BACKGROUND Lebanon Continued from preceding page Does your present alarm system: • Tell police if you're home or away? • Work when your phone line is cut? • Prevent false alarms? • Tell police which door or window is open? Does your present alarm company: • Have a UL approved central station located in Southfield? • Offer radio dispatched patrols? • Have 24 hour a day, 7 days a week service? • Offer key vault service? Threads Next Week 4 Days Only! UP Alwa 20% - 60 Below Retail Off f Discount Price Of HUNTERS SQUARE 14 Mile & Orchard Lake Rd. Farmington Hills, MI 48334 855-4464 Thurs., July 18 10-8:00 Fri., July 19 10-5:30 Sat., July 20 10-5:00 Sun., July 21 12-5:00 All Sales Final Prior Sales Excluded 11/1. MoVerC.0 Congratulations & Best of Luck DR. KEN SHERMAN On Receiving Your Ph.D. in Electro Medical Science in California We Are So Very Proud and We Love You! Mom & Ike, Leslee, Mark & Melanie, Sandy, Ralph, Cindy & Jason 36 FRIDAY, JULY 12, 1991 region in 1972 in search of a peace formula. Mr. Brunner, who met Israel's leaders before traveling on to Jordan, said he had no intention of mediating or giving advice: "I have not come to interfere in the current peace pro- cess." But the Israelis, like other players in the Arab-Israeli conflict, are aware that the peace process started by U.S. Secretary of State James Baker shortly after the Gulf war is firmly mired in the quicksand of Middle East sophistry. They are also aware that Washington may be ready to throw its weight behind a UN-sponsored peace in- itiative, which could lead directly to an international peace conference. ❑ Can The PLO Survive Yet Another Reversal? Israel is not alone in facing an uncertain future as the Lebanese Army moves to re- establish its authority after 16 years of civil war. • The destruction of PLO bases in South Lebanon by vengeful Lebanese soldiers represents yet another humiliation for Yassir Arafat. It is also another major military setback for the PLO fighters. They have been reduced to instruments of Syrian President Hafez al- Assad, who has an abiding antipathy for the PLO chairman and who has spawned and supported a dozen movements to challenge Mr. Arafat's leadership. The blow that may have finally ended any credible PLO military threat to Israel's northern border has crowned a year of seismic reversals for the PLO on the political, diplomatic and military fronts. The first in a series of disastrous miscalculations came last June when Mr. Arafat refused to condemn an abortive seaborne attack on the Israeli coast, a deci- sion that cost the PLO its of- ficial dialogue with Wash- ington and much of Western Europe. A few months later, Mr. Arafat appeared to shoot himself in the other foot when he publicly endorsed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein shortly after the start of the Gulf crisis. That move. cost the PLO valued political support of Egypt and the financial backing of the Gulf states, notably Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, which had previous- ly supplied a major share of the PLO's operating budget. The latest setback, which will remove Palestinian fighters from proximity with the Israeli frontier — unless they function under Syrian auspices — seems certain to plunge the PLO into even greater internal disarray. Some Arab observers are now seriously questioning whether there is any future for the PLO, an organization which has nothing tangible to show for its 25-year fight for a Palestinian state. While the PLO now spends much of its time in internal feuding and conflict with once-friendly Arab govern- ments, Bassam Abu Sharif, a close political aide to Arafat and architect of his highly successful "peace offensive," was putting a brave face on the last devel- opments in Lebanon. "This is not a defeat," he said this week. "We are not in conflict with the Lebanese Even Arab observers are wondering out loud about the PLO's future. Army. What has been worry- ing us is the need to protect our people in the camps from Israeli raids. "Now we've reached an agreement (with the Lebanese) on how to protect the Palestinian people in the camps." Nevertheless, Mr. Arafat's predicament appears to be desperate. With the uprising in the Israeli-occupied ter- ritories running out of steam, he has navigated his movement into a political and financial dead-end. Moreover, his military op- tion now appears to have fallen, like Lebanon itself, under the control of the Syrian leader, his' most dangerous foe in the Arab world. But as Israel and Syria jos- tle for advantage in Lebanon and Beirut comes to terms with the mixed blessing of Syrian domination, Middle East observers caution against discounting Mr. Arafat.