The intifada, the Palestinian uprising which began in
December, 1987, defied the Israeli army and continues to
foster violence — and damage Israel's image — as it
enters its third year.
Serious differences over religious status emerged as a
major issue among Orthodox, Conservative and Reform
Jews, and helped fuel the bitter Who Is A Jew debate
that followed the Israeli national elections in November,
1988.
Arabs Launch
Bloody Intifada
`Who Is A Jew' Crisis
Divides World Jewry
I
t was supposed to be a year of
celebration. Israel was gearing up for
her 40th anniversary, planning for an
influx of tourists and a variety of
programs and events, concerts and
fireworks.
But the fireworks came unexpectedly,
and from a different quarter, as Pales-
tinian Arabs living on the West Bank and
in Gaza erupted in what appeared to be a
spontaneous outpouring of anger, frustra-
tion and hatred.
Their target: the Israelis. Their army:
young boys and young men seemingly
unafraid of the powerful Israeli army.
Their weapons: stones, rocks, firebombs —
and world sympathy for their plight as
refugees seeking a home of their own.
What began in December 1987, in ap-
parent outrage over a traffic accident, has
spilled over into a full-scale uprising that,
two years and many hundreds of deaths
later, still vents its fury and saps Israel's
strength and image. The violence no
longer attracts front-page headlines, but
virtually each day there are demonstra-
tions and deaths. Israel has been unable
to stop it, or the negative image she has
projected in trying to quell the
insurrection.
The world has come- to learn a new
word, intifada, and it has dramatically
changed the Mideast equation, exploding
the status quo and returning the Arab-
Jewish conflict to its most primitive level.
For this is not a war between armies but
between individuals, pitting Arab against
Jew, young men with rocks against others
with sticks, fighting over the same small
piece of land that their ancestors died
over.
I
he issue of a potential split
within the Jewish community
over the definition of who is a
Jew had been discussed and
debated for decades, but when it
flared up as an immediate result
of Israel's dead-locked national elections in
November, 1988, no one was prepared for
the level of anger and bitterness
generated.
It was an example of mixing politics
and religion, with Israel's major parties
wooing the smaller religious parties in an
attempt to form a coalition, and in the
process promising concessions — from im-
posing Orthodox standards on society to
amending the Law of Return to define a
convert as someone converting according
to Halacha, or religious law.
American Jews, most of whom are not
Orthodox, reacted with outrage, claiming
that passage of such an amendment would
in effect make them second class Jews,
and there were threats of withholding
financial support of the Jewish state if the
Knesset amended the law. Countless .
delegations were sent from the U.S. to
Jerusalem to seek to persuade Israeli of-
ficials the importance of this issue to
American Jews, and in the end the
showdown was avoided when Labor and
Likud, Israel's two major parties, formed
a coalition rather than giving in to the
demands of the religious parties.
But experts warn that the troublesome
issue has been smoothed over rather than
solved, and that the very real rift among
the leaders of the Orthodox, Conservative,
Reform and Reconstructionist movements
is certain to present itself again.
Yassir Arafat had much to smile about by the end of the
decade, having survived humiliation during the war in
Lebanon to emerge as a world statesman in the eyes of
many. His December, 1988, recognition of Israel, real or
imagined, opened the door to official PLO-U.S. talks.
Arafat Recognizes
Israel, U.S. Opens
Talks With PLO
If
assir Arafat achieved a major
diplomatic victory in December,
1988, when he finally uttered
the magic formula — renuncia-
tion of terrorism, acceptance of
United Nations Resolution 242
and recognition of Israel — after proclaim-
ing a Palestinian state.
There has been bitter debate ever since
over the veracity of the pledge, but it was
enough for Washington to end a 14-year
ban on official talks with the PLO and
open a new dialogue, despite protests from
Jerusalem.
These latest events seemed to ,have com-
pleted the transformation of the PLO in '
the eyes of the world from a terrorist
group, responsible for dozens of deadly at-
tacks during the decade at airports,
synagogues, in airplanes and ships (the
Achille Lauro), to a respected political
organization seeking statehood for the
Palestinian people. And Yassir Arafat, who
was forced to evacuate Beirut during the
Lebanon War in 1982, a beaten man,
returned to world-leader status by the end
of the decade, having met with world
leaders from the Pope to the prime
minister of France.
The decade of the 1970s ended on a
note of promise, with Israel and Egypt
signing an historical peace treaty in 1979.
The 1980s ends with discussion of the in-
tricacies of implementing Israel's proposal
for free elections in the territories and the
realization that true peace is as elusive as
ever.
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
51