BEHIND THE HEADLINES I No Confrontation, But Peace Pressure Builds HELEN DAVIS Foreign Correspondent p JULES R. SCHUBOT jewellers — gemologists 3001 West Big Beaver Road • Suite 112 • Troy, Michigan 48084 • (313) 649-1122 END YOUR ROOFING PROBLEMS THROUGH CRAFTSMANSHIP Woolf Roofing & Maintenance Inc. A Third Generation Roofing Family in Detroit Commercial - Industrial — High Rises Single-Ply and Built-Up Systems Fully Insured Member 5-20 Year Warranties 18161 W. 13 Mile Rd. National Roofing Sheet Metal Fabrication in Southfield Contractors Association Free Inspections 646-2452 14 FRIDAY, APRIL 14, 1989 alestine Liberation Organization Chair- man Yassir Arafat may be poised to produce yet another diplomatic coup by calling the Israeli bluff and accepting the principle of elections among Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, according to political sources in Jerusalem. The proposal to hold elec- tions, thereby allowing the Palestinians to produce local leaders who can negotiate the fine print of an interim autonomy arrangement with Israel, was made by Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir during meetings with Presi- dent Bush and Secretary of State Baker last week. Likud apparachiks who are regarded as close to Shamir were confident that the pro- posal would not only play well in Washington but that it would be flatly rejected by the PLO leader — and, therefore, by the Palestinians in the territories. Initial public reactions from Arafat — and from pro-PLO Palestinians in the territories — were indeed negative, but sources in Jerusalem believe that Arafat ultimately will accept the proposals on condi- tion that the United States provided guarantees on two _key issues: Firstly, that the elections are free and fair; secondly, that they are not an end in themselves but rather an in- terim step along the road to a final, comprehensive settle- ment, which would involve direct PLO participation and Israeli withdrawal from the territories. To insure the continuation of the process, Arafat, accor- ding to the sources, will ask the United States for a timetable leading to a full- blown international peace conference and a compre- hensive settlement of the dispute. Palestinians in the occupied territories who publicly scorned the Shamir proposals as an "insult" and a "joke"have privately endors- ed that position: It has also been supported — with qualifications — by Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak, who has emerged as the principal Arab cham- pion of the Palestinian cause. If Arafat ultimately rejects local elections — even with Yitzhak Shamir: Being nudged toward peace talks. American guarantees — and condones the continuation of the intifada, he will have a tough job convincing the Americans that his diplomatic strategy and his stated peaceful intentions are truly genuine. If, on the other hand, he ac- cepts the principle of local elections and fails to achieve the minimal expectations of either his radical left-wing or those in the front line of the uprising — an Israeli with- drawal from the territories — he could face a major split in his ranks and stand accused of undermining the what he likes to describe as "the bless- ed intifada." An essential precondition of Arafat's public support for local elections, however, are the American guarantees, which will prevent the elec- tions and autonomy from be- ing set, in concrete and "eter- nalized" as a final settlement. Political sources in Jerusalem believe that the U.S. administration is engag- ing an elaborate, astute diplomatic snooker match with Israel and will be able to satisfy most of Arafat's demands. According to the sources, Washington's strategy is aim- ed at luring the Israeli leader into making specific pro- posals which will generate an irresistable momentum toward far more profound political process than he would be prepared to concede unilaterally. The sub-text of the strategy may well have been entitled, "Accentuate The Positive:" commit the Israeli leader to a political path, however limited, which can be used as the basis for drawing him — kicking and screaming, if necessary — into a broader, more far-reaching, more com- prehensive program of action.