THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

Reagan Initiative Viewed as Intrusion, Dilution

By VICTOR BIENSTOCK

A few days before
President Reagan revealed
his new Middle East initia-
tive, the esteemed Times of
London had this to say:
"President Reagan has so
far done badly in foreign
policy. He has alienated his
allies, confused his adver-
saries and lost friends at
home. His thinking has
largely failed to connect
events, and he has pro-
duced no visible successes.
He now has a chance to
make good — and in an elec-
tion year, too. If he can move
the Middle East visibly
nearer a settlement, much
else will be forgiven him."
Almost as if on cue, Re-
agan announced an Ameri-
can initiative toward a solu-
tion of the Arab-Israeli
problem. Whether it will
bring about a solution re-
mains problematical be-
cause, regardless of Wash-
ington disclaimers, it is an
attempt to impose an out-
come in a situation where a
lasting solution can be at-
tained only by agreement
freely arrived at between
the parties involved directly
— the Israelis and the
Palestinian Arabs.
But the problem goes
deeper than that, as the
President made clear in
his broadcast. The basic
issue is Arab recognition
of Israel's right to exist,
something that only one
Arab state—Egypt—has
accorded in the 34 years
of Israeli statehood.
The Arab states must rec-
ognize that the state of Is-
rael, in the President's
words, "deserves unchal-
lenged legitimacy within
the community of nations."
Reagan cannot be so
naive as to believe that Is-
raeli concessions on the
West Bank — even ac-
ceptance of a Palestine Arab
state there — would elimi-
nate Arab enmity of Israel
which is compounded of
many factors including
religious and xenophobic
hatred.
The President has ad-
vised the Arab rulers that
they must accept the reality
of Israel. He may have made
specific proposals that could
temper their stand on Israel
but if he has, no details have
been revealed.
The Arab threat to Israeli
security — that country's
major concern — does not
arise from the West Bank
Arabs but from the Arab
states which deny Israel's
right to exist. As long as
their deep and unremitting
hostility remains, Israel
certainly will not relax its
stress on security measures
. which include military con-
trol of the West Bank — the
country's long and narrow-
exposed east flank.
The President stepped
out of the traditional
American role of
mediator to make himself
judge and jury and to de-
cide how specific issues
were to be settled. His
proposed solutions may
or may not be good. Some
the proposals he ad-
vanced are supported by

many Israelis and many
Arabs, but they are also
opposed by many in both
camps.
His aides insist that
Reagan's proposals were of-
fered as subjects for negoti-
ation, not as final judg-
ments and that in staking
out an American position he
was acting within the spirit
of the Camp David Accords.
But the Israelis note sus-
piciously that Washington
was in close contact with
Arab leaders in formulating
this new approach and that
it did not consult the Is-
raelis but confronted them
with a fait accompli.
They are also angered by
the fact that, whether he in-
tended it or not, Reagan
plucked Yasir Arafat and
the Palestinian Liberation
Organization out of the hole
represented by their deba-
cle in Lebanon and made
them key figures in the
situation again.
There are many possible
solutions to the West Bank
question ranging from the
local self-government of-
fered by Prime Minister
Menahem Begin to the
statehood demanded by the
PLO. One of the possible
solutions is an association of
the West Bank and the Gaza
Strip with the kingdom of
Jordan.
Reagan proposed a
West Bank with an au-
tonomy short of state-
hood, affiliated to Jordan
without any real assur-
ance that this solution
would be acceptable to - a
majority of the West
Bankers. In proposing it,
Reagan intruded on the
rights of the Palestine
Arab just as much as he
complains Prime Minis-
ter Begin does in seeking
to limit the degree of au-
tonomy the West Bankers
should have.
Facts of history tend to be
obscured in time by inces-
sant repetition of false facts.
That is why there is the
widely held misconception
that the West Bank really
belongs to Jordan. It never
did except for the 19 years
Jordan held the area by
conquest and every state in
the world except Britain
and the Sudan refused to
recognize its annexation by
Jordan.
Jordan lost the territory
in 1967 when King Hussein
was lured by Nasser of
Egypt to enter the war
against Israel he had al-
ready lost.
Yet, strangely, Jordan is
considered to have a claim
on the West Bank while Is-
rael, which expelled the
Jordanians, is regarded as
an alien occupying force.
Two points in Reagan's
proposals, both of which
exceed the terms of the
Camp David accords,
have angered the Begin
government and many
Israelis. The first is
Reagan's insistence that
the Israelis must cease
settling on the West
Free and fair discussion
will ever be found the fir-
mest friend to truth.
—G. Campbell

Bank. The second was
the President's dilution
of his commitment that
Jerusalem would never
again be a divided city by
his assertion that its fu-
ture would be subject to
negotiation.
Begin blundered in ac-
cepting in the Egyptian
peace treaty the assumption
that Jews as Jews could be
barred from residence in an
area resulting from Egyp-
tian insistance and his
agreement to withdraw the
few Jews settled there. Now
he is being told by Reagan
that Jews cannot live in
their ancestral homes on
the West Bank.
He cannot accept that
and he cannot give up
strategic outposts on the
West Bank as long as Israel
is confronting a hostile
world. Even the Israeli
Labor Party's plans for Is-
raeli withdrawal from the
West Bank provide for re-
tention of a network of
strategic outposts along the
Jordan River as a first line
of defense for Israel at a
point where geography
makes it extremely vulner-
able.
But probably the bitterest
pill Reagan gave the Is-
raelis to choke on was his
cavalier disregard of a fun-
damental issue when he
specified that Jerusalem
Arabs be allowed to vote in
West Bank elections. That
was immediately inter-
preted as a challenge to Is-
rael's sovereignty over
Jerusalem.
Mindful of Arab desec-
ration of Jewish holy
places in the Old City
during the Jordanian oc-
cupation and the barring

of Jews from their most
sacred shrines, the Is-
raelis will never agree to
give up control.
Leading Israelis, includ-
ing Mayor Teddy Kollek,
have come forward fre-
quently with plans to _give
the Moslems control over
their holy places in East
Jerusalem and to give con-
trol of Christian holy places
to a Christian authority
along with guarantees of
freedom of access to all pil-
grims and a large measure
of self-government for the
Arab areas. The Israelis
have repeatedly stated their
readiness to negotiate these
arrangements.
By going beyond_ the
Camp David parameters
and by taking it upon him-
self to judge the issues, Re-
agan has severely shaken
Israeli confidence in Wash-
ington's impartiality. Re-
agan aimed and misfired.
Instead of proposing solu-
tions he should have worked
at getting the Arab states to
acknowledge Israel's right
to exist and ease Israel's
concentration on security
concerns to the point where
it could consider com-
promises for peace. But Re-
agan has placed the whole

limn inns run

to all

our friends

and relatives

MR. & MRS. ERWIN KEPES

burden of compromise on
the Israelis and has told°
them they must buy peace
from a reluctant vendor.

itarin

111113 TIN3 62

to all

our friends

and relatives

RUTH & FRED KATZ

t

tr 7

Friday, September 11, 1982 95

May the coming

year be filled

with health and

happiness for

all our family

and friends

JACK & ROWE BERMAN

A Very Happy and Healthy
New Year to All My Friends
and Family

EMMA LAZAROFF SCHAVER

May the coming year be
one filled with health,
happiness and
prosperity for all our
friends and family.

LILLIAN & HARRY PAULL

Wishing a happy, healthy
and prosperous New Year
to all our friends
May Real Peace Come to Israel!

Mr. and Mrs. Max Stollman
and Family
Philip Stollman and Family