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.