ISRAELIS SEEM SPLIT ON INQUIRY INTO COVER-UP

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000302120023-2
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 21, 2012
• Sequence Number: 23
• Publication Date: June 3, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/09/21: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302120023-2
-rtriCLE APPE:r0 NEW YORK TIMES
Y' ,?"4.
3 June 1986
Israelis Seem Split on Inquiry' Into Cover-Up
)' ? By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Special to no Negi Vat Thar
JERUSALEM, June 2? Major dif-
ferences appear to be developing be-
tween Prime Minister Sidman Peres
and Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir
tv'pr how to deal with the growing scan-
dal in Israel's domestic intelligence
Service, Government sources Said to-
day.
" The differences have potentially seri-
ous political implications. Under the
tuitional unity Government's coalition
agreement, Mr. Peres, the leader of
the Labor Party, is expected to switch
Jobs in October with Mr. Shamir, who
leads the Likud bloc. However, accord-
ing to Israeli press reports, there are
Increasing indications that any com-
mission of inquiry might find Mr.
Shamir to have been part of an exten-
sive intelligence cover-up of the 'slay-
ings of - two captured Palestinian ter-
rorists in April 1964.
Whether Mr.. Peres could make polit-
ical capitak out of such conclusions is
not clear, however, since the majority
of the Israeli public appears to oppose
destroying the careers of Israeli offi-
cials whose only crimes may have been
Involvement in putting terrorists to
death.
The Israeli radio reported tonight
that after Mr. Peres briefed the De- /
fense and Foreign Affairs Committee
of Parliament on the intelligence scan-
dal, the legislators "were impressed
with both Mr. Peres's desire for a' se-
cret commission of inquiry and the
likelihood that the differences between
Mr. Peres and Mr. Shamir on this mat-
ter will develop into a political crisis."
According to political sources, Prime
Minister Peres believes there is no way
to avoid an investigation of some kind,
since the man who until last weekend
was Attorney General has.turned over
to the police a file of evidence concern-
ing the head of the domestic intelli-
gence service, Shin Beth. The file is
said to indicate that the official may
have ordered that two captured Pales-
tinian bus hijackers be killed and tha
the cironnstances of their deaths b
covered up.
Before the Cabinet replaced the for-
mer Attorney General, Yitzhak Zarnir,
on Sunday, Mr. Peres tried to dissuade
him from ordering such an investiga-
tion. But now that the legal machinery
has begun to rove, the sources said,
the PsimeMinister believes that some
kind of inquiry must be conducted.
However, the sources Said. Mr.
Peres favors allowing the new Attor-
ney General to suggest a framework
for a secret inquiry that would involve
the least public exposure for Shin Beth
chief,and Its Avraham Shalom. The
Prime Minister also is said to want any
Inquiry to take into consideration that
whatever Shin Beth did was in the con-
text of a military operation in-whids a
busload of hostages was rescued from
terrorists.
Nevertheless, Government sources
said, Mr. Shamir is still adamantly op-
posed to . any investigation, either by
the police or by a special secret com-
mission of inquiry. .
Israeli press reports have suggested
that Mr. Shamir's reluctance is con-
nected with the possibility that he gays
approval to the Shin Beth chief to cover
up the slayings of the two Palestinian
hijackers, who survived when Israeli
troops stormed the bus April 13, 1964,
and rescued the passengers. Two other
hijackers were killed in the assault.
Mr. Shamir was Prime Minister
when the bus was hijacked and when
the first commission of inquiry Into
how the two captured 'hijackers died
was held, later in the spring of 1964.
According to the Israeli Army radio,
a Member of Parliament, Yossi
asked Mr. Peres at a Defense and For-
eign Affairs committee hearing today
whether he and Mr. Shamir knew of
In a cover-up. The radio said Mrel.4=
suspicions that Shin Beth had
responded that "he did not knew about
It, but that he has not asked Mr.
Shainir."
The Israeli daily Yedlot Aharenot,
quoting sources close to Shin Beth, re-
ported that Mr. Shamir persenelly
proved efforts by Mr. Shalom to mow
up the truth in testimony Were two of-
ficial COMMildele of inquiry, in INN
and IOW
? Mr. Shamir has yet to cetegorietalp
confirm or deny assertions that he
knew of lath a cover-up.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2912/09/21: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302120023-2