Shamir Calls Differences With U.S. ‘Normal’ : Israel: His comment underscores the fact that the two nations still have not agreed on the next step toward Mideast peace.

At the end of a trying visit to America, Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir of Israel said Sunday that the drum-rolls of discontent in the United States over Israeli peace efforts in the Mideast are merely the sound of “normal differences” between good friends.

“There were always differences about some issues between the United States and Israel,” Shamir said. “I think it would be not normal if it was otherwise.”

Just the fact that the prime minister had to voice what might otherwise pass without saying between old allies underscored bilateral disappointment: The two countries still have not reached agreement on the next difficult and crucial step toward peace between Israel and the Palestinians in Israeli-occupied territories.

It also reflected the sharp U.S. complaints that Shamir heard on this trip about Israel’s military cooperation with South Africa.

“We still have a long way to make together,” he said of the United States and Israel.

At a breakfast meeting with the editor and other journalists of The Times, Shamir marveled at the lightning velocity of political change in Eastern Europe, as old enemies break down the walls that separate them and where democracy is spreading at a gallop. But in the Mideast, he cautioned, lasting solutions between embittered foes “will take years.”

“Unfortunately, at this moment in the Arab world, democracy doesn’t have any meaning,” Shamir said.

In expressions of optimism, however, Shamir said Israel’s relations with East Bloc countries are improving. Full diplomatic ties with the Soviet Union “I think will come soon,” he said.

He described as “a miracle” Israel’s newly restored diplomatic relations with Ethiopia, which has opened the door for 18,000 Ethiopian Jews to emigrate to Israel. This will reunite many families who were separated in 1985 when Israel secretly airlifted 12,000 Ethiopian Jews out of Sudan in a storied move called Operation Moses.

As Israel improves relations with other countries and brings on new waves of immigration, however, its economy is put under great strain, Shamir said, but Israel will cope. “I am sure we will solve it. We have no choice.”

But not alone, he added. “We are looking for the help of all our friends all over the world to help us in building housing and, what is more difficult, to prepare jobs,” he said. “I think in the next few years, this will be the main subject on our agenda.”

Shamir wrapped up this U.S. visit with a three-day stop in Los Angeles, where he spoke to the World Affairs Council on Friday and was the featured guest Sunday night at a dinner benefiting the Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies. En route to the West, he spoke to the General Assembly of the Council of Jewish Federations meeting in Cincinnati.

He met Wednesday with President Bush--a meeting that in planning, execution and aftermath seemed designed by U.S. officials to emphasize the Bush Administration’s impatience over the lack of progress toward Israel’s stated goal of conducting elections in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Secretary of State James A. Baker III has proposed a five-point plan to try to draw Israel into its first-ever direct negotiations with Palestinians. But both Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization have attached conflicting conditions to acceptance of the plan.

Shamir said that his “differences” with the Bush Administration were not unlike those that Israel has had with Presidents Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter.

“You know that in the press appear various assessments and descriptions,” Shamir said to Times journalists at the breakfast Sunday, “but this doesn’t change the facts. And the facts, the meaning of the facts, are that close and friendly relations between the two countries, Israel and the United States, including strategic cooperation, continue without any obstacles.”

But, he added, “in the Congress it is a different story.”

He referred specifically to a closed-door meeting with a select group of Congress members who had complained sharply about Israeli-South Africa military ties. Bush has also raised the subject.

Shamir picked his words carefully: “The spirit of these discussions was friendly--enough.”

As for a solution: “We have tried to analyze it and to understand the concerns about it. . . . We decided to have further opportunities to discuss it.”

Shamir told the President that Israel decided two years ago to sever its military cooperation with South Africa but would honor contracts “until they expire.”

During past visits, Shamir has said the policies of Israel enjoy nearly unanimous support from American Jews. This time, though, Shamir was faced with important notices of dissent from the U.S. Jewish community.

Foremost was a public letter signed last Thursday by 41 American Jewish leaders who told Shamir that “most American Jews” disagree with his steadfast reluctance to consider giving up occupied lands in exchange for guaranteed peace.

U.S. policy officially seeks such an exchange. But it was considered an important milestone when prominent members of the mainstream U.S. Jewish community publicly disagreed with the basic peace policy of an Israeli prime minister.

In reply, Shamir said, “Well, you know, in any democratic society you rarely see unanimous support for anything. The problem is: Where is the majority?”

He answered his own question, saying he believes “the great majority of American Jewry supports the policy of the national unity government in Israel.”

Times staff writer Norman Kempster, in Washington, contributed to this story.