Tales of Henry, Told Out of School

Did Henry Kissinger once describe former Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban as "a man who cannot get into an elevator without holding a press conference"? Does the U.S. Secretary of State dislike conferences with Japanese because "they smell of fish"? Does it offend him that Syrian President Hafez Assad picks his nose during negotiations and that, when all is finally agreed upon, he "cannot be depended upon and is totally irresponsible"? Is it Kissinger's estimate of Defense Secretary James R. Schlesinger that "you cannot talk to that man"? Is it true that Soviet Party Boss Leonid Brezhnev dutifully spouted the orthodox Communist line during a session with Kissinger at the Kremlin, dismissed his official stenographer and then confided: "That was for the benefit of the Chinese. Now we can talk freely"?

Those and other items of Kissingeriana were circulating in Israel last week in the wake of a controversy over a new book that was banned by the military censor on orders from Premier Yitzhak Rabin. Rabin not only ordered suppression of the book, which was written by Newsman Matti Golan, 38, but also the seizure of all five manuscript copies known to exist. Rabin's explanation was that publication of the book would be disastrous for Israeli-American relations, would threaten the flow of American arms to Israel and might even force Kissinger's resignation.

Rabin's stern Diktat was not unprecedented; former Minister Eban was prohibited from publishing his diplomatic memoirs of the Six-Day War. Large portions of Golan's 300-page review of the Yom Kippur War and its diplomatic aftermath consisted of official documents tied together with transitional passages. As diplomatic correspondent of the fiercely independent Hebrew-language daily Ha'aretz (circ. 55,000), Golan obviously had access to top-level sources, possibly within Israel's notoriously leaky Cabinet. Along with trading Kissinger stories last week, Israelis debated the identity of their own Deep Throat.

Leaked Details. Eban was proposed as a possibility, since he is a close friend of Golan. Another possibility was former Information Minister Aharon Yariv, who as an army general conducted the Kilometer 101 talks with Egypt that led to disengagement in the Sinai; the talks figure importantly in Golan's book. Ambassador to the U.S. Simcha Dinitz was a third suspect, since he could have provided some of the Washington tidbits in the book; Dinitz was former Premier Golda Meir's top political assistant and presumably was well briefed on even her private conversations with Kissinger. Rabin has promised to root out the informers, but when TIME Correspondent Marlin Levin asked Golan last week if he expected his sources to be uncovered, the writer replied, "Never!"

Rabin already had the power, carried over by Israel from the British Mandate in Palestine, to censor the book. But he also successfully sought from the Knesset additional authority in this case to investigate the source of leaks harmful to the state. Two weeks ago he summoned Israeli newspaper editors and demanded their "cooperation" in keeping the incident quiet. Nevertheless, leaked details spread by word of mouth until the government was finally forced to make the story--but not the book--public.

Golan, a nonpracticing lawyer who joined Ha'aretz six years ago, consistently scooped his opposition on details of disengagement negotiations after the war. Syria's Assad reportedly complained to Kissinger that everything the two agreed upon appeared almost immediately in Ha 'aretz. More recently Golan published the first stories about the secret visit of Soviet officials to Israel to discuss renewal of diplomatic relations.

The book, which took seven months to complete under a working title, Kissinger in the Middle East, sought to demonstrate "the mechanics of diplomacy." It is known to quote Israeli memoranda to the effect that Kissinger was not keen on negotiating an overly quick cease-fire in the Yom Kippur War; he wanted the fighting to end with a stalemate. Accordingly, when the Israelis appeared to be gaining the upper hand, he arranged cease-fire terms .with Brezhnev in Moscow--but without first informing the Israelis. When Mrs. Meir rebuked him for not consulting with her, he pleaded "a technical breakdown in my plane's communications" and hinted at Soviet sabotage--"the price you pay when you negotiate in Moscow."

Lock and Key. The book is also believed to report that Kissinger had promised Egyptian President Anwar Sadat that the Egyptian Third Army, encircled by Israeli forces that had seized the West Bank of the Suez Canal, would be given control of an access road so that it could be resupplied with badly needed food and water. When Golda Meir insisted that her forces control the road, Kissinger flew to Cairo expecting a harsh rebuke. But Sadat was so anxious to save his surrounded troops that he overlooked Kissinger's broken promise and agreed to Israeli control. Kissinger misjudged Sadat's mood on a second occasion when he told Mrs. Meir that the Egyptian President would never permit direct talks on disengagement at Kilometer 101 along the Cairo-Suez road.

Kissinger last week downplayed the incident. "I don't doubt that the publication of confidential negotiations and the exchange of views between the U.S. and the Israeli government could be embarrassing," he said at a press conference in Kansas City, "particularly given the closeness of our relationship. We are apt to speak with considerable candor about events and personalities." Some Arabs charged that Mossad, the Israeli equivalent of the CIA, had leaked official documents purposely in order to "blackmail" Kissinger. Golan, deprived of a bestseller, ruefully considered an irony. "As long as the book was in my hands, it was a secret," he said. "When it was given to the government, everybody began talking about what they think is in it. Some of the stories are so fantastic that when the book some day does appear it will be a letdown." That day may be far off; all known copies of the manuscript are under lock and key in the state archives.

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