Mediterranean ports of Ashdod
and Haifa, creating a significant
saving in transportation costs for
Jordan's imports and exports.
In return, Israel is hoping to
reach a quick agreement with
Jordan for the shared use of its
Red Sea port at Aqaba to improve
its access to the new and ex-
panding markets in east Asia.
This will allow Israel to minimize
its port in Eilat and use the scarce
land for more profitable tourism
ventures.
Air links are expected to be es-
tablished between the two states
within weeks, while their elec-
tricity grids have already been
connected at Eilat and Akaba.
In bilateral trade, Israel has
granted Jordan preferential con-

Prime Minister Rabin and Jordan's
King Hussein met to overcome
differences.

cessions worth $30 million a year
in the West Bank, but both coun-
tries are committed to establish-
ing a free-trade zone with the
removal of all customs barriers.
While Israel will continue to
give Jordan preferential trade
treatment, if only to reward its
political courage, Mr. Kaufman
said Israel would now seek a for-
mal agreement "to underscore
the fact that trade boycotts are

removed formally and in prac-
tice."
Israeli economic analysts fore-
cast that within a few years trade
between Israel and Jordan could
approach the $2 billion mark.
Jordanians are naturally con-
cerned that their $4.5 billion
economy will be swamped by Is-
rael, which last year had a gross
national product of $70 billion,
but the two countries are the
most natural allies in the region
and are considered to be most
likely to create the region's mod-
el of economic transformation.
Important as it is in its own
right, the Jordanian treaty is like-
ly to be a precursor to an even
more important strategic devel-
opment: a deal with Syria's Pres-
ident Hafez el-Assad,
Israel's most dangerous
and obdurate foe.
According to a senior
Israeli source, "Assad
does not want to be seen
to be leading the pack,
but he also does not
want to be left out of the
game.
"The peace treaty
with Jordan is very sig-
nificant, both symboli-
cally and substantively,"
he said, "but it may be
simply a forerunner to
an accord with Syria."
Secretary of State
Warren Christopher
spent four hours with
Mr. Assad in Damascus
last week, emerging with
encouraging but appar-
ently inconclusive re-
3 sults. Most significantly,
he is planning to return
to Syria next month.
Meanwhile, with Israel's Jor-
danian partner now safely
aboard, there was a new confi-
dence in Mr. Rabin's voice when
he met a group of senior British
parliamentarians in London, the
day after the Amman ceremony.
"Jerusalem," he declared more
purposefully than ever, "will re-
main united under Israeli sover-
eignty forever."
King Hussein, the natural
counter-balance to Palestinian
ambitions, is also Israel's best
guarantee of that aspiration. ❑

Israeli Court Convicts
2 IDF Junior Officers

Tel Aviv (JTA) —An Israeli mil-
itary court this week found two
mid-level army officers guilty of
negligence in a training accident
that killed five Israeli soldiers and
wounded six others two years
ago.
But while convicting the un-
named major and captain, the
court absolved three top officers
of any responsibility for the
mishap.
The three were all present at
the Israel Defense Force's

Tze'elim training and practice
area in the Negev when the acci-
dent occurred in 1992.
Gen. Avraham Levine, who
was in charge of the training ex-
ercise.
The incident, known through-
out Israel as the "Tze'elim 2
Case," followed an earlier train-
ing mishap at the same base. The
five soldiers were killed after a
A tight lid of secrecy was im-
posed on the court's proceeding.

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