PERSIAN GULF CRISIS
Saddam Hussein greeting Iraqi soldiers in Kuwait on January 15, the day of the deadline.
those Arabs who yearn for
the taste of freedom, and
there are many of them, to
form dissident movements,
knowing that they would be
heard in the rest of the
world.
Now let us turn to the big
lie about Israel: that it
refuses to negotiate. For
more than 40 years, Israel
has been fighting and
bleeding and pleading and
paying in land for the one
privilege of negotiating with
the Arab states.
One man, Egypt's Anwar
al-Sadat, agreed. He made
peace and for that he receiv-
ed huge tracts of land from
the Israelis, land that meant
a great deal to them, that
had allowed them to
breathe, to open their lungs,
not to mention the tactical,
strategic and mineral
wealth of the area.
From the Arabs, Sadat
received hatred, isolation,
boycotts and, eventually, a
bullet.
Israel signed its peace
treaty with Egypt because it
hoped other Arab nations
would follow. It is more than
a decade later and no other
Arab state has stepped for-
ward. Rejection by the Arab
states is as violent as ever.
Then came the Palestinian
uprising, which was one of
the more successful political
movements of our time in
that it gave people and
governments who never
cared much for Israel in the
first place a chance to de-
nounce it.
Israel-bashing became
more fashionable, some-
times a barely concealed
excuse for anti-Semitism.
More important, it cost
Israel the support of people
who had not been hostile to
it, among them Americans
— young people, politicians,
some American Jews
(although not as many as the
Arabs would like the Bush
administration to believe).
Yassir Arafat, the
Palestine Liberation Organ-
ization chairman, seemed a
reasonable fellow when
American Jews went to
Stockholm to coax him into
mumbling some words about
no longer being a terrorist,
but being a good boy, a
charming one. He is not so
charming now that he is
leading the worldwide Pa-
lestinians chorus of Hallelu-
jahs for Saddam Hussein.
Still, there exist in many
American Jews, almost all of
us, and I believe in most
Israelis, a desire for some
kind of accommodation with
the Palestinians that would
end the troubles on the West
Bank.
The sad thing is, that hope
rests on one more myth, at
least for the time being: that
there are moderate Palestin-
ians, sufficient in number
and in strength, for Israel to
deal with peacefully and
fruitfully. That is not yet so.
The idea of the small Pa-
lestinian state that could
live side by side with Israel
in peace is a fantasy. The Pa-
lestinian movement as it
stands now would not be
content with such a state.
Arafat has not been fighting
all these years to become
mayor of Ramallah.
It is childish to think that
the population of this Pales-
tinian state could be limited
to the people who live there
now. What about all the two-
and-a-half million Palestin-
ians living in filthy refugee
camps in Lebanon, Syria,
Jordan and elsewhere? They
should have been absorbed
into these Arab states and
given decent places to live,
but they were not. They
were symbols, pawns. Of
retu
course they yearn to . return
to their homes, which now
happens to be Israel. Would
they give up their dreams so
that the Palestinians living
there now can raise their
flag over the land? It is a
fantasy.
Right now, it is impossible
to satisfy the demands for
creation of another Arab
state without risking the ex-
istence of Israel. It is no use
pretending otherwise.
The invasion of Kuwait at
least should end the fantasy
of a small, independent Pa-
lestinian state. The Palesti-
nians see Saddam Hussein
as their one true hope, not to
create a small Palestinian
state, but eventually to take
over all of Israel. George
Habash and Abul Abbas
have moved their head-
quarters to Baghdad.
Abul Abbas is really plain
about it when he talks to the
press. He said the Iraq war is
the war of the PLO, the war
of Palestine and all Palestin-
ians. He told a reporter for
the Wall Street Journal that
the Arabs have a saying that
revenge takes 40 years. If
not my son, then the son of
my son will kill you.
We can thank Saddam
Hussein for destroying an-
other myth: that an agree-
ment between Israel and the
Palestinians would bring
peace to the Middle East and
that only that agreement
stood in the way of regional
peace.
Nonsense. He has shown
what a total distortion of
reality this is. The Arab
Middle East is a stew of con-
flicts that have nothing to do
with Israel. They have to do
with the ambitions of dic-
tators for power, deep ethnic
and religious hatreds within
the Arab world, fundamen-
talism, struggle without end
between rulers of a despotic
world unrestrained by the
rules of any law.
Unless we recognize the
truth about the Middle East
and rid ourselves of our own
legends, our own myths, our
own mirages, we will
wander deeper into the
maze, not even knowing we
are in it:
As for Israel,. it cannot
achieve the safe harbor of
true peace with Arab states
who still hope that some day,
somehow, Israel will vanish,
by war or by the imposition
of a Palestinian state.
Peace for peace, that is
where the future lies. Israel
can make peace in safety
only when the Arab states
are willing to recognize
Israel as a full and equal
partner in the Middle East.
If Arab states want peace
with Israel, they must give
peace to Israel.
Peace for peace, however
long it takes and only
then. ❑
Q&A
Q: Is the war affecting
Soviet aliyah?
A: No. Soviet Jews arrived
in Israel last week, even on
the days the bombs fell.
Some 2,400 Soviets arrived
since the war began, 900 last
weekend alone. Since the
first of this year, 9,000
Soviet Jews have arrived in
Israel.
Q: What happened to
Israel's homeless tent
people during the Iraqi
attack?
A: Everyone was equipped
with gas masks and had a
safe place to go in case of at-
tack. The tent cities were a
protest against rocketing
housing costs. No one was on
the streets during the mis-
sile attacks.
Q: Have Israelis in the
United States been called
back to serve in the Israeli
military?
A: No. Israel is not
mobilized for full-scale war.
However, if an Israeli who
lives in the United States
happens to be visiting Israel,
he may be called into the re-
serves if his unit is called.
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
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