25 CLOSE-UP Machiavellian Dove JAMES DAVID BESSER Yehoshafat Harkabi has an unpopular viewpoint for peace in Israel. 36 SPORTS A. Little Respect MIKE ROSENBAUM Small but swift Andover continues the good skate. center FEELING GOOD Israeli soldiers argue with a Palestinian at the Shati Refugee Camp: 'The U.S. is not going to indefinitely contribute relief' What The U.S. Not Arabs Has Done For The Palestinians MITCHELL BARD C ritics of American Middle East policy frequently complain that U.S. taxpayers are forced to support Israeli policy because of the large amounts of foreign aid appropriated each year to Israel. They also complain about the lack of support for the Palestinians. In fact, the United States has long been the principal financial supporter of the Palestinian refugees. But in contrast to the gratitude expressed by Israelis, we receive nothing but opprobrium from Palestinians. In 1948, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) was established to provide assistance to Palestinians who became refugees following the first Arab- Israeli war. The UNRWA was meant to be a temporary agency since the Palestinians, like every other refugee population, were expected to be resettled. The United Na- tions passed a resolution calling for the repatriation and resettlement of the refugees, but Israel refused to accept large numbers of Palestinians unless the Arabs were willing, as the resolution specified, "to live at peace with their neighbors." The Arab states refused to negotiate peace until the refugees were repatriated. Except for Jordan, they also refused to resettle them, preferring instead to confine the refugees to camps wehre they could re- main a symbol of the Arab-Israeli conflict and where hatred for Israel could be allow- ed to ferment. They have remained in camps and on UNRWA relief rolls ever since. lbday, more than 2 million Palestinians are on the rolls and more than 700,000 in camps. After the 1967 war, Israel acquired responsibility for those in the Gaza Strip Mitchell Bard is a foreign policy analyst in Washington. and West Bank and has made great efforts to improve their living conditions. These ef- forts have been impeded by the Arab states, which have secured a U.N. resolution each year since 1971 demanding that Israel desist from removing Palestinians from the camps. The United States, meanwhile, has con- tributed more than 1 billion dollars to the UNRWA — nearly half the total con- tributed by all nations. During the same period, the Soviet Union did not 'contribute a single ruble and the Arab states combin- ed contributed less than 10 percent of the total UNRWA budget to aid their brethren. Last year, the United States con- tributed $67 million to the UNRWA; the Arab states donated a little more than $4 million. More than half of that was con- tributed by the Saudis, whose contribution was exceeded by 11 countries other than the U.S. including Sweden, Denmark and Switzerland. Oil-rich Kuwait's $1.1 million contribution put it in the same category with Australia and Finland. Israel's con- tribution to support the people now ston- ing their population was more than double that of Syria and more than 40 times that of Egypt and Lebanon. The vigorous sup- porters of the Palestinian cause in the Kremlin and Baghdad contributed iden- tical sums — zero. "The United States is not going to con- tinue indefinitely to contribute relief with no concrete evidence on the part of states directly concerned that they are willing to take steps for the resolution of the pro- blem," the Senate Foreign Relatioans Com- mittee wrote more than 30 years ago. Americans have not only been generous toward the Palestinians, but pa- tient. Perhaps it is too much to expect gratitude from them. But it should not be asking too much that the Arab states do more to help the refugees by increasing their contributions to the UNRWA. What's hot and what's not for personal health and fitness in 1989. 43 ENTERTAINMENT Music Maven JOANNE ZUROFF Jon Liebman has become a master at performing, writing, arranging. 56 LIFESTYLES Young Leader CARLA JEAN SCHWARTZ Peter Perlman has taken a leading role in B'nai B'rith. 63 EDUCATION Gedolah Goal HEIDI PRESS An Oak Park yeshivah wants to be the community meeting place. DEPARTMENTS 32 40 58 65 82 20 Seniors 22 Youth 24 Crossword 28 Inside Washington 30 Synagogues Business For Women Engagements Births Obituaries CANDLELIGHTING December 30, 1988 4:50 p.m. 5:54 p.m. Sabbath ends Dec. 31 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS 7