika is the man who led the Phalangists into the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps south of Beirut in September 1982, where they murdered 700 to 800 Palestinian and Lebanese civilians. In assuming his new command, he declared that "the Lebanese option is an Arab one." But, he conceded, Syria will have a major role in the country's future.

With reporting by John Borrell/Beirut and Johanna McGeary with Shultz