.r. t MINN.
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Friday, August 31, 1984 25
ANALYSIS
Diplomat feels U.S. still holds key to Mideast peace
.
BY VICTOR M. BIENSTOCK
Special to The Jewish News
As American Ambassador-at-
Large in the Middle East, as Assis-
tant Secretary of State for the Near
East and Asia and as Ambassador to
Egypt, Alfred L. Atherton Jr. earned
and enjoyed the confidence of Ameri-
can Jews and Israelis to a degree few
others in the American diplomatic
establishment have ever attained.
Currently director general of the
United States Foreign Service,
Atherton has written an appraisal of
the relations of Arabs, Israelis and
Americans and of the American in-
volvement in the Middle East since
World War II. It appears in the sum-
mer issue of Foreign Affairs, the --
quarterly journal of the Council of
Foreign Relations.
A cautionary note states that in
his current capacity Atherton has
no direct responsibility for Middle
East policy" and the article "reflects
entirely his personal views."
Atherton shows himself to be
fully convinced of the importance of
Israel in the American scheme of
things in the Middle East, consider-
ing the security of the State of Israel
to be one of the three fundamentals of
American national interests in the
area, the other two being unimpeded
use of the area's sea and air routes
and access to the area's vast oil
supplies for ourselves and our allies.
He is, he says, "struck by the
unanimity and consistency in
America's perception of both its na-
tional interests and its policy objec-
tives in the Middle East." But at the
same time he notes that he has found
"neither unanimity nor consistency
in the policies adopted and the meas-
ures taken to protect these interests
and pursue these objectives."
In seeking strategic concepts to
guide Middle East policy, American
policrnakers have- alternated" be: —
tween two broad approaches, Ather-
ton says. The first of these "views the
conflicts in the Middle East through
the prism of the global East-West
Atherton deplores the
1975 Memorandum of
Understanding with
Israel.
conflict. According to this view, con-
sideration of global strategy and ef-
forts to enlist the support of Middle
East nations against the Soviet
threat take priority over initiatiVes
designed to resolve the underlying
causes of regional conflicts and, spec-
ifically, the Arab-Israel conflict."
The other approach, he says,
"holds that regional conflicts have
their own roots and are more a cause
than a result of superpower confron-
tation.- The conflicting Israeli and
Palestinian territorial claims in the
area west of the Jordan River, must
, be dealt with before we, can
realistically hope to enlist the sup-
Alfred Atherton: convinced of Israel's
importance.
port of Middle East states on our side
of the global conflict with the Soviet
Union.
"Underlining this view," the dip-
lomat explains, "is the premise that
regional conflicts like that between
Arabs and Israelis, by destablilzing
the area, provide fertile ground for
exploitation by the Soviet Union in
the East-West conflict.
It has long been his personal
view, Atherton reveals, that "such a
dialogue with the PLO elements
would have been an opportunity to
exploit the latent divisions within
the PLO between those who advocate
terrorism and reject the very idea of
peace with Iskael and those who are
prepared to take a more pragmatic
and less extreme approach."
Despite past failures, Atherton
believes that "the United States re-
mains the best hope for helping the
nations of the Middle East find a
peaceful future" and that hopes are
high in the Middle East that Wash-
ington will take a new initiative after
the-e-tettkinsT
Pursuit of an Arab-Israeli set-
tlement, Atherton warns, will re-
quire tough decisions by alLthose in-
volved with a stake in the outcome.
"For the moderate Arabs," he says,
"it will require a decision to come to
the negotiating table and a &termi-
nation to avoid past mistakes - above ,
all, the mistake of insisting on all-
or-nothing solutions and on having
the outcome of negotiations guaran-
teed before negotiations begin. It will
require assuming responsibility for
the solution of their own problems
and not looking to others to impose
solutions for them. Finally, it will re-
quire recognizing that 1985 is not
1967 and certainly not 1948, and that
the simpler, cleaner solutions which
might have been possible earlier are
not possible today."
For Israel, he aays, "the pursuit
of peace will require recognizing that
the choice is between retaining ex-
clusive control of the administered
West Bank, Gaza and Golan Heights
— which in my view will render a
stable Middle East peace unattaina-
ble for the indefinite future — or
working toward- a solution which ac-
---
cepts the basic concept of 'territory
for peace' embodied in Resolution
242."
The model for agreement, Ather-
ton says, is in the Camp David pro-
visions for a Palestinian settlement
rather than in the Egyptian-Israeli
treaty based on the "territory for
peace" formula.
