S. Africa Blames U.S. for Israeli Trade Curbs

Israel’s adoption of sanctions against South Africa was “a direct result of pressure by the United States,” Foreign Minister Roelof F. (Pik) Botha said Friday.

Leaders of South Africa’s small but influential Jewish community sought to steer a cautious middle course, condemning both sanctions and apartheid.

South Africa formally protested to Foreign Minister Shimon Peres in a letter delivered by the South African Embassy Charge d’Affaires, Johann Kilian, a ministry official said in Jerusalem. He insisted on anonymity.

Foreign Ministry officials in Pretoria refused to confirm this, saying Botha’s statement was the only official comment on the Israeli Cabinet decision Wednesday to ban new military contracts with South Africa and cut trade and cultural ties.

“The decision of the Israeli government is clearly a direct result of pressure by the United States,” Botha said. “The measures announced, however, do not go further than those adopted by European countries.”

The Israeli announcement was greeted with dismay by critics as well as supporters of South Africa’s white-led government.

‘Stab a Friend’

The Star in Johannesburg said: “Israel has been handed a knife and told to stab a friend--or be stabbed instead.”

The state-controlled South African Broadcasting Corp. said in a radio commentary, “One sad aspect of this development is the international blackmail role--the bully boy tactics--that the United States Congress has now resorted to in its vendetta against South Africa.”

A U.S. report to be released April 1 is expected to list Israel as one of Pretoria’s five top weapons traders. Israel feared the report would lead to pressure for a cutoff in U.S. military aid, which totals about $1.3 billion this year.

The U.N. Security Council approved an international embargo on arms sales to South Africa in 1977. South Africa now manufactures about 90% of its own arms.

The South African Jewish Board of Deputies said that Israel “has been subjected to significant pressures from the United States.”

Sanctions and disinvestment, the group declared, “undermine the ability to create conditions in which steps can be taken toward the achievement of an apartheid-free and just society in which all the peoples can attain their legitimate aspirations.”

Jewish Community of 120,000

The board added that South Africa’s 120,000 Jews hope Israel’s decision will not impair a relationship “based on deep-rooted religious and cultural affiliations.”

In Jerusalem, Moshe Arens, Israeli minister without portfolio, Friday defended Israeli weapons sales to South Africa.

“Israel has to export arms to maintain a defense industry without which this country could not survive,” Arens told a group of American Jewish leaders.

“In 1973 Israel found itself isolated and beleaguered in Africa with countries which long benefited from relations with us cutting ties in hope of Arab cash from the oil boom,” Arens said.

“To find a country then that would be helpful to us in our hour of need was not easy. But the South African government was one such government which was ready to help,” he said.