BACKGROUND
Still The One
Washington is forging new
alliances, but the one with Israel
will be the one that endures.
HELEN DAVIS
Foreign Correspondent
T
he Gulf crisis now ap-
pears to be on the
brink of its most
critical, unstable and un-
predictable phase. It is im-
possible to know precisely
where the chips will fall,
still less to predict the future
shape of the Middle East
map.
One thing, however, is cer-
tain: despite the United
States vote against Israel in
the Security Council and
dark hints of pressure
following the Gulf crisis, it
would be premature now to
write the obituary of the
close relationship between
the two countries.
For all their differences,
Washington and Jerusalem
share a profound and endur-
ing friendship based on
shared interests, common
values and mutual aspira-
tions.
The United States may
forge new alliances in the
Middle East, but it must be
clear that as long as the
Arab world remains essen-
tially anti-democratic, Israel
provides its only prospect of
a lasting, durable alliance in
the region.
It is the only state with
which the United States can
create that complex web of
treaties, agreements and
understandings, implicit
and explicit, which
characterizes a close,
trusting relationship between
states.
Israel is, moreover, the
only state in the region
whose relationship with the
United States is firmly an-
chored in a compatability
between two enduring
systems rather than in the
person of a particular presi-
dent or potentate who may,
at any moment, become vic-
tim of an invasion, a coup or
an assassin's bullet.
In its current predicament,
the United States may feel
discomfited by its close alli-
ance with Israel; it may find
it expedient to vote against
Israel in international
forums. But given its intense
interests in the region it
cannot abandon the Jewish
state, even if political sen-
sitivities dictate an arms-
length relationship when
regional problems arise.
What, after all, is the
alternative? With which
Arab states could the United
States forge an equally
stable alliance to safeguard
its interests in the Middle
East?
With Syria's Hafez Assad,
a prime sponsor of interna-
tional terrorism whose
brutal regime bears a haun-
ting resemblance to that of
Saddam Hussein's Iraq?
With Egypt's Hosni Muba-
rak, who came to power as a
consequence of a political
assassination and whose
regime continues to be beset
by a rising tide of Islamic
fundamentalism?
With Jordan's King Hus-
sein, whose throne has been
kept upright only by mas-
sive, regular infusions of
CIA support over the years
and who, when the crunch
came, chose to side with
Iraq?
Or could the United States
possibly rely on an alliance
with Saudi Arabia, whose
sovereign integrity Presi-
dent Bush has gambled so
much to defend?
The Bush administration
may find Israel's occupation
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
37