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6 Friday, April 6, 1 984
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
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Bethlehem's mayor in U.S.
clock ticking away on the West Bank
and the dangers of stalemate, he is not
about to start hitting his head against
the wall. There's really no point in ad-
vance of U.S. and Israeli elections.
As a result, he focused on practical
issues with Secretary of State George
Shultz during their more than one-
hour meeting on March 26. The former
Gaza mayor, Rashad Shawa, also par-
ticipated in the discussion.
Freij was anxious to come up with
some humanitarian ways to improve
the quality of life for the West Bank
and Gaza Palestinians. He, of course,
found a - receptive ear in Shultz who
has been promoting this concept al-
most from the day he took office in
1982.
Specifically, Freij wanted the
Reagan Administration and Congress
to increase direct U.S. economic assis-
tance to the Palestinians in the ter-
ritories. In the course of promoting
this concept, he also met with Assis-
tant Secretary for Near Eastern and
South Asian Affairs Richard Murphy
and Agency for International De-
velopment Director Peter McPherson.
In recent years, there has been a
modest U.S. aid program to the West
Bank, but most of the money has been
channeled through private U.S. volun-
tary organizations, such as the Quak-
ers and other religious and humanita-
rian groups. The bureaucracy has been
cumbersome.
Freij also pushed for increased
U.S. aid to the West Bank during sepa-
rate sessions with Republican Senator
Charles Percy of Illinois, chairman of
the Foreign Relations Committee, and
Democratic Representative Lee
Hamilton of Indiana, chairman of the
House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee
on Europe and the Middle East. These
are the two panels on Capitol Hill
which would have to authorize any
such increased U.S. financial aid.
Naturally, the controversy over
the effort in Congress to move the U.S.
Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem
became a focal point of Freij's dis-
cussions in Washington. He was re-
peatedly asked his views, which, of
course, are strongly opposed to any
such move. It will in no way help," he
said.
"I doubt very much whether it will
happen," he said after his meeting
with Shultz at the State Department.
Freij has certainly developed a
better personal relationship with Is-
raeli Defense Minister Moshe Arens
than with his predecessor, Ariel Sha-
•ron. For one thing, they meet reg-
ularly, although Freij has still not
been invited to a session with Prime
Minister Yitzhak Shamir. (Freij
seemed to speak almost fondly of his
two meetings with former Prime
Minister Menachem Begin, although I
am sure there was no love lost between
the two.)
What impressed Freij was Arens'
speedy decision to lift some earlier im-
posed bureaucratic restrictions ham-
pering travel across the Jordan River
bridges. "His style is very different,"
said Freij, comparing Arens with Sha-
ron.
What about substance? "Yes,
there is substance," he replied, On
day to day matters, in dealing with
people, you can really feel the change."
Still, that does not mean that Freij
has come to accept the Israeli presen
on the West Bank even if he has
learned to cope with it. He would still
like to see it go away. He realizes that
this is not going to be a _ n easy or quick
development.
He believes that a Labor-led gov-
ernment would better promote th,
peace process than the Likud, al-
though he is reluctant to get involved
in domestic Israeli politics by talking
publicly about it. The last thing he
wants to do is give hardliners in the
Likud a campaign issue.
Freij, like other Arabs who cone
to Washington, must be depressed,
when they compare the reception thcy
generally receive from their best
friends — namely Americans of Arab
ancestry — to that accorded to Israeli
leaders by the American Jewish corn
munity. In recent years, Arab Ameri-
cans have become better organized
politically, but they are still split in
many directions and lag far behind thP
Jewish community.
For example, the American-Aral -
Anti-Discrimination Committee-,
headed by former South Dakota Sena-
tor James Abourezk and Dr. James
Zogby, has been an outspoken suppor-
ter of the PLO and a bitter critic of the
Christians in Lebanon. The American
Lebanese League, on the other hand,
has been down-the-line behind the
Christians in Lebanon. It has been
considerably more willing to accom-
modate with Israel. This is important
since most of the approximately two
million Arab Americans are Lebanese.
The National Association of Arab
Americans, an umbrella group which
has registered with the Congress to l
lobby along the lines of the American
Israel Public Affairs Committc 3
(AIPAC), is closer in its basic orienta-
tion to the Anti-Discrimination Com-
mittee.
But the Arab-American commu-
nity, as a whole, has not really fol-
lowed the example of their American
Jewish counterparts in establishing
the generous fund-raising apparatuq
to help their co-religionists in Israel.
Thus, Mayor Teddy Kollek can raise
impressive sums in the United States
for his Jerusalem Foundation. In 1978,
Freij had a similar idea to beautify
Bethlehem. But he noted sadly that
that concept came to nothing. "I sim-
ply didn't have anyone here in the
States to help me get the job done," he /
said.
What stood out in his remarks —
as in the comments of other visiting
Arabs over the years — was a grudg-
ing admiration for the American
Jewish partnership with Israel. We
need our own UJA," Freij said. But he
expressed doubt it would ever get off
the ground.
In Washington, there is deep re-
spect for the Bethlehem mayor. He is
seen as reflecting hope for the future of
Israeli-Palestinian reconciliation. Ac-
cording to all accounts, he reinforced
that impression during this most re-
cent visit to the United States. But
other Palestinian and Jordanian lead-
ers are going to have to join him.
Like those early Zionist leaders
who were willing to accept the parti-
tion of Palestine in the 1940s, Freij
recognizes that a half a loaf of bread is
better than none at all.
`
,