38
Friday, January 25, 1985
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Stanley H. Kaplan
NEWS
The SMART MOVE!
PREPARATION FOR:
New Options Open To Israel?
SAT • ACT
BY VICTOR BIENSTOCK
Special to The Jewish News
LESpoRispc)
1/3 OFF
PURSES — SUITCASES
TOTE BAGS — DUFFELS
It is a fact of life in this day and
age that millions of people, volun-
tarily and by their own decision,
live in lands other than that in
which they claim nationality, are
accepted by the residents of the
lands they have chosen to be their
homes and live in peace.
Why then, asks Yoram
Dinstein, cannot this principle be
applied to the West Bank as a via-
ble alternative to the two existing
improbable if not impossible
courses of action that are being
debated — Israel's annexation of
the territory or the repatriation of
the 30,000 or so Israelis who have
settled there since Israel won con-
trol of the territory in 1967?
Why, he asks, giiren conditions
of peace, couldn't the Israeli
settlers stay where they are while
the territory, reverts from Israeli
to Jordanian control? Dinstein
apparently rules out the possibil-
ity of a Palestine Arab state and
sees Jordanian control as the sole
alternative to the existing Israeli
rule.
The pattern' of Israeli settle-
ment on the West Bank is such, he
points out, that any attempt to re-
draw the frontier between Israel
and Jordan in a way that would
return even a portion of the West
Bank to Jordan is not possible.
That, he indicates, rules out the
possibility of a territorial com-
promise as the route to peace and
to the formula favored in Wash-
ington and the capitals of Europe
of "territory for peace."
Dinstein, rector of Tel Aviv
University and professor of
human rights there, is a former
diplomat whose experience has
not been confined to the academic
world. A tour of duty in the United
States, among other countries,
gave him an insight into the situ-
ation of people living abroad per-
manently by choice.
"How many Canadians nowa-
days own land and live in the
United States?" he asks. "If a
group of Canadian citizens
chooses to buy a condominium, a
housing project or even thousands
of acres in Florida, is the pur-
chased property thereby trans-
formed into Canadian territory?
Surely, ownership of land by indi-
viduals (separately or jointly) has
no impact upon political sover-
eignty. When Americans buy real
estate in Acapulo, they do not
carry the Stars and Stripes with
them.
"Why," he asks further, "should
the state of affairs be different if
Israeli citizens were to live in Jor-
danian territory? True, at the
moment this appears to be a fan-
tastic proposition, but at the mo-
ment there is a formal state of war
between Jordan and Israel.
"The assumption under discus-
sion is that the two countries con-
template amicable relations in
the context of peace. If peace is to
reign in the Middle East, why
should Jordan cling to an out-
moded taboo against Jewish -set-
tlement?"
The taboo, ironically, was not of
Arab fabrication but is a vestige of
British Mandatory rule. In an-
cient times, the area occupied by
Jordan was part of the kingdoms
of the Jews. When European Jews
were settling in Palestine a
.
GARMENT BAGS — PENS
WALLETS.— MITTENS
BACK PACKS — GLOVES
ACCESSORIES * * *
SELECTED STYLES & COLORS
Traveling Light
Lightweight luggage and
travel accessories.
(Formerly LeSportsac) ®
Tm
Traveling Light Stores at
Somerset Mall
Fairlane Town Center
Troy, Michigan 48084
(313) 649-1660
Dearborn, Michigan 48126
(313) 271-1750
THE COUNCIL OF ORTHODOX RABBIS
IS CORDIALLY INVITING DETROIT JEWRY
TO A TORAH GATHERING
CELEBRATING THE
COMPLETION (SIYUM) OF "SEDER MOED"
AND THE BEGINNING OF "SEDER NOSHIM"
to be held on
SUNDAY, JANUARY 27,
1985
at 6:30 P.M.
CONG. SHOMREY EMUNA
25451 Southfield Road
Southfield, Michigan 48075
R.S.V.P. 559-5005
COUVERT $12.00
hundred years ago, they estab-
lished settlements east of the Jor-
dan River and American and
European Zionist groups bought
land there for future. settlement.
It was not the Arabs but the
British who prohibited Jewish
settlement and land purchase in
Transjordan and they did this
over the objections of Emir Abdul-
lah, grandfather of the present
Jordanian ruler, who sought
Jewish investment and settle-
ment in his barren realm.
