I CAPITOL REPORT

Holiday
Dreams
Do
Come
True

Arafat Courts America
For PLO Recognition

WOLF BLITZER

Special to The Jewish News

I

At...

HOURS:
10-6 M-F
10-8 Thurs.
10-5 Sat.

(OCKTA I LS

EVENING FASHIONS

Crosswinds Mall
Orchard Lake and Lone Pine
(313) 851.7633

casual
living
modes

contemporary
• furniture
• lighting
• wall decor
• gifts
• interiors

Ladies' Fashion Apparel

3 DAY SALE
40% OFF

Coats and Suits

All previous sales and layaways excluded

4082 West Maple
Birmingham, MI

20

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1988

645-1320

Parking in rear

COME JOIN OUR
35th ANNIVERSARY
CELEBRATION

TAKE ADVANTAGE OF
ADDITIONAL SAVINGS ON
THE MOST UNUSUAL
DISPLAY OF
CONTEMPORARY
ACCESSORIES ANYWHERE

544.171 1
22961 Woodward, Ferndale, MI

n the short term, Yassir
Arafat and his PLO have
clearly failed in their
drive to establish an open
dialogue with the United
States.
At the just-concluded meet-
ing of the Palestine National
Council (PNC) in Algiers, the
PLO did not clearly and un-
ambiguously meet America's
long-standing conditions for
recognition: that they recog-
nize Israel's right to exist; ac-
cept U.N. resolutions 224 and
33; renounce terrorism; and
rewrite the PLO's national
covenant to remove references
calling for the destruction of
Israel.
But in the longer term, the
Palestinians still may have
advanced the day when U.S.
and PLO officials meet direct-
ly and openly to discuss the
peace process in the Middle
East.
The PLO may not have ac-
cepted the U.S. conditions,
State Department spokesmen
conceded, but it moved closer
to them. And that, they said,
was encouraging.
Israel officials and their
American supporters, there-
fore, should take little comfort
in their apparent ability to
overcome the dramatic public
relations challenge posed by
the PNC meeting. The overall
situation remains fluid;
America's last word on the
PLO has not yet been uttered.
Reflecting this point of view,
Dr. William Quandt, a former
National Security Council
staffer on the Middle East,
said that the PLO has "come
close to meeting the Ameri-
can conditions, perhaps not
literally so, but at least we're
m _ oving in that direction."
Other U.S. officials, speak-
ing privately, agreed. They
said the PLO was struggling
to meet America's demands.
The United States, they add-
ed, has a continuing interest
in encouraging moderation
and realism among Palestin-
ians.
What the PLO did succeed
in underlining these past few
days was the sense that it was
indeed the representative of
the Palestinians. The notion
that Jordan could represent
Palestinians — the so-called
Jordanian option — was
dramatically undermined.
There is today an increased
recognition in Washington
that resolving the Palestinian
question will require PLO in-

volvement — one way or
another.
As a result, there is an in-
creased feeling of inevitabili-
ty that the PLO will have to
be included in eventual peace
negotiations. And many
American officials also see
the two-state solution — a
new Palestine emerging
alongside Israel — as likely as
well.
Israeli leaders may still be
resisting these trends, but
their American counterparts
are today less inclined to do
so.
In this connection, the
Palestinians, and their
declaration of statehood, have
achieved some important suc-
cess in the last few days. They
have made a subtle but im-
portant impact in the United
States.
In Algiers and since, the
PLO has made clear that its
major audience was in fact
the United States — not Is-
rael. Arafat, in his opening
remarks, addressed himself
directly to President-elect
George Bush, appealing for a
more even- handed U.S. ap-
proach.
Later, during an interview
on the Christian Science
Monitor's nationally-
televised news program,
Arafat said that the United
States now has "no excuse" to
avoid the PLO "unless they
are insisting to carry on with
their policy against my peo-
ple. But I hope that Bush will
respond positively."
Other PLO spokesmen
bluntly told American televi-
sion interviewers that they
wanted to convince the
United States to pressure
Israel into accepting the PLO.
Thus, Bassem Abu Sharif,
the PLO's aggressive and con-
troversial spokesman, ex-
pressed hope that the United
States "will help because we
know what kind of influence
the American administration
has on Israel."
The American news media,
after some initial confused ex-
citement, eventually conclud-
ed that the PLO had not yet
truly broken with its past
policies.
What also helped Israel —
and hurt the PLO's image of
moderation — was the pres-
ence in Algiers of Mohammed
Abul Abbas, the mastermind
of the Achille Lauro hijack-
ing; Dr. George Habash, the
leader of the Popular Front
for the Liberation of Pales-
tine; Nayeef Hawatmeh, the
leader of the Democratic
Front.