U.S. Urges Israel to Accept U.N.’s Investigation

The Bush Administration, increasingly concerned that fallout from a bloody riot in Jerusalem is interfering with U.S. policy in the Persian Gulf, urged the Israeli government Monday to accept a United Nations investigation because continued resistance would let Iraq “off the hook.”

U.S. officials, who believed that they had averted a split in the international coalition against Iraq when they persuaded the U.N. Security Council to vote a mild censure of Israel, were shocked when Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir said he would not cooperate with a U.N. investigation of the killing of 21 Palestinian demonstrators by Israeli security forces.

“We want to see that U.N. resolution fully implemented,” President Bush told reporters aboard Air Force One on the flight from Washington to Dallas at the start of a two-day political trip to Texas and the Midwest.

“We were part of it, and we think it’s the right step,” he added.

State Department spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler said the U.S. government is “disappointed that the Israeli government has decided not to cooperate with the mission.” Later, she said: “We would like to see this issue concluded, and we hope that Israel will find a way to work with the secretary general’s representative.”

From the Bush Administration’s standpoint, the incident last week on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount--and Israel’s refusal to accept blame for use of excess force--is damaging on two levels:

First, it threatens to divert attention from Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait at a time when Washington had hoped to sharpen the political and economic sanctions against President Saddam Hussein’s government. U.S. officials plan to ask the U.N. Security Council to take additional steps against Iraq soon, probably starting with a threat to bring war crimes charges against Hussein for atrocities against civilians in Kuwait.

Secondly, by complaining that the United States had betrayed Israel because of its preoccupation with the Persian Gulf situation, Israeli authorities have saddled the Administration with a potentially damaging domestic political row. The controversy raises new questions about U.S. objectives in the gulf at a time when the Administration is struggling to prevent erosion of public support for its Middle East policy.

Tutwiler attempted to deal with the second problem by arguing that “our sense of concern over Israel’s handling of the situation would have led us to support (the U.N. Security Council) action regardless of the situation in the gulf.”

However, Secretary of State James A. Baker III warned Israel that Shamir’s refusal to cooperate with the U.N. mission both damages the campaign against Iraq and threatens to push Israel into the same category as Baghdad--nations that defy Security Council resolutions.

Baker’s warning was telephoned to the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv on Saturday with instructions that it be passed along to Israeli Foreign Minister David Levy as soon as possible, U.S. officials said.

The U.S. government had intended to keep the message secret, but a leaked account of it was published in Israel on Monday. A U.S. official said the published account accurately reflected the substance of the U.S. warning.

“The aggression of Saddam Hussein is the real issue the world should be concerned about,” Baker said, according to the Israeli account. “We want to keep that in focus, and you too should do that. This week we are requesting to go back to the Security Council with a new resolution on Iraqi aggression. Let’s not let Saddam Hussein off the hook.

“I wish to emphasize that if Israel rejects the Security Council decision, there will be some who will compare you, even though it is not justified, to Saddam Hussein and his rejection of Security Council decisions,” Baker said.

At the United Nations in New York, Israel’s decision to resist the secretary general’s mission set off an intense round of behind-the scenes negotiations.

Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar directed Johanan Bein, Israel’s U.N. representative, to ask his government if it would accept U.N. investigators after an Israeli commission finishes its report on the Jerusalem killings.

It is understood that Perez de Cuellar suggested that U.N. fact-finders could be given access, either in New York or in Israel, to some of the testimony taken by the Israeli commission. Perez de Cuellar also asked for additional clarifications of the Israeli position.

Bein said that during his meeting in the secretary general’s offices, he delivered “a full explanation why the government of Israel would not receive the delegation.”

“I transmitted to the secretary general the decision of the government of Israel which was announced on Sunday and which explains why the government of Israel regards the Security Council resolution as completely one-sided and therefore completely unacceptable,” he said. “We have established an independent commission of inquiry to establish the facts and draw conclusions.”

At the very least, by asking for clarifications, the secretary general appeared to have bought several days to continue his efforts to find means for the U.N. mission to visit Jerusalem in a way that it can carry out its fact-finding mandate.

Kempster reported from Washington and Goldman reported from the United Nations.