OPINION
Bush Is Right
On Loan Guarantees
LEONARD FEIN
Special to The Jewish News
I
n the United States to-
day, more than one in
five children lives in pov-
erty. Surely, then, it is not a
foregone conclusion that
America should feel respon-
sible for solving Israel's ab-
sorption problem.
Yet the administration
and the Congress have made
it entirely clear that they
are prepared to do just that.
Notwithstanding other
urgent humanitarian crises
at home and abroad, not-
withstanding the popular
antipathy to foreign aid,
most Americans perceive the
co-signature as part of an aid
package, notwithstanding
Israel already receiving far
more American aid than any
other nation, notwithstand-
ing the recession — how do
the GM workers in Ypsilan-
ti, their plant about to close,
feel about the loan guar-
antees? — America has said
"yes" to the loans
Most American Jews
heard Secretary Baker say
"no" rather than "yes."
They weren't listening
carefully. In fact, he said
.
The onus is where
it belongs. It is
Israel's choice to
determine its
priorities.
"yes" to the full shot — $2
billion a year for five years.
It is true that he added a
condition — no more set-
tlement activity — and it is
true that the incumbent
Israeli government is not
disposed to meet that condi-
tion. But, as he said in his
testimony, that is a choice
for Israel to make.
There is no reason in
either logic or morality to
assume that the United
States is wrong to add the
condition it has added, and,
by so doing, to place the
burden of choice on Israel.
American foreign aid has
always been an instrument
of American foreign policy,
and American foreign policy
with regard to the set-
tlements has been clear all
along. Well, almost clear:
Until now, America's objec-
tions to settlements have
been rhetorical.
Leonard Fein is a writer and
lecturer in Boston.
Over the years, in the gap
between rhetoric and policy,
Israel slowly expanded the
settlements, inhibited less
by American policy than by
the reluctance of Israelis to
move beyond the Green Line
(except in the environs of
Jerusalem). With the advent
of the Russians, the gap
became irresistible: Over
half of all the housing starts
in the West Bank between
1967 and today happened in
the last 18 months.
Now this country's behav-
ior caught up with its lang-
uage. This day has come for
a variety of trivial annoying
reasons: Mr. Sharon's in-
sistence on announcing a
new settlement each time
Mr. Baker showed up in
Israel; Mr. Shamir's gassy
statement that "a big im-
migration requires a bigger
Israel"; Mr. Shamir's effort
to deceive Mr. Bush on the
matter of incentives for Rus-
sian Jews to move to the
West Bank
And it has come or
three major reasons: First,
there is a peace process
under way, and the set-
tlements are a specific irri-
tant, since according to their
sponsors' stated aims, their
purpose is to make one
potential outcome of the pro-
cess — territorial com-
promise — practically im-
possible. Second, the fren-
zied pace of settlement ac-
tivity made a boil out of
what had been only a pim-
ple. And, finally, ironically,
the gap between American
rhetoric and American
policy is closing because it is
right that it should.
It is right because Mr.
Shamir has made it clear,
time and tedious time again,
that he is not playing cards
with Jewish destiny. His
view of that destiny is that it
requires Israeli retention of
control over the West Bank.
The settlement policy of his
government is merely a way
to ensure that control. And
in the American view, the
control Mr. Shamir so as-
siduously seeks is a prescrip-
tion for conflict, not for
peace. Israel is not required
to accept the American view;
it is an independent nation.
But neither is America re-
quired to subsidize the
Israeli view, which is what
providing the guarantees
unconditionally would
amount to.
The irony of that is that
Mr. Bush has in most other
•
Pre-fabricated housing, called caravans, in east /Jerusalem.
respects been a calamity of a
president, his "new world
order" a cruel joke. But on
this one issue, he and Mr.
Baker are right on the mark.
Nor will it do to complain of
inappropriate American
interference in Israel's for-
thcoming elections. After
all, to have given the guar-
antees with no strings would
also have had consequences
for the Israeli elections.
Ambassador Shoval re-
cently asked, rhetorically, if
"giving in to Arab demands"
by conditioning the guar-
antees would make the
Arabs more flexible or less.
He meant, of course, that ty-
ing loans to settlements
would encourage the Arabs
to seek even greater conces-
sions from Israel. And that
may be so.
But ask the question the
other way: Would America's
readiness to provide the
guarantees without a
significant change in Israel's
settlement policy make
Israel more flexible? Hardly.
It would, instead, be proof
positive that no matter the
circumstances, Israel can
have its way. And its way, so
long as Mr. Shamir presides
over the government, is not
the way to a resolution of the
conflict.
So, at last, the onus is
where it belongs. It is Israel,
as it must and should be,
that is now charged with the
difficult task of determining
its priorities. Michael Shilo
of the Israeli Embassy in
Washington, complains that
Israel is now forced to choose
between eating and
breathing. Perhaps.
But when, in June, the
final choice is made by
Israel's voters, one hopes
they will see the choice in
very different terms, will see
it as a choice between fideli-
ty to the historic Zionist
mission of in.gathering — the
Russian Jews, the loan
guarantees — and the self-
destructive pursuit of Zion-
ism's bastard offspring, set-
tlement after settlement and
to hell with the human, the
moral, and the security con-
sequences.
• For now, we may celebrate
two achievements:
America's willingness to
provide the guarantees, and
American Jewry's political
sophistication in refusing to
enter into bloody battle
against a condition most of
us know in our heads (if not
quite in our hearts) is
right.
.
❑
U.S. Jews Failed Israel
On Loan Guarantee Request
BERL FALBAUM
resident George Bush
certainly was aware
that the U.S. Jewish
community was in his corner
on the $10 billion loan
guarantee issue. He had few
concerns when he decided to
link the guarantees to the
freeze on settlements.
The U.S. Jewish communi-
ty has no one to blame but
itself for offering, at best,
lukewarm • support for the
Israeli request or publicly
aligning itself with Bush on
the settlement issue. Few
p
Berl Falbaum is a Detroit
area public relations
executive
Jewish organizations, if any,
forcefully indicated publicly
their uncompromising sup-
port for the loan.
The posture of the Jewish
community generally helped
create a precedent in which a
sitting American president
linked aid to Israel to
demands that it change
policy.
That precedent is not only
contemptible but opens the
door to similar linkage on
other issues. Israel — not the
U.S. Jewish community —
will pay dearly in the future.
The Jewish community was
not moved to support the $10
billion loan guarantees
despite the fact that the Bush
administration heads the
most anti-Israel administra-
tion since the Eisenhower-
Dulles White House.
It was not moved to help
even though it was only a lit-
tle more than a year ago
when Israel, needing the
money, made one of history's
most unusual and sacrificial
"concessions" — it did not
retaliate to the Scud attacks
from Iraq at the request of Mr.
Bush.
What did Israel get in
return? Not the guarantees.
Not even a thank you from
Mr. Bush who, after the war
in a major speech, applauded
every country which sup-
ported his efforts, but failed to
mention Israel.
Continued on Page 10
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
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