Mideast Mirror

Continued from Page 24

this issue," he told a Wall
Street Journal reporter last
week, "I doubt any Syrian
has ever had a dissenting
thought."
But the situation is not
hopeless. Ironically, the
crisis in the Persian Gulf, for
all of its potential bloodshed
and disaster, also presents
an opportunity for hope be-
cause it proves that change
is possible.
One of the lessons learned
is that the United States is
indeed the most influential
country in the world and
that when it is willing to
assert itself, it can ac-
complish revolutionary
transformation almost over-
night.
Three months ago, it
would have seemed impossi-
ble for there to be a military
force made up of soldiers
from the United States,
Syria, Egypt and Great
Britain to protect Saudi
Arabia. And who would have
thought the United Nations
could achieve virtual una-
nimity in resolving to
boycott Iraq?
The lesson here is that
practical considerations
always win out over long-
held political beliefs. The
Saudi sheiks may abhor hav-
ing non-Moslems on their

soil, but when faced with the
loss of their oil fields, they
managed to tolerate the
presence of infidels.
And so, President Bush
has a unique opportunity to
change the status quo of the
Israel-Arab dilemma, if he
chooses to. Until now, he has
achieved cooperation from
Saudi Arabia by promising
them billions of dollars in
military arms — aren't we
protecting them? — and forg-
ing a new strategic relation-
ship with Syria. It is time for
the president to advocate
that these and other Arab
states declare an end to their
four-decade war with Israel
and accept the Jewish state
as a political reality.
Impossible? No, it's just a
matter of conviction. The
U.S. could provide the Arabs
with a fig leaf by appearing
to coerce them into such a
declaration at the risk of
future financial and military
cooperation.
If President Bush comes to
realize that the first step
toward Mideast peace is in
ending the Arab-Israel state
of war, rather than fostering
negotiations with the Pales-
tinians, then perhaps this
entire Saddam Hussein
episode can still have a
happy ending.0

Australia Maintains PLO
Links Despite Gulf Crisis

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5

Sydney, Australia (JTA) —
Australia, which has sent a
naval force to the Persian
Gulf to help deter Iraqi ag-
gression, has no plans, at
least now, to end its contacts
with the Palestine Libera-
tion Organization, whose
leaders are among the few in
the Arab world who support
Saddam Hussein.
Last week, Foreign Min-
ister Gareth Evans disap-
pointed a pro-Israel audience
in Melbourne with his am-
biguous attitude toward the
PLO. But he criticized its
leaders and tempered his
statements with praise for
Israel's behavior in the Gulf
crisis.
Addressing a public
meeting organized by the
Labor Friends of Israel, the
Laborite minister blasted
PLO chief Yassir Arafat,
other PLO leaders and many
of the Palestinian rank-and-
file.
He said their reactions to
Hussein's occupation of
Kuwait ranged from
outright support to pathetic
apologies.
Mr. Evans also accused the

PLO leadership of riding the
coattails of demagogic ap-
peals to anti-Western and
anti-Israel sentiment.
But he nevertheless main-
tained that Mr. Arafat and
the PLO leadership have not
backed away from the posi-
tions they took at a news
conference during the
Geneva session of the U.N.
General Assembly in
December 1988.
It was in that forum that
Mr. Arafat made remarks
widely interpreted as a re-
nunciation of terrorism and
acceptance of Israel's right
to exist. Following that,
Australia upgraded its con-
tacts with the PLO.
The government has not
yet responded to the urgings
of Australian Jewry to sus-
pend that dialogue. The ap-
peal was made jointly by the
Executive Council of
Australian Jewry and the
Zionist Federation of
Australia. They cited factors
they said constituted
evidence that terrorism and
the destruction of Israel
were still key elements of
the PLO's platform.