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TROY 643-0807
LATHRUP VILLAGE 569-7440

2862 W. Maple (at Coolidge)

26079 Southfield Rd. (at 101/2 Mile)

TROY 583-1574

FARMINGTON HILLS 477-0818

5119 Rochester (at Long Lk. in Meadowbrook)

25882 Middlebek (at 11 Mile)

ROCHESTER 656-8544

FARMINGTON HILLS 474-2866

1978 S. Rochester (at Hamlin)

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BIRMINGHAM 644-6667

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

FARMINGTON HILLS 851-7665

31799 Middlebek (at Northwestern Hwy.)

FRANKLIN 737-0721

32740 Franklin (3 blks. S. of Cider Mill)

SOUTHFIELD 559-9232

19715 W. 12 Mile Rd. (at Evergreen)

34

FRIDAY, MAY 4, 1990

Israel Has No Choice
But To Try Electoral Reform

Only electoral reform, an accommodation
with the Palestinians, and an end to petty
squabbles will extricate the Jewish state.

SAME DAY
SHIRTS

-

BACKGROUND

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F

orty-two years after
the renaissance of the
modern Jewish state,
Israelis took a day off this
week to mark their national
anniversary and to con-
template a year that is filled
with as much uncertainty
and insecurity as any they
have known.
Domestically, Israel's po-
litical malaise continues.
Shimon Peres, whose flawed
credibility has thwarted
Labor's bid for outright
power since 1977, spent
more than a month in a des-
perate, ultimately futile, at-
tempt to put together a
narrow- based "peace coali-
tion."
Having effectively engi-
neered his own dismissal
from the cabinet - a move
which precipitated the col-
lapse of the national unity
coalition and denied Labor
even junior partnership in
the Israeli government -
Peres is unlikely to be
forgiven by his party for his
subsequent failure.
With the ball back in the
hands of aging Likud leader
Yitzhak Shamir, Israeli
voters are now being forced
to confront the very real pro-
spect of a radical right-
wing/religious government.
Israelis are, to be sure,
demonstratively disen-
chanted by the wheeling,
dealing and double-dealing
of their politicians. It is not,
however, only the internal
weakness of the two major
power blocs that is causing
anguish within the Israeli
body politic, but the source
of that weakness.
Israel's electoral system
confers massively dispropor-
tionate power on the myriad
marginal parties which play
a critical role in power-
broking. For strictly short-
term considerations, neither
of the major political blocs is
willing to initiate a reform of
the system for fear of an-
tagonizing those small par-
ties, to which both ultimate-
ly turn for their hopes of
parliamentary majorities.
As things are, any attempt
to rationalize the system and
cut the small parties down to
size would be tantamount to

political suicide. It is now
clear that the best chance for
electoral reform lay with the
two national unity govern-
ments, consisting of both
Labor and Likud, which rul-
ed Israel for the past six
years and which in fact
promised (but failed to
deliver) just such a reform.
That moment, however,
appears to have passed into
history, and Israelis now feel
powerless to effect the sort of
systemic changes that will
root out the corruption
which produces govern-
ments that are neither
representative of the elec-
tors nor responsive to their
wishes.
Their frustration was
given expression by Presi-
dent Chaim Herzog in his
Independence Day address
on Monday when he added
his voice to the call for elec-
toral reform and described
the recent bout of horse-
trading as "a mockery of
justice."
The demise of the Labor
Party, meanwhile, appears
to have shattered any
residual hopes of getting a
peace process on track and
launching a meaningful dia-
logue between Israelis and
Palestinians; nor does
Shamir appear to be holding
any hidden cards.
On the contrary, the Likud
leader is trapped in a com-
plex web of political
paralysis spun by a host of
competing figures within his
own party, all of whom - an-
ticipating their leader's fall -
are anxious to establish
their own hard-line creden-
tials in the scramble for suc-
cession of the Likud leader-
ship.
While Jerusalem is beset
by its continuing internal
crises, problems are building
up abroad. Not the least of
Israel's problems is Wash-
ington, which has shown
little patience for the eye-
crossing, almost mystical
signs, symbols and sen-
sitivities that have become
emblematic of Israeli polit-
ical life.
It is considered unlikely
that the Bush administra-
tion has contingency plans
for dealing with an Israel
which eschews the sort of
peace process that Secretary
of State Baker has prescrib-

Shamir's harsh words widen
party schisms.

ed; rather, it is thought that
in the absence of diplomatic
progress toward a set-
tlement, the United States
will simply turn its back on
the Arab-Israeli conflict and
leave the disputants to slug
it out.
While a policy of benign
neglect from Washington
may take the heat off
Shamir and provide immed-
iate relief for his political
problems, the longer-term
consequences are likely to be
far more profound.
With the Soviet Union's
regional ambitions rapidly
receding, much of Israel's
strategic value has been
eroded and Washington's in-
centive to support Israel -
the largest single recipient
of America's largesse - has
been diminished. Besides, as
Senator Robert Dole pointed
out in Jerusalem, the Bush
administration has other
fish to fry, notably the newly
liberated countries of East-
ern Europe which are crying
out for attention and aid.
Such American dis-
engagement from Israel
would coincide with an un-
precedented arms race in the
Middle East, which is
witnessing a narrowing of
Israel's qualitative gap in
weapons and technology as
her Arab enemies equip
themselves with ballistic
missiles that may ultimately
be capable of devastating the
Jewish state with nuclear,
chemical and biological
weapons.
In addition, the absence of
movement in the political
arena is bound to have an
effect in the conflict between
Israel and the Palestinians,

