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