United States Foreign Relations Israel

Secretary of State George P. Shultz met separately Monday with the leaders of Israel's divided coalition government, inviting them to help him "put flesh on the bones" of his Middle East peace initiative. A senior State Department official said Shultz told the Israelis that their doubts about certain aspects of the proposal could be resolved when the remaining details are filled in.

President Bush admonished visiting Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Tuesday to avoid provocative acts such as expanding Jewish housing in disputed areas, possibly rekindling the friction that marred the relationship between Israel and his father's administration.

The United States would consider guaranteeing security between Israel and Syria if the two longtime foes should conclude a solid peace agreement, Secretary of State Warren Christopher said. But as negotiations resumed in Washington after a monthlong recess, Syria and Israel were in sharp disagreement over the future of the Golan Heights and far from an accord.

The White House on Tuesday flatly rejected Iranian suggestions that the "ball is now in the American court" in the hostage stalemate. "The ball has always been in their court," Bush Administration spokesman Marlin Fitzwater insisted. "It will be as long as there are hostages yet to be released." The Administration response reflects President Bush's strategy of maintaining a relatively low profile on the issue and keeping attention focused on Iran and its Lebanese Shiite Muslim allies.

Syria's foreign minister, a scowl of indignation on his face Friday, held up a picture of a 32-year-old Yitzhak Shamir. "He kills peace mediators," charged the minister, Farouk Shareh, summoning up a lifetime of vitriol. Shareh's performance was the climax of a morning of intense hostility between the Syrian and Israeli representatives to the Madrid peace talks.

Secretary of State George P. Shultz told Congress on Tuesday that the thrust of a new American diplomatic initiative in the Middle East is to help the people in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip "to have a greater sense of political control over the way they live." In testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Shultz avoided providing any details of what the United States is proposing, but he suggested that the general approach is not radically different from previous U.S.

Israel and the United States are among the closest allies on the planet, but they are at loggerheads over an Israeli plan to supply sophisticated aerial spy technology to China. Israel finds itself torn between the United States, which gave it more than $3 billion in aid last year and enormous political support, and China, a principal market for the Jewish state's vital defense industry.

Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir proposed Thursday an international peace conference on the Mideast--possibly at Camp David--to be attended by representatives of Israel, Egypt, Jordan, the Palestinians and the United States.

Syrian officials have notified the United States to expect the release of another American hostage by Friday, barring unforeseen circumstances and delays of the sort that accompanied Robert Polhill's release, a Bush Administration source said Monday. The source said he does not know if the alert involves one of the two Americans still held by the Islamic Jihad for the Liberation of Palestine, the group that released Polhill on Sunday. Other militant Islamic groups hold five other Americans.

Congressional Iran-Contra investigators discovered but kept secret a diversion to Israeli intelligence of more than $1 million in proceeds from the Ronald Reagan Administration's sale of arms to Iran, the New York Times Magazine reports. Today's issue of the magazine also reports, in an article by investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, that senators decided before the much-publicized Iran-Contra hearings that they would not "go after" President Reagan.