PERSIAN GULF CRISIS

A Palestinian on the West Bank displays a makeshift Iraqi flag and photos of the heroes of the day, Yassir Arafat and Saddam Hussein.

THE PALESTINIAN EQUATION

INA FRIEDMAN

Special to The Jewish News

As The Missiles Fall, I
Palestinians Cheer

By rooting for Saddam, Arabs in the
occupied territories have enormously
complicated the prospects for a future
settlement.

raq's Scud missile at-
tacks on Israel have dra-
matically underscored
the vast political differences
and the deep and ugly
animosity that separates
Israeli Jews from Palestin-
ian Arabs.
When the sirens go off,
Israelis cringe and put gas
masks on their children.
Their issue is survival. Tel
Aviv has been bombed for
the first time since 1948, and
the sense of personal
vulnerability is real.
But the sirens have invok-

Ina Friedman reports for us
from Jerusalem. Ira Rifkin
contributed to this report.

ed a very different reaction
among Palestinians. In the
administered territories,
their wail has been cause for
rejoicing.
Saddam Hussein, on whom
the Palestinians have pinn-
ed their latest hopes for a
homeland, has struck at the
Jewish heartland, and no
matter how ineffective from
a military standpoint the
first attacks proved to be,
the mere fact that they
happened was enough to
gladden the heart of embit-
tered Arabs.
For Palestinians, the
issues are retribution and
keeping their cause before
the world.
Despite a 24-hour curfew
and stern Israeli warnings to
lay low for the duration,
there were sightings of Pa-
lestinians on roof tops
shouting "Allah akbar" and

"Long Live Saddam Hus-
sein!" In the Nablus casbah,
masked youngsters took to
the streets with bullhorns to
congratulate Saddam Hus-
sein and the Iraqi people.
Yediot Achronot, Israel's
largest daily newspaper, re-
ported that Palestinians in
the Kalandiya refugee camp
sang "Saddam Hussein,
you're the hero of the
Arabs," following Iraq's se-
cond missile attack on
Israel.
Clearly, from the Israeli
viewpoint the vehement
emotions unleashed by the
war have made a solution to
the Palestinian question in-
finitely more complicated.
Moreover, for the average
Israeli, it has also reduced
any talk of settling the issue
to a footnote to be dealt with
later — perhaps much later.
Yet Saddam's attempt to

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

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