MIDEAST
The PLO Has Gained
On The Opinion Front
HELEN DAVIS
Special to The Jewish News
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IvNeste
-
ne year after the start
of the intifada, Israel
is more isolated from
its natural allies, more
estranged from world Jewry
and more divided against
itself than ever before.
The message of the Pales-
tinian cause, supplemented
with images of brutality by
Israeli soldiers, have been car-
ried into the living rooms of
the world almost nightly for
the past 12 months, leaving
behind a trail of stinging
public relations defeats for
Israel.
Yassir Arafat, down and al-
most out last December, has
once again risen Phoenix-like
from the ashes, exhibiting a
rare political instinct and
exploiting the opportunity
brilliantly.
He has firmly established
himself at the head of his
fractious movement, forced
Jordan's King Hussein to
abandon his pretentions to
the occupied territories and
transformed himself from an
untrustworthy, vicious terror-
ist into the hero of the hour,
the toast of those who strain
relentlessly to detect signs
moderation in his
utterrances.
Most of all, he has capital-
ized on the public relations
coup scored by the Palestin-
ian kids in the towns and
villages on the West Bank
and Gaza by neatly turning
the tables on Israel.
For the first time, it is the
Palestinians who, incredibly,
are perceived as the peace-
makers, while Israeli leaders
— both Labor and Likud — sit
on their hands, crying foul
and saying "no."
Nor is that the only seismic
turnaround in Israel's for-
tunes. While American Jew-
ish leaders plead, cajole and
warn of the dire conse-
quences, Prime Minister Yit-
zhak Shamir is preparing to
preside over a change in
Israel's law which would, at a
stroke, disenfranchise non-
Orthodox converts and
alienate literally millions of
Diaspora Jews.
The effect of such a move
would be calamitous not just
for Israel's relations with the
Diaspora in general, but for
its relations with the United
States in particular. And that
at a moment when Jerusalem
needs all the friends it can
muster in Washington.
For all his somewhat disen-
genuous declaration of sur-
Yassir Arafat:
Winning one battle.
prise at the depth of Amer-
ican Jewish sentiment on the
issue, Shamir is unlikely to
step back from the precipice.
Even the Israeli media, not
known for its sensitivity to
Diaspora issues, appears to
have realized the gravity of
the present situation (see
box).
In an editorial last week,
the mass-circulation Hebrew-
language daily
Yediot
Ahranot opposed a change in
the Law of Return, arguing
that the "Who is a Jew"
amendment "is not a law.. .
which Israelis alone should
decide. It is a law for the
entire Jewish people."
Then the newspaper reach-
ed the heart of the matter:
"The guard is changing at the
White House, and despite the
new president's friendly dec-
larations toward us, he has
surrounded himself with a
staff that is not necessarily so
friendly. Nor does his commit-
ment to foreign aid bode well
for us.
"Israel," noted the paper,
"needs the influence and
power of the Jewish lobby and
of Jewish institutions now
more than ever."
While acknowledging the
dangers in amending the Law
of Return, the Likud leader
appears to believe that the
risk is worth the political
prize of winning over the
religious bloc and restoring
the prime minister's crown to
his head.
That crown, however, will
prove to be studded with the
thorns, for when Yitzhak
Shamir and his new cabinet
colleagues drink the tradi-
tional toast after they are for-
mally approved by the
Knesset, he will be
celebrating a pyrrhic victory.
The new order will not quell
the fires raging in the hearts
of a deeply divided Israel.
It will not obliterate the