Grabbing Land, And Criticism Rabin unprepared for uproar over expropriating Arab property in east Jerusalem. MOONLIGHT MADNESS UP TO 71P/ot p.m. FRIDAY, 10 a.m. - SATURDAY, 10 a.m. 5 p.m. - tild00111 ORCHARD LAKE ROAD AND MAPLE WEST BLOOMFIELD BASSONOVA Buy from the manufacturer Spring & Summer Linen Look Pants $60.00 Poly Cotton Pants $45.00 $70.00 Spring Gabs Cy Lisnov Blazers in stock... $75.00 Linen Look $85.00 Gabs All around elastic pants (up to site 18) EVERY SATURDAY I 0 am-4pm COMFORT INN • FARMINGTON HILLS ( I 2 Mile Just East of Orchard Lake Rd.) (810) 471-9220 [Mon-Fri call (313) 839-6360] Unique Gifts For The Grad!! Laundry Bags Towel Sets Blankets Always 20% Off Navajo Indian Sterling Golf Ball Markers. * marmei gifts & toys inc. 38 ' ationery Alarm Clocks Desk Organizers Towel Wraps & Robes Picture Frames Photo AlbuMS ,•• ■ 28857 Orchard Lake Rd. (bet. 12 & 13 Mile) 810-553-3250 Farmington Hills INA FRIEDMAN ISRAEL CORRESPONDENT takenly argued that the majori- that mind-set, it may be easier to the issue considered so ex- ty of the land in question was be- understand why the political ef- quisitely complex that the ing seized not from Arabs but fect of the latest measure — cre- Israelis demanded, and the from Jews. Before the avalanche ating a united front against Israel Palestinians agreed, to postpone could be stopped, it was barrel- in an otherwise divided Arab discussing it until the final-sta- ing straight into the U.N. Secu- world — was grasped too late. All at once, the Israeli government tus settlement — has been in the rity Council. Yet the most punishing blow faced the predicament of trying headlines for weeks now. Some of the news (albeit timed came from two sources close to Is- to contain the damage abroad to meet electoral needs in the rael's (and particularly Mr. Ra- without losing electoral points at United States, rather than the bin's) heart: Morocco and Jordan. home. (A poll conducted last week dictates of the peace process) has In a sharply worded letter, Mo- yielded the surprising result that been good, namely, broad con- rocco's King Hassan II demand- 51 percent of the Israeli public gressional support for recogniz- ed that Israel rescind the deemed the latest expropriations ing West Jerusalem as Israel's expropriation order lest it threat- in Jerusalem a mistake.) The solution to this dilemma, capital by moving the American en the continuation of the peace Embassy there in 1999 (by which talks and impair Morocco's reached at last Sunday's Cabinet time the permanent status of the nascent ties with Israel. Almost meeting, was a typically Rabi- city presumably will have been simultaneously, Jordanian Am- nesque compromise: The expro- decided). But most of the abiding news about Jerusalem has been bad. And it was precipitated not by the Palestinians but by Israel itself, through its almost off-handed an- nouncement of the expropriation of 134 acres of Arab land in east Jerusalem in order to extend the Jewish neighborhood of Ramot and to relocate the city's police headquarters to an expansive area in the south. In other times, this fairly mod- est expropriation would hardly be dramatic news. Actually, it was deemed so mundane that it was not even deliberated by the Israeli government. The 134 acres were in fact but a fraction A Palestinian works on a Jewish settlement. of an earlier plan (approved a year and a half ago by the Min- bassador Marwan Mouashar priations would stand, but no isterial Committee on Jerusalem) verbally delivered a similar warn- others would take place for Jew- to expropriate 720 acres of Arab ing to the Israeli Foreign Min- ish housing in east Jerusalem land, in various parts of east istry. When reports of these (public works were deliberately Jerusalem, for exclusively Jew- messages reached Mr. Rabin in excluded from the ban). The reaction to the decision ish housing. When that area was Washington, he was so aston- slashed by more than 80 percent, ished by their vehemence that at from the Israeli right was pre- Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin first he questioned their veraci- dictably angry. But even more to the point, Israel will have paid took it upon himself to publish ty. a steep price — in a bitter clash Back home, attempts were be- the expropriation order without consulting his foreign minister or ing made to play down the sig- with the Arab states and a pos- the rest of his government. It sim- nificance of the expropriations. sible condemnation by the Se- ply did not seem necessary to What's another 134 acres, the ar- curity Council — for little him, for as political analyst Uzi gument went, when Israel al- concrete gain. Perhaps the best Benziman observed last week, ready has expropriated close to one can hope for is that the affair "No one envisioned the stormy 6,000 acres of land in east will at least generate a deeper response and grave political Jerusalem? Almost 85 percent of awareness that to advance to- straits in which Israel would find this land (about a third of the ward true reconciliation, neither area annexed in 1967) was owned side can play by the old rules of itself" by Arabs, but all of it has been doing as it pleases. After the fact, however, The Palestinians often have "stormy" seemed practically an used to build 36,000 housing complained of such behavior as a units for more than 150,000 understatement. Convening in Cairo, the Arab League poured Jews. The fact is that the num- typical Israeli bent summed up out its ire. A meeting between ber of Israelis inhabiting the area by David Ben-Gurion's famous Foreign Minister Shimon Peres loosely termed East Jerusalem dictum: "It matters not what the and his Egyptian counterpart, already surpasses the number of world says; it matters what the Amr Moussa, was soured. And at Palestinians. So why the fuss Jews do." Cynics take a different view, speculating that with the the subsequent session of the top- now? Indeed, given these statistics, hard part of peace directly ahead, level Israeli-Palestinian Liaison Committee, Mr. Peres — who it may be easier to understand Mr. Rabin, some of his ministers, had been armed with misleading why Israelis tend, out of sheer and many of his compatriots statistics by the Israeli Housing habit, to regard expropriations in would like nothing more than for Ministry — innocently but mis- Jerusalem as normal. And given the process to collapse. lill erusalem — yes, Jerusalem, ❑ (