To the Editor:
Alan Dowty’s perceptive article, “In Defense of Camp David” [April], does not mention a curious fact about U.S. policy. The resolution of the UN Security Council of last March, from which President Carter felt constrained to dissociate himself, contained a highly revealing omission in its text that has not been noticed. The key paragraph “recalling” the “pertinent” Security Council resolutions starts with numbers 237 and goes on listing them. But it excludes 242, the resolution that mentions secure and defensible borders for Israel. . . . It is significant, too, that the communiqué issued by the Common Market after a visit by the PLO last April to the Brussels European authorities also lists Security Council resolutions that should be complied with and also leaves out 242.
The text of the March UN resolution was meticulously discussed and one gathers that there would have been no majority for it if the list had included 242. Thus United States Ambassador McHenry was instructed to vote for a resolution that left out 242 deliberately at the very time when his President was trying once again to restart Camp David, which is based on 242. . . .
It is now obvious that the PLO and its supporters regard 242 as too “pro-Israel” and by insisting on its exclusion, they hope to strengthen their argument that 242 must be rewritten to make it acceptable to the Arabs. . . .
The exclusion of 242 is designed to show that Israel’s security and its defense are not relevant to the issue at hand. The fact that this exclusion is well under way shows the superior tactics of the anti-Israel establishment in the foreign ministries of the Western powers, and the naiveté of Israel’s supporters.
L. R. Moray
Letchworth, England
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Alan Dowty writes:
I thank L.R. Muray for calling attention to the quiet campaign against Resolution 242, which, together with the Camp David framework, remains the only viable basis for Arab-Israel diplomacy. Acquiescence in the non-mention of 242 should, as he suggests, be added to the list of recent American actions tending to undermine the peace process.
