PERSIAN GULF CRISIS Palestinians show their support for the PLO and Iraq and their anger at the United States during a demonstration this past week in Jordan. THE ARAB WORLD Strange Bedfellows: Israel And The Arabs Aligned with Jerusalem against Saddam Hussein, Arab leaders scramble to satisfy international, and domestic, demands: HELEN DAVIS Foreign Correspondent ar creates situa- tions that any ra- tional thinker might previously have dismissed as too fanciful for serious con- sideration. How else can you explain the possibility of Israel fighting on the same side as Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Kuwait — and even Syria — against Iraq? Yet, this prospect became very real as the Gulf war entered its second week. Fears that the leading Arab members of the United States-led U.N. coalition would bolt at the first hint of Israeli involvement proved, at least initially, to be overplayed. After Iraqi Scud missiles fell on the Jewish state, Jerusalem said it would strike back — in its own time. Ira Rifkin, assistant editor of the Baltimore Jewish Times, contributed to this story. Saudi and Kuwait officials said on CNN that Israel had every right to strike back in kind. And Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk Charaa, meeting with European Community ambassadors, agreed that Israel does, in- deed, have every right to retaliate. According to reports, Mr. Charaa said Syria would not leave the coalition even if Israel's re- sponse was "100 times" har- sher that what Baghdad has so far dished out. The Damascus daily news- paper, Tishrin, even said that Iraq had played into Israel's long-term interests by lobbing Scud missiles at Tel Aviv and Haifa. The ar- rival of American Patriot missiles, along with the military crews to fire them; was, as much as anything, • proof that the Tishrin editorial writer may have been right on the mark. But Israel and its sup- porters should not rest assured. In the quirky Mid- dle East, where alliances shift with the sands, Saddam Hussein's grand design for jihad, holy war, could still become tragically successful. For no matter what Arab leaders may say, they must still contend with the stark fact that within Saddam's arsenal is a weapon that can be neither seen nor intercepted: his ability to tap straight into the Arab/Islamic bloodstream and to invoke the myths and glories of vanished greatness. Nor does he seem to care if, in the process, he sets brother against brother in the name of faith and honor. This is a weapon of such potential power that it could snatch victory for Saddam from the jaws of defeat. This is the nightmare scenario that has spurred Western leaders to frantic efforts over the past week to keep Israel out of the fray. There is not a country in the Middle East that is im- mune to Saddam fever. Arabs and Palestinians are pulled toward him. Even Egypt, a key member of the anti-Iraq alliance and a country regarded as the most stable and moderate of Arab states, is showing alarming signs of infection. Earlier this month, Presi- dent Hosni Mubarak said Egypt would "adopt a defen- sive posture" if Israel intervened in the war. The statement was taken to mean that Egypt would leave the anti-Iraq coalition. More recently, Mr. Muba- rak shifted ground and agreed that Israel had the right to retaliate against Iraq. But it is noteworthy that this statement was not reported by the media in Egypt, where Iraq's missile attacks on Israel were met with public jubilation and an embarrassed official silence. But other Egyptians were not so silent. Moderate Muslim leaders declared bluntly that the Egyptian public and military would not tolerate any Israeli retaliation against Iraq. Vice President Hamza Adebes of the Egyp- tian Liberal Party said: "The government can take any position it likes, but the people will not be with Israel whether or not it is attack- ed." An Egyptian Labor Party leader added that President Mubarak would "lose much support" for statements con- sidered supportive of Israel. "How can the president of the major Arab state say Israelis have the right to kill THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS 17