U.S. to Sign Order Reaffirming Ties to Israel

In an affirmation of U.S. support for Israel, President Reagan is expected to sign an order today spelling out the already close military and economic ties between the two countries, a step intended to make it more difficult for any future President to erode any part of the relationship.

Administration officials said Wednesday that the memorandum of understanding institutionalizes existing U.S.-Israeli agreements without adding to them. Nevertheless, the measure is considered highly symbolic because it occurs at a time when Israel is coming under increasing criticism for its tactics in trying to contain the Palestinian uprising in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir long has sought such a codification of the Washington-Jerusalem relationship. A White House official said the action was controversial within the Administration, with some policy-makers opposing it because Shamir does not accept Secretary of State George P. Shultz’s Mideast peace initiative. Others supported it as a step that might soften Shamir’s objections to the U.S. plan.

“The basic reason we’re doing it is because George Shultz wants to do it,” out of hopes that it will make Shamir more amenable to U.S. proposals, the official said.

“Anything he (Shultz) wants right now, he’s going to be able to get” as a result of his role in pressing the peace process, the official added.

Shultz has vowed to press ahead with his effort to bring Israel and its Arab adversaries to the negotiating table, even though the assassination last weekend of a key Palestine Liberation Organization official, Khalil Wazir, seems to have hardened Arab opposition to any talks with Israel.

A State Department official said the memorandum of understanding provides for making permanent a joint political-military group founded in 1983 to plan strategic cooperation, joint military exercises and similar activities. The memo also formalizes a joint military assistance program intended to assess Israel’s long-range weapons requirements and a joint economic planning group.

Although any future President would have the legal power to change the Reagan order, he would have to put the revisions into writing, a step that might be politically sensitive because of Israel’s strong support in Congress. Without the Reagan order, a future Administration could change any of the policies without the formalities.

A White House official said critics of the plan within the Administration argued that the memo was not needed. “You never like to put things in writing that aren’t substantive,” he said. “Since we’re already doing this stuff, why do you have to sign a memorandum of understanding?”