MIDEAST

Israeli officials and the Jordanian-Palestinian delegation face each other at peace talks.

First Steps Toward Peace

Israel is hopeful about progress in talks
with the Jordanians and the Palestinians,
but Syria is another matter.

HELEN DAVIS

Foreign Correspondent

T

he Middle East peace
conference ended in
Madrid with many of
the political and
psychological barriers bet-
ween Israel and its Arab
neighbors still firmly in
place. But the very fact that
the old enemies have broken
the ice and met face to face
across the negotiating table
is an important political
milestone.
Israeli Ambassador to the
United States Zalman
Shoval, who was closely in-
volved in the Israeli-
Egyptian peace talks and
who was a delegate in
Madrid, believes the bar-
riers will start to fall when
the direct encounters inten-
sify, away from the intense
glare of the television
cameras.
"The process is irreversi-
ble," he told me between the
turbulent sessions here this
week, "but it is possible that
not all of the parties will
reach the finishing line."
He believed Jordan and
the Palestinians were ready
for serious talks, but follow-
ing the vicious attack on
Prime Minister Yitzhak
Shamir by Syrian Foreign

Minister Farouk al-Shara,
he noted: "There may be
regimes which, because of
their undemocratic nature,
need war or ongoing enmity
to survive."
Syrian President Hafez al-
Assad appeared determined
to maintain his position as
leader of the hard-line Arab
states and Mr. Shoval ex-
pected the Syrian leader to
continue portraying Israel
as a war-mongerer.
At the same time, the
peace process provided a
make-or-break moment for
King Hussein of Jordan:
"The whole future of Jordan
may be predicated on
reaching a settlement. This
is Jordan's bid for legitimacy
and the Hashemite
Kingdom's bid to survive
with a Palestinian
majority."
According to the
mythology of Middle East
diplomacy, the Arabs cannot
make war without Egypt or
peace with Syria, and the
question exercising Israeli
minds as they headed back
to Jerusalem was whether
the promising start with
Jordan and the Palestinians
could continue in the face of
Syrian obduracy.
"It would be very difficult
because Syria has often been
a spoiler in the past,"said

Mr. Shoval, who is a member
of the Israeli negotiating
team which met with the
joint Jordanian-Palestinian
delegation. "So far we have
seen no expression of real
will by Syria to make peace
with us.
"But Syria's position today
is different from that in the
past because of the changing
international situation, and
Syria's ability to play its old
games will depend a great
deal on American sagacity
and statesmanship."
Mr. Shoval said that Syria
is far more dependent on the

The twin port cities
of Akaba and Eilat
are front-runners
for the next round
of direct talks.

West than it ever was and
the Americans will have to
play a very clever game.
"They will not only have to
get the Syrians to be serious
about the peace process, but
also not to be an obstacle if
some of the other Arab par-
ties want to reach an ac-
commodation with Israel."
The ambassador
characterized Israel and the
United States as members of
"a close family," despite the

changing geo-political and
geo-strategic realities which
followed the end of the Cold
War.
He asserted that those who
believe the Middle East
situation has changed
totally since the end of the
Cold War may be short-
sighted.
"Who knows whether the
future may not hold greater
risks for American interests
— whether or not you call
them oil interests — than ex-
isted when the Soviet Union
was perceived as being at
the height of its power?
"With the emerging
nuclear threat from Iran, the
strategic part of the
U.S.-Israel relationship may
in fact be stronger than it
was in the past."
In the wake of the direct
talks held on Sunday, the
important outcome was not
the substance of discussions
but the fact that they were
held. Israel's session with
the Jordan-Palestinian dele-
gation was intended to send
an unambiguous message to
the Syrians, who were still
holding out, that Israel, Jor-
dan and the Palestinians
were determined to push
ahead, with or without
Syrian involvement in the
peace process.
The head of Israel's nego-

tiating team, Dr. Elyakim
Rubinstein, refused to be
drawn on future venues or
times for the next round of
direct talks (the twin port
cities of Akaba and Eilat are
front-runners), but he said:
"Everyone's wish is to have
it as soon as possible."
By contrast, the apparent-
ly reluctant Syrian
negotiators did not show for
their 10 a.m. meeting, but
eventislly sat down to face
to face with their Israeli
counterparts 12 hours later
than scheduled for a five-
hour session of talks that
ended at 3 a.m. on Monday
morning
Talks between the two
military heavyweights of the
Arab- Israeli conflict,
however, ended in a total
impasse. "If they stick to
their current positions," said
Yossi Olmert, a member of
the Israeli delegation, there
is no chance for peace.
"Their position is total
Israeli withdrawal from all
the territories, period. This
is not a peace process," he
said.
Unlike some of the other
encounters between Israeli
and Arab delegations, there
were no handshakes or at-
tempts to establish a per-
sonal rapport, with the
Syrians insisting that all

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

31