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The Peace Process:
A Long, Winding Road

All the ribbon cutting, handshakes and smiles
around King Hussein's yacht cannot make us
forget that the peace process has a lengthy, com-
plicated path to follow.
The PLO still has to solidify for itself an in-
frastructure of peace, and nobody knows how
long its people will wait before they start lis-
tening again to the men with masks, the men
with guns. PLO elections — scheduled for July
— have yet to happen.
Similarly, Jordanians would probably better
identify with the smiles of their leader if debt
forgiveness was granted their country by nations
other than the United States.
Syrian President Hafez al-Assad needs to
make peace with Israel his way. He wants to be
seen as a world leader, not just a regional one,
so he won't want to be regarded as merely falling
in line behind PLO Chairman Arafat and King
Hussein in this process. Syria already is mak-
ing moves, allegedly calling off acts of terrorism
toward Israelis in northern Israel, and broad-
casting on state television the Rabin-Hussein
handshake.
Even with U.S. Secretary of State Warren

Christopher shuttling between Jerusalem and
Damascus, there is much to untangle if there is
to be a true peace with Syria. It will take more
time, more patience. Let's not forget that Prime
Minister Rabin met secretly with King Hussein
for 20 years prior to their handshake.
In some ways, peace has its fronts, just like
war. Israel has made progress on two of these
fronts, but the Syrian one remains critical.
It will take more work of the difficult, behind-
the-scenes variety to actualize peace. It's not
enough for leaders to shake hands and smile for
the international media. When monies are used
to foster economies focused on growth instead of
defense, when education, industry and agricul-
ture are the focus instead of stone throwing and
laying land mines, then people can feed their
families, prosper and feel good about themselves.
This is what the PLO, Jordan and Syria need
to realize. Once the egos of leadership are satis-
fied, then the teachers, the doctors, the engineers
and the economists need to take over. Israel
needs cautiously to look for these signs of growth
as they peer over the borders. Then maybe they
can really call their past enemies "neighbors."

T HE DE TRO IT JEWISH N EWS

Focusing Affirmative Action
On A Positive Dialogue

4

Our front-page story on the status of affirmative
action both locally and nationally reports that
the issue is still alive.
Affirmative action, a product of the 1960s civ-
il-rights movement, has done a great deal of good,
placing minorities in positions to better them-
selves in terms of education and professional,
social and economic standing.
Some criticize enlisting those who qualify for
certain positions based largely on their minori-
ty status.
When the "experts" discuss the waning rela-
tionships between blacks and Jews since the
1960s, affirmative action programs and quota
systems are seen as a large part of the wedge.
The debate continues between Jews and
blacks, and well it should. That Jews at least

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recognize affirmative action as a still quietly im-
portant issue should be considered something
positive. Affirmative action has done a great deal
of overall good, opening up the door for many
who might not have otherwise had opportunity.
But Laurence Imerman, past president of the
local American Jewish Committee, poses the
question: "Should the children of the people who
benefited still receive the same benefits?"
That's the question we need to debate.
The issues need to be reviewed, but they need
to be revisited without anger, without hate. In-
stead, the minorities who have benefited from
affirmative action should be ready to look ahead
and debate what the next steps for everyone in
this discussion should be.

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Comment

A New Dawn
In The Mideast

LEONARD FEIN SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

T

he thought of Yassir Arafat
praying in Jerusalem is
enough to curdle the blood.
This man with his reckless
mouth and his sordid past, this
whiny wheedler: What right has
he to disturb the peace of
Jerusalem?
His right: He is a Muslim —
and Israel guarantees free access
to the holy places of Jerusalem.
We are not asked to applaud his
entry to the Temple Mount; we
are asked to allow it.
One might, of course, argue
that there are terrorists whom Is-
rael ought not be expected to ac-
cept. Surely, that is so. But the
moment that Israel decided to ne-
gotiate with Mr. Arafat and to live
with him as the leader of the new
Palestinian authority, he dropped
from the list of the unacceptable.
No one can forget Mr. Arafat's
past, but Israel has chosen to bet
on his future.
One day, before too long, we
will negotiate over the question of
Jerusalem. Will Israel's case in
those negotiations be strength-
ened or weakened by being able
to cite its adherence to the princi-
ple of free access to anyone of any
faith who, whatever his political
pretensions, has eschewed ter-
rorism? Plainly, Israel's claim to
be a proper guardian of the holy
sites would thereby be strength-
ened.
Indeed, one wonders whether
Mr. Arafat would be wise to exer-
cise his right to worship in
Jerusalem, given that such exer-
cise acknowledges Israeli author-
ity over the Temple Mount and
Israeli regard for the obligations
that come with that authority.
It is in that context that a re-
cent initiative of the leadership of
the National Jewish Community
Relations Advisory Council should
be assessed. NJCRAC leaders
wrote a letter to Prime Minister
Rabin endorsing his recent re-
mark that Mr. Arafat does, in-
deed, have the right to pray in

Leonard Fein is a writer living in

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Boston.

Jerusalem. Predictably, that let-
ter drew the fire of a number of
people.
But NJCRAC leaders deserve
praise, not opprobrium. Since last
Sept. 13, the loudest voices in the
American Jewish community
have been those who oppose Is-
rael's agreements with the PLO
— and, often, who oppose any ne-
gotiated peace at all. While these
represent a small fraction of the
community, their "man bites dog"
status has attracted much atten-
tion and publicity. It has been
more difficult for those who sup-
port the peace process to draw at-
tention to their support. What's
newsworthy about American
Jews favoring the policies of the
government of Israel?

The moment Israel
decided to negotiate
with Mr. Arafat, he
dropped from the list
of the unacceptable.

But the truth is that numbers
of people and organizations have
provided valuable, if generally un-
noticed, support for Israel's poli-
cies. AIPAC (the American Israel
Public Affairs Committee), whose
support for the Likud govern-
ments of the past had gone well
beyond the merely correct, has
deftly shifted gears: It was in-
strumental in establishing an in-
ter-agency task force to promote
the Israel-PLO agreements with-
in the community.
No high drama. Just good, sol-
id, responsible work for which
AIPAC deserves recognition, re-
spect, and our collective gratitude.
As does NJCRAC, an agency
not generally known for boldness
on matters Middle Eastern, and
whose letter of support for Prime
Minister Rabin therefore deserves
a double measure of praise. It
qualifies for that which is all too
often missing in our community
— genuine leadership.

❑

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