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22
Friday, October 26, 1984
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
NEWS
Issues of U.S. Mideast policy
absent from Presidential debates
BY VICTOR M. BIENSTOCK
Special to The Jewish News
Broad issues of American Mid-
All other Middle East issues
dle East policy have been con-
such as the Arab-Israeli conflict
spicuously missing from the de-
and inter-Arab rivalries were
bate in the Presidential campaign
subordinate to this primary goal.
now winding to a close. What
Plas and policies looking to an
argument there has been has in-
Arab-Israeli settlement were
volved the American reaction to
envisaged in Washington primar-
the terror bombings and the ques-
ily as a means of facilitating for-
tion which of the candidates, if
mation of a united front against
elected, will do more for the State
Soviet encroachment.
of Israel.
This policy failed; the Arab
The absence of the Middle East
states made it clear that while
as a controversial election issue
they didn't want the Soviet Union
must be ascribed to the fact that
to penetrate their living space,
the traditional differences be-
neither did they want the Ameri-
tween conservative and liberal in
cans to exercise too much of a
American politics do not come __presence even though, like Saudi
into play in the Arab-Israeli con-
Arabia, they wanted the assur-
flict. Almost as many American
ance that the United States, in the
conservatives are to be found
showdown, would be there to pro-
staunchly supporting Israel as are
tect them.
espousing the Arab claims; al-
The spectre of the Soviet Union
most as many liberals are to be
dominates American foreign pol-
found advocating the Arab posi-
icy in every quarter of the globe
tion as are lined up with Israel.
today except in the Middle East.
Hence there is not the traditional
This area, says Daniel Pipes,
division on ideological lines.
associate professor at the" Naval
In the final years of the Carter
War College and an acknowl-
Administration, under the influ-
edged authority on the Middle
ence of national security adviser
East, "stands outside the great
Zbigniew Brzezinski, and in the
debate of American foreign policy
first part of the Reagan Adminis-
since World War II — the dis-
tration during Alexander Haig's
agreement over the dangers posed
tenure as secretary of state, the
by the U.S.S.R." Only in the Mid-
American objective in the Middle
dle East, he points out, is the
East was sharply defined. It was
U.S.S.R. not the critical center of
the creation of a collective secu-
debate.
rity belt in the Middle East with
"Political discussion there," he
the avowed purpose of keeping the
says, "is dominated by an entirely
Soviet Union out and the flow of
different and wholly unrelated
Persian Gulf oil to the West un-
dichotomy — the Arab-Israeli
trammelled and uninterrupted.
dispute."
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"conservative
While
businessmen and liberal Demo-
cratic senators running for
President agree that it is natural
and logically consistent that to be
conservative is to be pro-Arab and
to be liberal is to be pro-Israel," he
asserts, "conservatives and liber-
als tend to cooperate on Middle
East issues; the pro-Arab and
pro-Israel lobbies are probably
the most thoroughly bipartisan
efforts on Capitol Hill."
The election will not give the
President who takes office next
January a mandate on policy for
the Middle East. What policies he
chooses to pursue there, Pipes
says, will largely depend on his
personal decisions.
The President-elect selects his
foreign policy aides primarily
with an eye to East-West issues
and without much regard to their
views on the Arabs and Israel,"
Pipes writes in the fall issue of
International Security. "How they
feel about the Middle East is
therefore a matter of choice."
He warns that "the absence of a
consensus on the Middle East im-
plies greater contention in for-
mulating policy" and that "deci-
sions depend on who prevails in
the bureaucratic struggles" since
power flows to the bureaucrats •
and the lobbies.
"Political appointees are espe-
cially few in number in the
bureaus that handle Middle East
affairs," he points out. "These fac-
tors account for the homogeneity
5th ANNUAL DINNER DANCE
of the
FRIENDS OF ISRAEL CANCER ASSOCIATION
Honoring
ERIC ROSENOW
ON: Sunday, November 11th, 1984
AT: Adat Shalom Synagogue
29901 Middlebelt Rd., Farmington Hills, Mi.
Harry Gunsb erg
m.c.: Max Sosin
Guest Speaker:
HARRY GUNSBERG
ERIC ROSENOW
Music By: ERIC ROSENOW AND HIS CONTINENTALS
Cocktails: 5:00 P.M.
Couvert $60.00 per couple
Dinner: 6:00 P.M.
President: ANN EISENBERG
Dinner Chairman: SIGMUNT RUBIN
Hon. President: DR. ARTHUR FEUER
Dinner Co-Chairman: AGI RUBIN
Dinner Committee
BERT DAN, ALEX GREENBERGER, ROSE KATZ, ALEX KARP, HENRY KUPFER
ZOLTAN RUBIN
MARY PAPO
For ticket reservations call: Alex Greenberger
Mary Papo
646-0983
967-4414