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December 29, 1989 - Image 42

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
The Detroit Jewish News, 1989-12-29

Disclaimer: Computer generated plain text may have errors. Read more about this.

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1978 S. Rochester (at Hamlin)

20417 W. 12 Mile Rd. (at Middlebeft)

BIRMINGHAM 644-6667

FARMINGTON HILLS 851-7665

794 N. Woodward (4 blks. N. of Maple)

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42

FRIDAY. DECEMBER 29. 1989

BACKGROUND

Huge Drain Of Western Support
Part Of 80s Legacy For Israel

HELEN DAVIS

Foreign Correspondent

T

he past decade has not
been kind to Israel.
From its disastrous
adventure in Lebanon to the
intifada closer to home,
Israel has been forced to con-
front the limitations of its
power and its inability to
translate military might
into political
facts.
Immobilized by six years of
national unity government,
the Jewish state has witness-
ed a massive, perhaps irrever-
sible, drain of diplomatic and
political support among some
of its closet friends in the
West.
It has also been compelled
to look on impotently as
Palestine Liberation
Organization Chairman
Yassir Arafat cleverly
played all the angles of the
intifada, exploiting both
Israel's glaring internal po-
litical weaknesses and its
external hemorrhage to reap
a bumper diplomatic
harvest. Today, more
nations recognize the phan-
tom, national Palestinian
state than the Jewish state.
Yet, as the world embarks
on a new decade, high on the
adrenalin of events in
Eastern Europe, a neat
paradox is developing. Even
as old friendships cool in the
West, new opportunities are
opening up for Israel in the
East. It is now possible to
contemplate the coming
years with more optimism
than would have been pru-
dent only a few months ago.
The rigid Soviet doctrine
has been overtaken by an at-
titude of benign
pragmatism. No longer does
the Soviet Union reach out
reflexively to crush
manifestations of democracy
in its East European empire;
no longer is Eastern Europe
a monolithic bloc of an-
tagonism toward the Jewish
state.
The "automatic majority"
against Israel — not only the
Communist bloc, but also
large swathes of black Africa
— which the Arab world once
counted on for support, is
disintegrating. States which
once cast their vote for every
conceivable anti-Israel
resolution in every possible
international forum are now
seeking normal relations
with Jerusalem.
Never mind that the rap-
prochement may not be an

expression of profound af-
finity with the Jewish state.
In matters of international
relations, motives are not
subjected to scrupulous ex-
amination. Friends are em-
braced where friendship is
offered, and in the coming
years Israel is likely to be
the beneficiary of a host of
new friends.
The restoration of rela-
tions with Eastern Europe
and black Africa is unlikely
to bear much tangible
economic and diplomatic
fruit in the short term, but
the unexpected expansion of
relations will undoubtedly
have the immediate effect of
relieving Israel's
claustrophobic isolation and
boosting its sagging morale.
In the Middle East itself,
the 80s will be remembered
as the decade of fundamen-
talism; a decade that opened
with the Iran-Iraq Gulf War,
raising the terrifying specter
of a conflict that could drag
other, more vulnerable, Gulf
states into the vortex of
Islamic revolution,
radicalize Moslems
throughout the Arab world
and ignite an uncontrollable
regional firestorm.
Events in the early 80s did
indeed serve to justify fears
that Ayatollah Ruhollah
Khomeini, after toppling the
pro-Western Shah of Iran
from his Peacock Throne,
would realize his stated am-
bition of exporting his revo-
lution and wresting
Jerusalem from Jewish
hands.
Khomeini's turbulent
society did not, as the Iraqis
had calculated, crumble
under the weight of their
unexpected onslaught;
equally, the ayatollah failed
in his export bid.
The protracted Gulf War,
which occupied most of the
decade, left an estimated one
million combatants dead and
ended in stalemate. For
Israel, however, it provided
a relative respite.
The war not only tied down
two of its most implacable
foes but also concentrated
other Arab minds on their
own vulnerabilities in the
face of a militant Islam. So
long as the Gulf War raged,
Israel could enjoy the luxury
of knowing that the threat of
full scale Arab hostilities
was drastically reduced.
While Khomeini failed to
conquer new territory for
Islam and while triumphant
Islamic soldiers did not
besiege Israel's gates, the

Hashemi Rafsanjani:
Won't douse flame.

message of radical religious
revolution did give birth to a
cluster of revolutionary
groups and fired existing
Islamic movements with
renewed fervor.
In 1981, fundamentalists
who bitterly opposed Egypt's
peace treaty with Israel,
gunned down President An-
war Sadat during a military
parade in Cairo, while arm-
ed bands of pro-Iranian
zealots bombed both
Western and Arab targets in
various Gulf states, notably
Kuwait.
The following year, the
shadowy Hezbollah move-
ment took root in the fertile
soil of Lebanon, a country
which was already shattered
by sectarian strife and was
then in the grip of an Israeli
occupation force, a meaty
bone to chew on.
Hezbollah received
military training from a con-
tingent of Iranian Revolu-
tionary Guards, while
weapons, logistical support
and financial assistance
flowed from the Iranian Em-
bassy in Damascus.
All this facilitated Hez-
bollah's guerrilla war
against Israeli and Western
targets, including the dev-
astating suicide attacks on
United States and French
peace-keeping forces which
had sought to bring order to
that fractious, fractured
state.
The departure of Israeli
forces from Lebanon in 1984,
with Hezbollah suicide
bombers snapping at their
heels and sapping their
morale, was the cue for an
escalation of violence. Under
the protective umbrella of
Hezbollah, new Islamic revo-
lutionary groups — Islamic

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