. Asti MIDDLE EAST Page 22 Ku EUROPEAN SELECTION by Karl Lagerfeld EUROPEAN WOMEN'S APPAREL MEMORIAL DAY SALE Begins Friday, May 28th. 30% to 50% OFF (Original Prices) If you have taste, style and understanding of European fashion, you will be sur- prised how far your fashion budget will take you at Steilmann's fantastic Memorial Day Sale. You will find this season's best co-ordinated Sportswear, Jackets and Dresses. BLAZERS, JACKETS and COATS STARTING AT $59 SKIRTS, PANTS and BLOUSES STARTING AT $29 DRESSES and SUITS STARTING AT $79 Our Spring Collection K ' by Karl Lagerfeld at 40% to 60% OFF Somerset Collection 2801 West Big Beaver Road Troy MI 48084 (313) 637-3006 For This Sale, The Store Will Be Open Memorial Day, Monday, May 31st., 12-5 Store Hours: Monday, Thursday, Friday 10-9; Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday 10-6; Sunday 12-5 Applegate Square • Northwestern Highway At Inkster 11.11111.1www-- Nkt_ISVIAIN 11LCUS ■ J0 SUNSET 4k- PHONE: 35'7- HOURS: 4000 Satur da y 10 am - 5 p m Monday - Highway, Southfield, MI 48034 Norti-Ivvestern STRIP 29636 ma y store very 10- d is lioad*ertise peso SaNie of activities in the territo- ries and a member of the Israeli delegation to the talks, told the government on Sunday that matters weren't that drastic as of yet.) Though the refugees in the camps are the hardest hit, they are not the only ones suffering from the poli- cy. Merchants in east Jerusalem report a steep drop in business because the 30,000 people who come to east Jerusalem from the West Bank and Gaza daily are now prevented from doing so. It should not be surpris- ing, then, that Palestinian support for the peace process seems to be unravel- ing at a dizzying pace. Delegation head Haidar Abdel Shafi has again rec- ommended suspending the talks in light of the fruitless results of the ninth round. Sheikh Abdel Hamid a- Sayah, a venerable religious figure who is also chairman of the Palestinian National Council (PNC, the parlia- ment of the PLO), announced his intention to resign in protest over the delegation's continued par- ticipation in the talks. Along with Hamas, the left-wing opposition to the talks is again gaining ground in the territories. And even more important, observers report that Yassir Arafat has lost the majority favoring the peace process within the PLO, or at least the PNC. Meanwhile, both the Hebrew and Arabic press are filled with items describing the Palestinian man in the street as increasingly bitter over Israel's policy of "wooing" the Palestinian delegation back to the negotiating table with symbolic gestures while making life increas- ingly difficult for the com- mon people. In addition to the econom- ic hardship suffered by tens of thousands of families, the Palestinians remain up at arms about their lack of access to east Jerusalem, which they see not only as a form of harassment but as a political move to further dis- tinguish the city from the rest of the territory cap- tured by Israel in 1967. Even if Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin (whose gov- ernment is split on the issue) were to have a change of heart about the closure, he would have a hard time allowing the situation revert to the previous status quo because the policy remains as popular as ever in Israel. Political violence has all but vanished — after the rash of harrowing murders in March that prompted the closure in the first place — and the crime rate (particu- larly of car theft and bur- glary) has absolutely plum- meted. People are growing accus- tomed to the enhanced secu- rity, so that after two months the closure has turned into what is referred to in computer software ter- minology as "the default mode." Still, the relief hasn't soft- ened many hearts to the Palestinian dilemma or even secured Mr. Rabin's political position. One inter- esting indication of this paradox came last week, after the Likud Conference passed a series of resolu- tions showing that the party was sticking to its hard-line position on the territories. It reaffirmed, for example, that Jewish settlement should continue at an accel- Occupied with Bosnia, the U.S. is reluctant to take on more responsi- bility for keeping the talks going. erated pace; that autonomy must be the final, not just the interim, accommodation reached with the Palestinians, and that the party will work to extend Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Such a policy would, of course, destine Israelis and Palestinians to live in close company indefinitely — a notion that seems to have lost public favor in the past months. Yet a Gallup poll taken two days after the confer- ence ended showed Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu outstripping Mr. Rabin (42 percent to 35 per- cent) on the question of who would win an election if the vote were held that day. The poll may, of course, reflect Mr. Netanyahu's personal appeal to Israeli voters, rather than the popularity of the political positions for which he stands. But either way, the figures are neither complimentary to the incumbent prime minister nor a signal from the public that he should be liberaliz- ing his views. For the coming days, at