I ANALYSIS
JOB HUNTING?
Can't seem to get interviews?
Changing Careers? Re-entering
the workforce? Feel you are too
old, inexperienced, not sure of
what job you want or should be
looking for? Not satisfied with
current employment?
Phone ANYTIME fora no obligation informational session.
Disaster For Peres
Continued from Page 1
LOU ELLMAN ASSOCIATES
313 851-2560
Monday-Friday
9:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.
(not an employment agency)
DOUBLE YOUR CLOSET SPACE
with
THE CLOSET SYSTEMS CO.
Call Us For
FAIR PRICES
• CUSTOM DESIGN
• QUALITY INSTALLATION
Begadim
on the Boardwalk
ONE
STEP
AHEAD
ALWAYS
• 50 FREE HANGERS
with each order
• I set per household
356-2830
,nce
.P
k:',PtOf 1 fOi
6919 Orchard Loke Rd • West Bloomfield. MI
855-5528
Come and see LaBret's wide selection of Diamond Engagement
Rings. All shapes — All sizes — At affordable prices.
Always up to 30 % OFF Retail Price
LaBret jewelers
Fine Jewelry And Gifts
IN ROBIN'S NEST • WEST BLOOMFIELD • 7421 Orchard Lake Road
Corner of Orchard Lake Rd. and Northwestern Hwy.
Mon.-Sat. 10-5:30 • Thurs. 10-8 • Repairs done on premises • 737-2333
Visa, American Express, Mastercard, Diners Club • Free Gift Wrap • Cash Refunds
re
roinnv Al
irai
ICT 10 100Q
ment that was unfavorable to
Israel.
Peres, blocked by his coali-
tion partner in Israel's
politically paralyzed national
unity government, was left to
sit on his hands and wait for
victory in the November elec-
tion, when he would be able
to revive the momentum.
While the Israeli govern-
ment was paralyzed, however,
the Palestinians were not. On
December 9, the occupied ter-
ritories erupted in
widespread violence and a
new word was added to the
political lexicon of the region:
intifada (uprising).
The Palestinian convul-
sions, however, had implica-
tions not only for Israel, but
also for Hussein, who feared
that the fires of political and
religious passion would in-
evitably cross the River Jor-
dan and inflame his own
population.
Despairing of Israel's abili-
ty to quell the rage — and of
himself ever winning the
allegiance of the Palestinians
in the territories — Hussein
decided to cut his losses and
disengage his kingdom from
the West Bank, which had
been annexed and ruled by
Jordan from 1950 until the
Israeli conquest in 1967.
In a series of measures over
the past two weeks, the king
has done just that: He has
cancelled a five-year develop-
ment plan for the West Bank,
dissolved the Jordanian
parliament (half of whose
members represented West
Bank constituencies), severed
administrative and legal ties
with the West Bank, fired
some 21,000 civil servants in
the West Bank and deprived
West Bank Palestinians of
their Jordanian citizenship.
After the first couple of
(largely symbolic) measures
were announced, Peres in-
sisted that the king's posi-
tions were "declarative rather
than substantive." If Labor
won in November, he implied,
Hussein would bounce back
to center-stage and be a part-
ner for negotiations.
Such sentiments sounded
increasingly hollow as one
Jordanian announcement
followed another. By early
this week, any residual hopes
that Peres may have enter-
tained of reigniting the peace
process and wooing the voters
with his peace strategy had
vanished.
In a televised press con-
ference Sunday, Hussein
declared that the "Jordanian
option" was dead. He also
took the opportunity to effec-
tively bury his "London
Agreement" with Peres.
There would not be, he said
joint
a
categorically,
Jordanian-Palestinian
delegation in negotiations
with Israel. "That is behind
us now" Hussein said. "As far
as we are concerned that op-
tion does not exist."
The effect of all this will be
to intensify and complicate
the problems that beset
Israel: It will force the PLO to
attempt to fill the vacuum left
by Jordan and it will force the
Israeli government to con-
Peres: A full plate of problems.
front this new challenge. It
will also likely intensify the
intifada.
The Israeli election —
perhaps the most critical
since the founding of the
Jewish state 40 years ago —
will still focus on the question
of peace versus security. On-
ly now, the terms of the
debate, and the balance of
political power, have been
radically altered.
So far, all the polls have in-
dicated that the 1984 stale-
mate, which denied a majori-
ty to either of the two major
political blocs would be
repeated in the 1988 election.
But Hussein's decision to
take himself out of the game
— and, in the process, to pull
the rug from under the Israeli
Labor Party leader — could
have a decisive effect, with
catastrophic consequences for
Shimon Peres.
The credibility of Labor's
appeal to Israelis to accept a
territorial compromise and
take a chance for peace has
been seriously undermined
by the sudden absence of a
negotiating partner.
"There are groups within
the party who are now ad-
vocating a dialogue with the
PLO, but they are being told
to shut up until after the elec-
tion," one senior Labor Party
source told me this week.
"The general feeling is that
the king has slapped us in the
face at the worst possible mo-
ment. There's a sense of
resentment at Hussein's in-
gratitude. After all, we have
always been so careful to coor-
dinate with him.