"The day may yet arrive,"
Dinstein predicts, "when Israelis
in Jordan will be no more con-
spicuous than Canadians in
Florida or - Americans in
Acapulco."
"Territorial
compromise on
Judea, Samaria and
Gaza is no longer
possible."
Prof. Dinstein is not the first to
divorce the sovereignty andpopu-
lation aspects of the problem al-
though he disposes of the former
by turning the land back to Jor-
dan and separating nationality
-from residence. He leaves many
questions unanswered; among
them, would there be restrictions
on the number of Israelis permit-
ted to live in the West Bank and
what arrangements might there
be to provide for Israel's security
needs? -
The late Moshe Dayan, who
probably had a better insight into
the hearts and minds of the Arabs
than most of his countrymen,
foresaw a solution to the Palesti-
nian Arab problem which called
for no territorial changes or bor-
der adjustments. "There is no way
to draw a line or partition," he
said in 1975, even before the
Begin regime launched its inten-
sive West Bank settlement pro-
gram.
There had to be open borders,
Dayan insisted, because half the
West Bank labor force found its
employment in Iirael and Israel,
on its part, needed the Arab labor.
Open borders were needed on the
Jordanian side . as well because
"part of every (Arab) family is in
Jordan and also economically
they go there and come back and
so on."
Rejecting both Palestinian
Arab statehood and Israeli sover-
eignty for the area, Dayan ex-
plained: "We have to live together
but not to impose on the other," As
to Israeli security, "we should
have our forces somewhere there
too, in order to defend Israel but
not in order to interfere with their
life.
Ehud Olmert, the highly articu-
late Likud foreign policy expert,
arguing that the reality of 1984 is
that "territorial compromise on
Judea, Samaria and Gaza is no
longer possible," has proposed a
solution based, not on partition of
the territory or a shift in sover-
eignty but on the division of gov-
ernmental functions between
Jordan and Israel. His proposal,
he says in a symposium on the
future of the West Bank published
in Harper's Magazine, is based on
the Camp David accords but
would give Jordan a larger role
than is envisaged in the agree-
ment.
Jordan and Israel would be "full
partners" in governing the West
Bank with Jordan supervising the
civilian interests of the Arabs and
Israel the security and defense of
the territories — an arrangement
that would permit withdrawal of
the Israeli forces from the towns
and cities for redeployment in
strategic positions.
The Palestinian Arabs would
elect their own governing body, as
provided in the Camp David pact.
East Jerusalem residents might
be permitted to take part in its
election, he says, if the right of
Israelis to settle in the West Bank
(providing private property is not
expropriated for that purpose) is
respected.
The Jewish settlers, Olmert
says, would remain full Israeli
citizens and be subject to Israeli
law even though-they did not live
within the formal boundaries of
Israel.
The Likud MK warns that "by
1994, if a political solution to the
West Bank problem has not been
concluded, an overwhelming
majority of Israelis will have come
to consider the territories integral
parts of the Jewish state."
The Arabs have the opporutnity
now, if they would only recognize
it, he says, "to start a process that
would reduce the tensions of the
area and give the Palestinian
Arabs a political identity. Failure
to grasp the opportunity might
eventually force Israel to annex
the West Bank."
4
4
414
,
Thaw Reported
In Israel-Guinea
Relations
Paris (JTA) — Israel and
Guinea, once the most anti-Israel
country in Africa, are moving
toward rapprochement and have
already exchanged military mis-
sions, the Paris-based weekly
Jeune Afrique reported Monday.
According to the publication, an
Israeli military mission visited
Conakry, the capital of the West
African state, earlier this month
and Guinea soldiers and have
gone to Israel for paratroop and '4
commando training.
The weekly said the rap-
prochement was initiated by the
late president Sekou Toure of
Guinea who in 1967, was the first
African leader to break off dip-
lomatic relations with Israel.
In March 1984, several weeks
before his death, Toure played
host to an Israeli delegation in
Conakry, Jeune-Afrique said.
Subsequently, the Israeli delega-
tion continued contacts with
Guinea's Prime Minister, Diarra
Traore, and Foreign Minister
Facine Toure, according to the re-
port.