favor halting or at least sus-
pending the talks over the set-
tlement issue. Yet Mr. Arafat has
>consistently refused to do so.
If Israel halts the negotiations
as a sign of its own disgruntle-
ment, the assumption goes, Mr.
Arafat will be forced to take an
active stand on terrorism — or
lose his political raison d'etre.
Still, the tactic is a gamble, and
Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin
does not seem to be in the mood
'for brinkmanship. After the kid-
/-' napping of Nachshon Waxman
last October, he threw full re-
sponsibility on Mr. Arafat. But
having been burned then (the ter-
rorists were holding Mr. Wax-
man not in Gaza but in the
Israeli-controlled West Bank),
Mr. Rabin has taken a more cau-
tious approach. The best way to
protect Israelis from malevolent
)Palestinians, Mr. Rabin's think-
' ing now goes, is to keep them out
of Israel by the tried and true
measure of closing the borders.
This was the course adopted, for
a limited period, by the Israeli
government last Sunday night.
"(If Mr. Arafat) has
no influence on the
/Palestinian [people],
perhaps he's not the
right man to be
talking to."
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—Ezer Weizman
H The closure has, of course, long
[ been a controversial measure. It
may keep thousands of Pales-
tinians off Israeli streets. But by
playing havoc with the Palestin-
ian (and some sectors of the Is-
raeli) economy, it also heightens
the resentment that creates a
thirst for violence.
Lately, pragmatic objections
have been raised as well. Various
:videotaped reports have shown
Israelis how easy it is for Pales-
tinian workers to get around the
checkpoints in vehicles and on
foot. Indeed, Mr. Rabin himself
warned that it's impossible to
seal off the Green Line, Israel's
pre-1967 border.
If the Israeli government has
returned to closing the border, it
may be to take a breather to re-
assess the immediate security
challenge. Yet it also belies the
effectiveness of Mr. Rabin's pen-
chant for separation as the an-
swer to political and military
problems.
"Separation" may be the buzz
word that rolls off Mr. Rabin's
tongue in response to atrocities.
But as Yediot Aharonot colum-
nist
) Nahum Barnea noted, "his
/deeds pull in the opposite direc-
tion: more Jews in the territories
and more Arabs here; more mu-
NETANYA page 68
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67