CLOSE-UP
Israelis
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from the peace conference.
"We don't have the objec-
tive support from the United
States," said Mr. Zilber, who
works for an Israeli company
in Detroit. "This is not the
U.S. of the time we made
peace with Egypt. Israel was
a lot less dependent on
America then. Were too
dependent now, and that's
part of the problem."
Mr. Zilber doesn't believe
the Arabs want peace. He
says they created a Palestin-
ian situation as a weapon to
use against Israel.
"Until 1967, the Arabs
thought they could defeat
Israel by fighting with us,"
he said. "When they saw
that didn't work, they decid-
ed to fight Israel by playing
on world sympathy. They
developed the Palestinian
people and they keep them
in those refugee camps,
where they live in hell over
there, without any indoor
plumbing.
"We can't tell the Arabs to
go, but we could make it so
they'd want to go," Mr.
Zilber said.
The peace conference is at
least worth trying, said Mr.
Nir, 50, of Farmington. Hills.
"It's certainly better than
what we've had before," he
"Real and lasting
peace is worth any
price."
Delia Levi
said. "The crucial issue for
me is the security of Israel. I
have no religious attach-
ment to any specific piece of
land, except for maybe
Jerusalem."
Mr. Nir believes the Pales-
tinians should have some
form of autonomy, and was
upset by some of the condi-
tions put forth by Yitzhak
Shamir's government. Israel
.has said it would only
negotiate with Palestinians
from the West Bank and
Gaza Strip who are not open-
ly affiliated with the
Palestine Liberation Organ-
ization.
Just as disturbing, said
Mr. Nir, was the reaction of
his former university pro-
fessor, Yuval Ne'eman. The
angry, vocal leader of
Israel's small, ultrana-
tionalist Tehiya party is
nothing like the quiet,
remote physics professor Mr.
Nir remembers from his
university days.
The Tehiya party, which
held three seats in the
Knesset, voted last week to
pull out of Mr. Shamir's
Likud government: The
decision was announced
after Mr. Shamir decided
Israel had no alternative but
to accept the U.S.-Soviet
backed invitation to sit down
with Arab nations and the
Palestinians at a peace con-
ference.
"He wasn't such a right-
winger back then," said Mr.
Nir, a computer scientist
with Ford Motor Co. "He
grew up in the Labor party.
When I knew him, he wasn't
interested in politics. He was
the dean of the physics
department at Tel Aviv
University. At some point,
he turned right."
Harmon Bayer, president
of the Michigan chapter of
Parents of North American
Israelis, says he's sick of the
Tehiya party and other
right-wing factions in Israel.
"I'm fed up with the
radical right always trying
to ruin the political process
that could lead to peace,"
said Mr. Bayer, whose son
and family made aliyah 14
years ago. Edward Bayer, a
scientist with the Weizmann
Institute in Rehovot, has
been in four wars and at 45,
still serves in the Israel
Defense Forces reserves.
"I don't agree with those
who advocate building new
settlements either," Har-
mon Bayer said. "I think it's
provocative, especially in
light of what America is try-
ing to put together for
Israel."
Ofra Ben-Yaacov, of the
Israeli consulate in Chicago,
said most people in Israel
expected Tehiya to leave the
Israeli government.
Tehiya's move shrinks the
government's coalition
majority in the Knesset from
66 to 63, still enough to con-
trol the 120-member body.
Mrs. Ben-Yaacov said if
other right-wing parties
leave the government and
Mr. Shamir's dominant
Likud bloc loses its govern-
ing majority, the main oppo-
sition Labor party and other
centrist and leftist parties
have promised to join with
Mr. Shamir as long as he
remains in the peace pro-
cess.
"Everyone knows if Israel
had to go to new elections,
the peace process would
have to be postponed," Mrs.
Ben-Yaacov said. "No one
wants that, and the
likelihood of that happening
is remote."
Dr. Yitschak Ben Gad,
Israel's consul general to the
Midwest, said Israel's big-
gest sticking point was the
type of Palestinian delega-
tion it would accept. Last
week, Palestinians named
14 representatives to serve
with a joint conference dele-
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