Despite Profound Disagreements : U.S., Israel Relations Unchanged--Shamir

Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir of Israel said Thursday that relations between the United States and his country have not suffered despite profound disagreements with the Reagan Administration over a proposed plan for reviving the Middle East peace process.

“This is the message of friendship. This is a message of alliance,” Shamir told a Los Angeles audience. “It is the desire to work together, to strive together and, if necessary, to disagree without conflict and disruption.”

Shamir made his comments during a ceremony to unveil a cornerstone for a new Museum of Tolerance at the Simon Wiesenthal Center in West Los Angeles.

Seeks to Rally U.S. Support

He reiterated those same themes during a speech Thursday night before 1,600 donors to Jewish and Israeli charity organizations. Seeking to rally the support of American Jews for his rejection of the U.S. peace plan, Shamir invoked the memory of 6 million Jews killed by Nazi Germany. He told the Wiesenthal Center audience the Holocaust requires Israel to be tough minded about making territorial concessions that could endanger its national security.

“We did not return to Eretz Israel (Land of Israel) in order to leave it or to abandon it,” Shamir told a crowd of 2,000 cheering supporters gathered under the hot sun at the museum site.

He said Israel’s enemies are looking for “weak spots to drive a wedge between us.”

Shamir, whose government’s harsh response to the 3-month-old Palestinian uprising has generated international condemnation, said Israel is doing all it can to put a stop to the disturbances in the occupied territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

“I am confident that we will soon find the means to do it with the minimum casualties,” he said.

Shamir’s weeklong visit to the United States combined talks with government leaders and fund-raising speeches to local Jewish organizations. He arrived in Los Angeles on Thursday afternoon after three days of talks in Washington with U.S. officials that yielded no progress toward Israel’s acceptance of the Middle East negotiating plan proposed by Secretary of State George P. Shultz.

Shultz has proposed an international peace conference that would be attended by the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, as well as Israel, Jordan, Egypt and Syria. The Palestine Liberation Organization would not be represented by a separate delegation. He envisions the conference as a first step in launching negotiations later this year on the final status of the occupied territories.

In his evening address before a joint fund-raising dinner at the Century Plaza for the Israel Bonds campaign and for the United Jewish Fund, Shamir said at an international conference such as the one proposed by Shultz, “We would be subject to pressures of the Soviets, the Chinese and the Europeans, and even the United States would not be able to speak up for us.”

Noting that the United States differs with Israel on its borders and the status of Jerusalem, Shamir said, “In such circumstances, we would find ourselves isolated and condemned.”

As an alternative, Shamir has suggested that President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev invite Arab and Israeli leaders to join their summit scheduled for May or June as a ceremonial “international” opening to direct talks between Middle Eastern antagonists.

But the State Department, in an unusual statement Thursday, made a point-by-point rebuttal to Shamir’s position, insisting that no party could take one part of the Shultz plan while rejecting the other parts.

“The strength of the American approach is its integrity; no individual aspects of it can be extracted, finessed or ignored without sacrificing its balance,” the department said.

U.S. Opinion Important

The importance to Israel of U.S. government and American Jewish opinion is evidenced by Shamir’s weeklong visit at a time when his country is facing its worst domestic crisis in years. At least 94 Palestinians have been killed since the uprising began Dec. 9.

Despite an anguished debate within the U.S. Jewish community over the methods employed by Israel to quell the unrest, there were no protesters in evidence Thursday at the prime minister’s two major appearances.

The sole person handing out leaflets at the Wiesenthal ceremony was a volunteer from a Jewish social organization who was distributing notices for a free public Passover seder.

Some local Jews who oppose Shamir’s hard-line approach said they planned to register their protest by making the required donation but staying away from the dinner. But because more people showed up than expected, there were no empty seats.

“By the size of this turnout, and this is an absolutely full house, its clear where we stand, said Herbert Gelfand, chairman of the United Jewish Fund. “We stand behind Israel 100%.”

Shamir’s busy schedule also included an appearance at a private $1,000-a-plate dinner Thursday with 180 supporters of Youth Towns in Israel, a program for children from broken homes that is underwritten by American benefactors who also support Shamir’s Likud Bloc.

The Likud shares power in Israel’s coalition government with the Labor alignment, headed by Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, who has expressed support for the Shultz proposals.

Political Trail

Sources familiar with the Jewish community said that in addition to his public talks, Shamir’s private appearance was expected to help raise money for the Likud in Israel’s upcoming election campaign. The election is scheduled for Nov. 1.

One fund-raiser, who asked not to be identified by name, said that Peres made similar efforts on behalf of the Labor Alignment during his visit to Los Angeles last September.

“If Meir Kahane (leader of a small right-wing political party) can raise half a million here, then these guys can do a lot more,” one source said. “It looks to me like L.A. is another stop on the political trail. If it’s good enough for the Republicans and Democrats, it’s good enough for Labor and Likud.”

Although Shamir said in Washington that he “didn’t have the time” to meet with opponents of Israeli policies, concerns about the prolonged violence and the damage to Israel’s image were expected to be raised at his scheduled appearance today before the World Affairs Council at the Century Plaza, where Arab and Jewish demonstrators are expected to picket outside.

Shamir is scheduled to leave Los Angeles on Saturday evening.

Sunday Demonstration

Another demonstration is scheduled for the Federal Building in Westwood at 2 p.m. Sunday afternoon by a coalition of Palestinian groups, Jewish leftists and American peace groups.

Times staff writers Paul Feldman and Mark Arax contributed to this story.