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Arab Peacemaking Role
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32

FRIDAY, SEPT. 18, 1987

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International School University Liggett
Southfield
School
Grosse Pointe

JUDITH COLP

Special to The Jewish News

U

nlike many students
of the Middle East
who bleakly view the
Arab-Israeli conflict as ir-
resolvable, Washington jour-
nalist Milton Viorst believes
the Middle East climate is
ripe for peace.
The Arabs will not attack
Israel again, having learned
their lesson in past struggles,
he contends. And Israeli ter-
ritorial concessions would
placate all the Arab countries
along with the Palestinians,
and Israel's security could be
guaranteed by satellite
photos and electronic early ;
warning stations.
In his book Sands of Sorrow
(Harper and Row), Viorst
asserts that it is the Israelis
who are responsible for the
absence of peace in the
region. In the past 20 years,
the Israelis have focused on
strengthening their state
militarily and acquiring ter-
ritory, rather than taking ad-
vantage of opportunities for
peace, he charges.
Yet, even those who agree
that Israel must make conces-
sions will find that Viorst, a
self-proclaimed Zionist,
•minimizes the aggressive ac-
tions taken by Arabs that
have prolonged the state of
war. Viorst's conclusion that
"at some level of con-
sciousness, Israelis know
peace will require them to
contemplate tough questions
that the state of war has
enabled them to avoid" may
be applied with equal truth to
other movements founded in
struggle, including the
Palestinians.
Sands of Sorrow is most
concerned with exposing the
intensity of Israel's "special
alliance" with the United
States, which Viorst sees as
the cornerstone of the coun-
try's refusal to make peace.
Lyndon Johnson was the first
president to establish the U.S.
as the economic and military
patron of Israel, but the rela-
tionship was cemented with
Richard Nixon, whose foreign
policy was shaped by
Secretary of State Henry
Kissinger.
For Viorst, it is ironic that
Kissinger, "celebrated as a
peacemaker for his 'shuttle
diplomacy' . . . guaranteed to
Israel a margin of military

Judith Colp reports from
Washington for the Jewish
Telegraphic Agency.

Henry Kissinger: Saw Israel as a
pawn.

superiority so wide that it
had no incentive to reconcile
with its neighbors."
According to Viorst, Kiss-
inger saw a strong Israel as a
useful pawn in the global con-
frontation with the Soviet
Union. In 1970, for example,
when the Soviets sent
surface-to-air missiles and
soldiers to Egypt to protect
the Suez Canal, Yitzhak
Rabin, then Israeli Am-
bassador to the U.S., was sum-
moned by Kissinger to a
private meeting with Nixon
where he expected to discuss
the latest Israeli request for
airplanes.
Rabin recalls being shocked
to hear Nixon ask him if
Israel was considering attack-
ing the Soviet missiles. "I
came out of the meeting with
the distinct impression that
he wouldn't mind at all if our
Phantoms attacked Soviet in-
stallations," Rabin said.
Two years later, when the
new Egyptian president, An-
war Sadat, expelled Soviet
forces from the country,
thereby offering to begin
negotiations, the Israelis
were uninterested. Even the
Camp David treaty concluded
between Egypt and Israel,
Viorst claims, only led fur-
ther away from peace.
By making clear that the
Sinai was the only territory it
would cede, Israel left "Jordan
and Syria with no prospect of
regaining their lost territory,
(to) conclude that to follow
Sadat's lead offered nothing
to them," Viorst writes. Yet,
his conclusions flounder in
the face of Jordan King Hus-
sein's peace proposal.
Viorst also suggests that
the Camp David treaty, hav-

ing "neutralized" the armed
forces of Egypt, paved the way
for the invasion of Lebanon.
The invasion, the height of
Israeli assurance of U.S. sup-
port, strengthened the Soviet
influence in the region and ef-
fectively "ended the rich
hopes for peace — with which
the '70s began," he contends.
Arab fundamentalism,
which is on the rise, and ter-
rorist actions may have been
cited by Israel as reasons to
mount an invasion of ques-
tionable validity, but these
factors are hardly mere
Israeli inventions. Moreover,
although Viorst may be cor-
rect in assuming that PLO
Chairman Yassir Arafat may
recognize Israel in exchange
for a Palestinian homeland,
the recent PLO conference in
Algiers, with its shift toward
the right, suggests that this
view could be challenged. In-
deed, one could suggest that
peace is as much a threat to
the PLO as Viorst maintains
it is to Israel.
Finally, although Viorst
points to the growing Soviet
interest in regaining its role
in the Middle East, he
assumes its complacency in
the terms for peace he
outlines.
The real cause of the Mid-
dle East impasse may indeed
be the short supply of
reasonable men and women,
but reason must come from
all sides involved in the
struggle.

.

I IN BRIEF

fimmm

U.S. Criticizes
Israeli Raid

Washington (JTA) — The
State Department last week
criticized Israel's aerial at-
tack against terrorist bases in
Sidon, Lebanon.
"We deplore the cycle of
violence in Lebanon that has
resulted in the death and in-
jury of so many people," said
State Department spokesman
Charles Redman. "We call
upon all parties to exercise
restraint and to work toward
arrangement that permit
restoration of effective
authority of the Lebanese
government throughout the
country?'
According to reports in
Lebanon, several terrorist
command posts in the vicinity
of Sidon, particularly in the
refugee camp of Ein Al Hilwe,
were totally destroyed in the
raid.

