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.