I BACKGROUND I
CENTER FOR JEWISH
CREATIVITY AND EXPLORATION
Dangers
Continued from preceding page
LET'S TALK BOOKS
Select a booklist, read and share reactions.
Dates: First Monday of the month,
beginning Oct. 1; 7:30 p.m.
Location: JCC-M/D-Library
Facilitator: Adele Silver
AN HISTORIAN LOOKS AT THE NEWS
"IS IT GOOD FOR THE JEWS?"
Four-week course
Dates: Tuesdays, beginning Oct. 2; 9:30-10:30 a.m.
Free: S20 (Bagels and coffee included)
Instructor: Dr. Sid Bolkosky
AN EVENING OF POETRY, WINE AND
CANDLELIGHT IN A "VOYAGE OF THE HEART"
Personal reflections and emotions through the seasons of
life with Israeli poet, artist and historian,
Suzi Russek-Osherov.
Dat: Tuesday, Oct. 16; 8-9:30 p.m.
Fee: $6
Location: JCC-M/D-Library
IMPERFECT RELATIONSHIPS:
PORTRAITS OF JEWS IN AMERICAN FILM
Dates: Tuesdays, Oct. 16, 23, 30, Nov. 6, 20; 7:30 p.m.
Fee: $30
Location: JCC-M/D
Instructor: Dr. N.P. Silverman
RUSSIAN•JEWISH WRITERS IN ENGLISH
TRANSLATION
Five-week course
Date: Beginning Oct. 18; 7:30 p.m.
Fees: $25
Location: JCC-M/D
Instructor: Dr. Luba Berton
jr.
JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER
OF METROPOLITAN DETROIT
6600 WEST MAPLE ROAD
WEST BLOOMFIELD, MICHIGAN 48322
Registration Form - Fall 1990
= You may register by mail or in person now for all classes
Mail to: JCC/6600 W. Maple Rd./W. Bloomfield, MI 48322
Bus. Phone
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42
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1990
Exp. Date
Fee
the Arab leaders, but he felt
compelled to side with
Saddam over the Gulf crisis
primarily because of Jor-
dan's heavy economic
dependence on Iraq.
He has also been
motivated by the need to ap-
pease Jordan's Palestinian
majority, which constitutes
some 60 per cent of the
estimated 2.6 million in-
habitants, and to ameliorate
the effects of popular support
for Iraq which erupted on
the streets of his kingdom
after the invasion of Kuwait.
However, the level of polit-
ical and religious radicaliza-
tion in Jordan is now
thought to have passed the
point of appeasement.
"Hussein can't turn back the
clock," said one Israeli
source this week, "and it is
now just a matter of time
before the Hashemite
monarchy falls."
There are fears in Israel
that a post-Hashemite Jor-
dan will become more closely
aligned with Baghdad,
perhaps leading to a formal
union with Iraq. Such an
event could provoke a
military response from
Syria's Assad.
At the same time, military
intrusions into Jordan by
either Syria or Iraq are, in
turn, likely to trigger a
military response from
Israel, which has already
stated that it will not accept
an expansion of either power
on its longest, most
vulnerable border.
Israeli sources note that
while Jordan and Israel are
technically in a state of war,
there has in fact been close
cooperation, including fre-
quent secret personal con-
tacts, between King Hussein
and successive Israeli
leaders.
When Israel expressed
concern last month about
possible Iraqi troop
deployments in Jordan, the
king assured Jerusalem that
he would resist such an em-
brace.
Despite the close coopera-
tion, King Hussein has
become deeply suspicious in
recent years that Israel's
right-wing Likud leaders
would seek to end the upris-
ing in the occupied West
Bank and Gaza Strip by
"transferring" the bulk of
its 1.3 million Palestinian
inhabitants into. Jordan.
Such a development would
quickly overbalance Jor-
dan's already tenuous dem-
ographic balance and would
be likely to lead to the crea-
tion of a Palestinian state on
the ashes of the Hashemite
kingdom.
Some Israelis applaud this
prospect, asserting that the
creation of a Palestinian
state in Jordan would not
only free them from the in-
tifada but also remove the
demographic threat posed by
the rapidly increasing Pales-
tinian population to the Jew-
ish character of Israel.
In addition, they argue
that international demands
on Israel to evacuate the
West Bank and Gaza Strip to
make way for a Palestinian
state would be muted.
More sober analysts,
however, point out that the
emergence of a radical Pa-
lestinian state in what is
now Jordan could ultimately
become an extension of
either Iraq or a hostile Syria.
Such an eventuality, they
say, would seriously en-
danger Israel's security.
U.S. Relations
Diplomatically, Israel's
greatest challenge will come
from Washington, where the
Bush administration has al-
ready served notice that it
will pursue the peace process
more vigorously than ever
once the Gulf crisis has been
resolved, with hints that it
may agree to a full-blooded
international conference.
The firmness of Washing-
ton's resolve is being seen as
a function both of its desire
to reduce regional tensions
and as a sop to those Arab
states sending troops to the
Gulf in response to the
American call to stop
Saddam.
While Israeli Foreign Min-
ister David Levy returned to
Israel elated from his first
meeting with Secretary
Baker last week, his trium-
phal spirit may have had
more to do with his percep-
tion of his own domestic po-
litical prospects than with
flexibility in the Bush ad-
ministration over Israel's
longstanding, well-known
and, in Washington's view,
unacceptable positions.
Indeed, Prime Minister
Yitzhak Shamir did not
share his foreign minister's
enthusaism, expressing
dismay at media reports
emanating from the U.S.
over a possible side deal
between Washington and
Moscow about an interna-
tional peace conference and
a Soviet return to the center-
stage of Middle East diplo-
macy.
Mr. Shamir has consistent-
ly opposed an international
conference to settle the
Israeli-Arab dispute because
he fears such a forum would
be coercive and would in-
evitably impose an un-