Moshe the Mild

Only three months ago, Defense Minister Moshe Dayan seemed the hardest of Israel's hardliners. Angered by Egypt's movement of missiles along the Suez Canal after the Middle East ceasefire began, Dayan adopted a rocklike stance. He would resign, he said, if Israeli United Nations Ambassador Josef Tekoah were allowed to continue peace discussions with U.N. Mediator Gunnar V. Jarring while the missiles were still in the canal zone.

By last week, however, the consummate hawk was acting like a careful dove. In his speeches, Dayan was saying openly what other Israeli officials would only whisper privately: that Is rael should return to the Jarring talks in spite of the missiles. Dayan even suggested an Israeli pullback at Suez so that the canal could be opened again as a guarantee of peace.

Friendly Persuasion. The metamorphosis of Moshe Dayan was causing repercussions in Israel. Three months ago Premier Golda Meir flatly stated that "unless the original position is restored, Israel will not be able to participate" in the Jarring talks. Last week in her Knesset speech, Mrs. Meir indicated that Israel is pondering participation. "I was never prepared," the Premier explained, "to undertake that our struggle would lead to the fulfillment of our just demand in its entirety."

The shift in government policy appears to have been caused by friendly persuasion. The U.S. has decided that "rectification" of the Egyptian missile violations is hopeless. As an antidote to missiles, Washington is beefing up the Israeli air force and providing Mrs. Meir with additional economic aid. This provides an atmosphere in which Israel can return to the Jarring talks before the second 90-day cease-fire expires.

Waves Abroad. Dayan's change of heart on the talks has several explanations. Israel's security is his main concern, and when anything threatens it --such as Egypt's missile installations --he stiffens. But essentially he has been flexible on peace propositions. It was Dayan, for instance, who pressed after the 1967 war for the "open bridges" policy under which Arabs on the occupied West Bank were able to continue visiting and doing business with Jordanians.

To some extent, Dayan is also acting out of political necessity. Next month Israel's ruling Labor Party will hold party elections and pick delegates to a convention that must be held before Israel has another national election. Since control of this machinery is essential to any prospective successor to Mrs. Meir, both Dayan and Deputy Premier Yigal Allon are working to secure it. So far, Allon appears to have the party establishment behind him. Dayan therefore is appealing to the party moderates whose strength, he feels, is gradually increasing.

However Dayan's strategy works at home, it is already making waves abroad. From Washington, Foreign Minister Abba Eban complained in a cable that the Defense Minister ought to end his "striptease"--by which he apparently meant Dayan's exposure of too many of Israel's peace options. The Foreign Minister said that he had been questioned by U.S. officials who asked why, when Dayan is so eager to return to the Jarring talks without condition, Golda Meir cannot be as cooperative.

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