Shaping An Identity
Sizing Up Barak
"In the long run, if you were to gauge the reac-
tion of the Arab and Palestinian community, it
would be cautiously optimistic. This week's
opening of a safe passage through the Gaza Strip
was a real step forward.
"There's a lot of work ahead of (Barak) to be
done in the peace process, and he's building up
a lot of credibility with the Arab people. The
time seems to be coming ripe in the region for
them to make peace with each
other. They are arriving at a time
when this is going to happen."
— Robert Ghannam, coordinator,
Arab-American and Chaldean
Council; president, Michigan
Chapter American Arab Anti-
Discrimination Committee
L
r
Smil e s
"As expected, Prime Minister Barak has taken a
middle course, one that combines a genuine
desire to move forward in the peace negotiations
with the Palestinians, with asserting Israel's pre
rogatives regarding Jerusalem and the West Bank
settlements.
"Through his pragmatic approach, he has
made considerable progress in restoring good
relations between the U.S. administration and
the Israeli government, bringing
together many of the various reli-
gious and ethnic factions in
Israel, and increasing the level of
trust among Arab leaders."
— David Gad-Harf, executive
director, Jewish Community
Council of Metropolitan Detroit
"Mr. Barak is momentarily popular with the
myriad of Israel's enemies and so-called 'friends'
as a result of the following: He has released 350
Arab terrorists with another 250 killers to fol
low. He has created huge lethal swaths of 'safe,
passage' territory through the heart of Israel for
Arabs to travel. He has agreed to give away the
remainder of the 11 percent of additional land
under the Wye Accord.
For these unbelievably huge and self-destruc-
tive concessions, Barak has received from the
Arabs absolutely nothing other than the oft-
repeated promises to grant the Israelis 'security
and to stop teaching their children to say bad
things about them.
"It is enough to make a grown
man or woman cry — and many
of us do."
— Jerome S. Kaufman, president,
Zionist Organization of
America/Michigan Region,
national ZOA secretary
"The initial accomplishments of the Barak
administration: completed successfully the
complex negotiations leading to a multiparty
coalition government to advance the Oslo and
10/15
•orpfp4„ .a
President
Clinton and
Prime Minister
Barak confer at
the White House.
Israel's new leader quickly made friends in
Washington, but American Jews have some concerns.
JAMES D. BESSER
Washington Correspondent
here was no mistaking official
ashington's sigh of relief in May when
Ehud Barak deposed Prime Minister
Binyamin Netanyahu in Israel's national
elections. The Clinton administration saw that out-
come as a necessary turning point in the moribund
peace process.
Despite warnings that Washington's euphoria
would be quickly punctured by harsh Mideast
realities, the new prime minister has spurred a
restoration of the "special relationship" between
the two allies.
Barak has won considerable latitude from his
American partners as he launches into contentious
permanent-status negotiations with the Palestinians
on Jerusalem, water, refugees, settlements and the
nature and extent of a Palestinian state.
But there could be rough water ahead.
"The tensions could re-emerge, especially if Israel
is seen as not moving quickly enough on the Syrian
front," said Robert 0. Freedman, president of
Baltimore Hebrew University and an expert on the
Middle East. "And if some of the reports on Israel's
construction of new housing on the West Bank are
true, it could be a red flag for the administration.
There is a reservoir of good feeling right now, but
its not bottomless."
Barak has been helped by the often-inept perfor-
mance of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who has
not matched the Israeli's strong confidence-building
measures, and by the erratic Syrian President Hafez
Assad, who has angered and disappointed officials
here with his peace-process foot dragging.