"Without an active, determined
and objective American role, no mat-
ter how extended and politically dif-
ficult that role may be," he concludes,
"there will be no solution to the Mid-
dle East's most intractable regional
conflict. And without a solution, the
costs of protecting U.S. interests in
the Middle East can only become in-
creasingly burdensome and may
some day become prohibitive."
"Our policy in the Middle East
has swung like a pendulum between
these two approaches — sometimes
even trying to swing in both direc- -
tions at once." •
The diplomat's review of de-
velopments in the Middle East since
the early 1950s is a chronicle of mis-
sed opportunities for a settlment but
he believes that "given the regional
and global political circumstances of
the period, the time was probably not
ripe for Arab-Israeli peace."
United Nations Security Council
Resolution 242, says Atherton,
"marked a watershed in the history
of the Arab-Israeli conflict."-In effect,
he notes, the Security Council "de-
termined that Israel and the
neighboring Arab states should not
return to the armistice agreements
which had governed their relations
since 1949 but should conclude peace
between them."
The resolution, he holds, was
flawed by its ambiguity over the ex-
tent of the Israeli territorial with-
drawal and its failure to treat the
Palestinian issue as other than a,ref-
ugee problem.
"It is inconceivable today," he
says, "that any Arab-Israeli peace
agreements could be reached without
direct negotiations and without rec-
ognizing that the Palestinian issue is
a political and territorial matter as
well as a refugee problem."
Elsewhere in the article, Ather-
ton deplores the 1975 Memorandum
of Understanding with Israel com-
mitting the United States not to rec-
ognize or negotiate with the Pales-
tine Liberation Organization unless
it accepted U.N. Resolution 242 and
recognized Israel's right to exist.
"This commitment'," he says,
"was subsequently interpreted by
successive American administra-
tions as 'barring even exploratory
discussions with the PLO. This was
not the original intent. As a result,
the United States has effectively
been prevented from opening a
dialogue with Palestinians who,
however much one deplores the advo-
caCY of terrorism and the hard-line
position toward recognition of Israel
by elements of the PLO, are widely
recognized as a necessary element in
any solution of the conflict."
POLITICS
_Democrats facing-uphill battle — -
in wake of Jackson candidacy
BY MORRIS J. AMITAY
Special to The Jewish News
There has been a growing
resentment against Jesse
Jackson in Washington
among Democratic elected
leadership and party offi-
cials following the San
Francisco convention. Now
that Jackson has largely
disappeared from the head-
lines and is hard-pressed to
attract the media attention
he enjoyed before, some
Democrats who are working
hard for the election of the
Mondale-Ferraro ticket
view his threats to withhold
his support not with trepi-
dation — but with relief.
Having had to show de-
ference to the first major
black Presidential candi-
date — and having "kow-
towed" to some extent —
they now view him as a lia-
bility not only with Jewish
voters but with .a wide spec-
trum of moderates. •
For all the kudos given
Jackson for his speech at the
convention, the fact is that
not everyone in Moscone
Center was enthralled --
and many delegates sat on
their hands throughout. For
friends of Israel, Jackson's
call in his address for a
"more :balanced" Middle
East policy, and his pointed
reminder that there were 22
Moslem countries in the
area reinforced and re-
peated,Jackson's anti-Israel
themes. And for those who
missed these nuances
amidst the rhetoric, the fact
that the first person to in-
troduce him was a leading
pro-PLO activist should
have gotten the message
across loud and clear, mak-
ing Jackson's "apology" to
the Jewish community lame
indeed.
No one should be sur-
prised, because after all,
what Jesse Jackson was
doing as an "honest" politi-
cian was repaying in prime
time the financial largesse
bestowed upon him earlier
•
not only by Arab
Americans — which is their
right — but by Arab gov-
ernments in their financial
support of Jackson's "Oper-
ation PUSH." In his support
for the Arab cause Jackson
is being consistent with his
long record of comments
and actions — such as his
big hug for Yassir Arafat.
Now that Jackson is no
longer a Presidential candi-
date, the Democratic Party
must take every opportu-
nity to reassert its oppositon
to bigotry and racism in the
tradition of Hubert Hum-
phrey, John Kennedy,
Scoop Jackson -- and its
1984 candidate, Walter
Mondale. By doing so, it will
not only be sending a clear
message to Jesse Jackson
and his like-minded
cohorts, but to the entire
American people. And if be-
cause of this, Jackson de-
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