Ben-Elissar cable on Albright sparks anger in the U.S.

WASHINGTON -- A leaked Israeli diplomatic cable has ignited a row between Israel's ambassador to the United States and the State Department.

Yediot Achronot, Israel's largest-circulation daily newspaper, published a top-secret cable from Eliahu Ben-Elissar to Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister David Levy detailing a June 10 meeting with Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

"I'm the last person who will defend Arafat," Albright said according to the cable. "He's done a few things lately that are really unforgivable. But what's the alternative?"

In the cable, Ben-Elissar wrote: "And in the end I told the secretary, `Both Arafat and you know the truth that we're not erecting settlements at all and aren't even expanding them.'

"Here Albright gave me a sideways look with a smile as if to say, `Come on, really'; I withdrew a little from that formulation and said, `Almost not.' In fact I don't know how much we're really building and expanding," Yediot reported Ben-Elissar telling Netanyahu and Levy.

State Department officials were furious that the cable was leaked and at the tone of the report.

This flap comes only two months after Ben-Elissar drew the wrath of U.S. special Middle East envoy Dennis Ross for telling Israeli reporters about the details of one of their conversations.

Yediot quoted a U.S. official saying that Albright would think twice before meeting again with Ben-Elissar.

Ben-Elissar was also the focus of controversy in May, when the Washington Post reported that the FBI was investigating a letter it intercepted; it said Ben-Elissar had requested that a top U.S. official code-named "Mega" would get him a letter former Secretary of State Warren Christopher had written to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Ben-Elissar vehemently denied the report.

This was also the second time in a month that an Israeli newspaper ran a story quoting a secret Israeli diplomatic cable.

Earlier this month, the daily Ha'aretz reported that Israel's consul general in San Francisco, Nimrod Barkan, had sent the Foreign Ministry a warning that financial support for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Washington was being threatened by the pending conversion bill in Israel.