\
/—
lw According To
Residents of Israel and
metro Detroit express
split views on peace.
PHOTOS BY BI
RUTH LITTMANN STAFF WRITER
/—
arilyn Ben-
Eli's car was
stolen last
month. Her
neighbor's
vehicle dis-
appeared
Tuesday.
"Cars on our street are
stolen all the time," she
says. "The government
can't even stop theft, so
how is it going to protect
our lives?"
Ms. Ben-Eli, formerly of
Oak Park, lives with her
husband and four children
in east Jerusalem. The
newspapers, she says, re-
port that Palestinian
Arabs steal cars owned by
Jews, smuggle them into
the autonomous zones,
then dismember them for
spare parts.
An opponent of the on-
going peace process, Ms.
Ben-Eli doesn't consider
last week's Israel/PLO ac-
cord a good start to the
Jewish New Year.
"I don't know of any
place that's particularly
safe anymore. The whole Yassir Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin sign the accord.
country's a border. Our gut
feeling . that we're not be-
it is going in the
tinians in rural ar-
ing protected and that we don't know eas.
direction of peace.
ANON
i
GOLAN
everything that's going on," she says.
Everything is inch
The accord also
I HEIGHTS
"There should be a consensus in a democ- permits Israeli
by inch," he says.
1
I SYRIA
racy. This should be brought to a vote. forces to stay in Is-
Unlike Ms.
Sea of
Some of us (Israel= -1 are really feeling dis- raeli settlements,
Ben-Eli in
Galilee
enfranchised."
Jerusalem, Brian
military bases and
ISRAEL
Elsewhere in the country, Jews are ex- unpopulated ar-
Kott, president of
periencing similar confusion, says Daniel eas.
the American
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Jenin
cr
Polisar, director of Peace Watch, a group
Jewish Commit-
"My view is that
Kfar
c
oo
that monitors implementation of the it is a necessary
tee in metro De-
agreements between Israel and the PLO. step along the
troit, believes the
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"Because the most recent accord was path that we hope
BANK \
peace process is
Tel114v61 .14,
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Amman
signed right before Rosh Hashanah, peo- will lead eventual-
being handled de-
•
Ramallah
Yavne •
ple are in a state of animated suspension ly to peace in the
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mocratically.
of judgment.
"The Israelis
Middle East," says
/ Jerusalem
"People don't seem to be angry. They Allen Zemmol,
elected their gov-
Jaboliya
JORDAN
don't seem to be happy. They're waiting president of metro
ernment and it's
to know what has actually been agreed Detroit's Jewish
up to that govern-
upon," he says.
GAZA
ment to make de-
Community Coun-
STRIP
In metro Detroit, representatives cil. "It has its risks.
cisions and create
of Jewish organizations were quicker It's going to be a
policies. I don't
-EGYPT
to praise the signing of the Sept. 24 ac- very tough
Dimona
think members of
cord, which transfers control of much of process.
the Israeli gov-
the West Bank to the Palestinian au-
ernment would
"Is the accord
thorities. Israeli military forces will with- a guarantee of peace? No. Is it the final sign an agreement they think would en-
draw completely from Arab populated agreement? No. Will it create addition- danger the security of the state," Mr. Kott
areas, but will share authority with Pales- al disputes? Probably. But nevertheless, says.
-
Israelis and metro De-
troiters are split over
whether the accord will af-
fect upcoming elections in Is-
rael, scheduled for 1996.
Some say problems with the
implementation of agree-
ments will bode poorly for
the current administration,
led by Prime Minister
Yitzhak Rabin of the Labor
Party.
"Everything is
inch by inch."
Allen Zemmol
Others, like University of
Michigan Professor Ray-
mond Tanter, do not think
the accord will affect the
vote. He believes that, at
election time, attention will
shift to the Israeli economy.
"My feeling is that with-
out the accord the Rabin gov-
ernment would have fallen.
With the accord, the elec-
tions will be held on other
grounds," Professor Tanter
APIWARSHASKY
says.
On the home front, De-
troiters representing the
Arab American and Israel American
chambers of commerce met at Carl's Chop
House earlier this month to discuss trade
relations. The conference addressed ways
shared business can help bring the com-
munities closer here and in the Middle
East.
To Americans who are losing hope in
the 2-year-old peace process — marred
by terrorist attacks and continued oppo-
sition — U-M Professor Zvi Gitelman ex-
tends a call for calm.
"This is another step in what people
should have seen from the start as a long,
uneven, sometimes painful, but ab-
solutely necessary process," Professor
Gitelman says. "Americans — notorious
for their lack of patience and their be-
lief that every problem has a quick tech-
nological fix — will simply have to
readjust their thinking to complex reali-
ties of the Middle East and to a situation
where neither party trusts the other and
both are acting on the basis of pure, cal-
culated self-interest, which is precisely
what international agreements are all
about." ❑
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