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To Palestine
4460 Gcllard Lake Road
West Floomfielcl, MI 48323
phone: 248.683.1010
Worries In Washington
gent (Sired ofquesi 'Bloomfield
Assisted living,
in
Studios and suites with private baths
Three well planned daily meals
Emergency call systems
with catered services Housekeeping and linen services
Round the clock staffing
Nurse manager
beautiful surroundings Personal
care assistance
Medical supervision
Spa with pool and exercise room
created especially
Scheduled activities
Game room
Library
for older aclulis.
Hair salon
Sundries shop
Transportation
Valet parking for residents
TOURS AVAILABLE DAILY
call 248.683.1010
As we enter our 20th year
Robert Stewart Photography
we'd like to acknowledge you - our clients - who collaborated with us to make
your homes such special places. We thank you for your enthusiasm,
for your many referrals of family and friends and
we thank you for helping us grow.
32506 Northwestern Highway • Farmington Hills, MI • (248) 851-7540
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DETROIT
SEWISII NEWS
'TN
Potential administration shit on statehood
has political perils.
JAMES D. BESSER
Washington Correspondent
I
ncreasingly, analysts here
believe that only the prospect
of statehood can give Yassir
Arafat the political capital he
needs to hold on to power and to
make the difficult concessions Israel
demands.
But hints of an administration
shift on the issue have ratcheted up
pressure from powerful pro-Israel
groups that continue to regard a
Palestinian state of any kind as a
mortal danger to Israel.
The administration heard that
message loud and clear in May, when
First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton's
offhanded expression of support for
statehood ignited a storm of protest
and forced an embarrassed White
House to disavow her comments.
At the same time, Arafat's recur-
ring threat to unilaterally declare
statehood in May, when the Oslo
interim period ends, has alarmed
even doves who regard statehood as a
necessary goal of the peace process.
"There should be no unilateral
declaration," said Rabbi Ammiel
Hirsch, executive director of the
Association of Reform Zionists of
America (ARZA). "That could bring
the Middle East and the entire world
into armed conflict."
According to right-of-center ana-
lysts, administration policy has shift-
ed to favor, at least implicitly, cre-
ation of the kind of Palestinian state
that would threaten Israel's security.
At the same time, they say, the
Clinton administration has exploited
Arafat's threat, thereby multiplying
the risks.
"The administration has to be
concerned that a unilateral declara-
tion runs the risk of provoking a
war," said Douglas Feith, a national
security staffer during the Reagan
administration and a leading Oslo
critic. "On the other hand, [the
Clinton administration] looks at
Arafat's threat as useful in spurring
the Israelis to make concessions. So
while they look at the execution of
threat as a great danger, they look at
the voicing of the threat as something
that's diplomatically useful."
But threats can become reality,
Feith argues — a reality that guaran-
tees new eruptions of violence. And
the failure of the U.S. government to
react strongly to Arafat's bellicose
threats, according to the hard-line
analysis, brings into focus the admin-
istration's determination to force a
deal no matter what the cost to Israel.
"The unilateral nature of the
threat is significant," Feith said. "If a
state comes into being that way, and
not through negotiations, it . will have
unconstrained sovereignty. That
means it will have rights that would
create mortal dangers to Israel."
Just before Congress adjourned in
October, pro-Israel groups, led by the
American Israel Public Affairs
Committee (AIPAC), promoted a res-
olution formally stating U.S. opposi-
tion to a unilateral declaration.
According to critics, the measure
would also have limited the adminis-
tration's options in using statehood as
another bargaining tool.
The lobbying effort was put on
hold because pro-Israel leaders did
not want to be seen as sabotaging the
Wye peace talks, then underway. But
they say the fight will resume with
the new Congress convening this
month.
There are also questions about
what kind of state the Palestinians
will be prepared to accept.
Most observers agree it must be
demilitarized, with limited powers to
create alliances with other countries.
The current Israeli government, to
the extent that it will allow a state at
all, insists it must be a highly frag-
mented one, pocked with Jewish set-
tlements and Israeli security posi-
tions, bisected by access roads.
Supporters and opponents alike
wonder if Arafat will have the politi-
cal backbone to accept such a piece-
meal state — indeed, whether he
will even want to.
Analysts on the left insist that clos-
ing the door on Palestinian statehood
— and quashing every public men-
tion of the goal — ultimately will be
just as destructive of the peace
process.
"Arafat can't back down from his
promise to create a state," said Judith
Kipper, co-director of the Mideast
program at the Center for Strategic
and International Studies in
Washington. As we move toward
final status, the United States has to
say that at the end of the road there
will be some kind of Palestinian state.