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Saddam Hussein is hanged in effigy in London.

The Gulf Crisis:
The Press Speaks

ARTHUR J. MAGIDA

Special to The Jewish News

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36

FRIDAY, AUGUST 17, 1990

deally, analyses by news
pundits make global
mega-crises understan-
dable even to the Man (and
Woman) In The Street who
knows little about them. But
the flurry of commentaries
about what will probably be
known as the Persian Gulf
War offers little solace that
sense can yet be made of
what has already happened
— or that there is any great
unanimity about what
might happen or how best to
proceed. .
A good portion of the com-
mentary that's already ap-
peared can best be divided
into three broad categories:
How the conflict will affect
the rest of the Middle East,
especially Israel; America's
overall strategy and purpose
for intervening in the re-
gion; and the character of
Iraqi strongman Saddam
Hussein:
• The Broader Region.
Time, U.S. News and World
Report and Newsweek all re-
ported that a "chorus of 'I
told you so' " was corning
from Jerusalem about the
Iraqi invasion. But despite
Israel's prescience about
Iraq's designs, few jour-
nalists were sanguine about
Israel's role if the conflict
widens beyond Kuwait,
Saudi Arabia and Iraq. The
absolutely worst case
scenario was outlined by
Newsweek's Washington
correspondent John Barry,
who foresaw Israel being
brought into the war if Iraq
sends forces into Jordan.
Mr. Barry's vision of the
war is terrifying: Israeli

planes would bomb Iraqi
convoys bearing missiles
and tanks; Iraq would strike
at Israel's airfields; Israel
would demonstrate its
nuclear capability over
uninhabited desert; and
Iraq's Hussein might then be
temped to use his missles
rather than lose them,
spreading poison gas across
Israel.
The Newsweek writer does
not speculate who, if anyone,
would win this war.
In USA Today, guest
columnist Ghada Talhami
asserted that, in the Arab
world, the United States
may pay higher political
than military costs.
"Consider," said this asso-
ciate professor of Middle
East politics at Lake Forest
College, "the apparent
hypocrisy of condemning
Saddam [Hussein's] ruthless
regime while overlooking
Israel's gross violations of
Palestinian human rights."
She also charged that the
United States had been
silent when Israel invaded
Lebanon, yet expressed
"outrage" at Iraq's invasion
of Kuwait.
And an editorial in Lon-
don's Financial Times sug-
gested that Iraq will con-
solidate its hold on Kuwait,
while "sweating out" the
economic sanctions as it
hopes that the
"international consensus
behind them will fragment.
His best hope of achieving
this would be a diversion in-
volving Israel . . ."
• Who Is Hussein?. Jour-
nalists have gone to their
"D" for "Derogatory"
drawer for descriptions of
Iraqi President Saddam
Hussein: "Butcher."