This Week

Insight

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Ideas & Issues

Expert says the question is not if, but when, a lasting peace will take hold in the Middle East.

HARRY KIRSBAUM

Staff Writer

redicting the results of Middle
East negotiations in the next
year is foolish, but a wealth of
opportunity does exist for
lasting peace, an expert on the Arab-
Israeli conflict said last week.
"Never before have we been able to
imagine negotiation between Israelis and
Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese in the
end game," said Aaron Miller, deputy
special Middle East coordinator for
Arab-Israeli negotiations at the U.S.
Department of State. "The period of
interim arrangements is over."
Miller, who spoke at the 68th
Inter-congregational Men's
Club/Brotherhood Dinner on Feb. 10
at Temple Beth El, has served as an
adviser on the Middle East to four
secretaries of state since 1985.
Bingham Farms resident David
Hermelin, former U.S. ambassador to
Norway, presented Miller to the 325
dinner guests. Hermelin's wife, Doreen,
accompanied him to the dinner.
"Having the opportunity firsthand
to,be in the presence of Aaron and see
how he operates, you have no idea,"
Hermelin said, referring to private
meetings and high-level peace talks in
Oslo. "At my residence, we were
Camp David and Camp Doreen, and
he was brilliant."
Rather than get bogged down in
details, Miller told the gathering that he
preferred to share some observations on
the nature of Arab-Israeli peace in the
past and for the future.
"I believe we've reached the point
of no return with respect to Arab-
Israeli peace. We do not have peace
yet, and I'm not suggesting we do," he
said. Negotiating a "critical mass of
agreements" in the past 20 years has
transformed one of the most volatile
and difficult conflicts in the interna-
tional system.
The conflict between Israel and the
Palestinians is only one dimension of
the larger conflict.
"The Arab-Israeli conflict, for 50
years, has been taught, fought and
explained by Israel and the Arabs as a

ED

Harry Kirsbaum can be reached at

(248) 354-6060, ext. 244, or by e-mail
at hkirsbaum@thejewishnews.com

2/18

2000

34

maintained or now maintains some
form of contact with Israel," he said.
The realquestions, he said, are "how
long will it take and what will be the
character of the peace that exists
between Israel and the Arab states and
the Palestinians? Elaborating, he added,
"Will it be the absence of war or will it
be peace with intersecting interests and
mutual respect and tolerance?"
A lot of decisions have to be made
if movement is going to be possible in
the next year, and Israeli Prime
Minister Ehud Barak has set the tone
by implementing the 1998 Wye
Agreement, he said.
Miller also is noticing a feeling of
urgency across the board.
Palestinian Authority Chairman
Yasser Arafat sees 2000 as the year of
decision in terms of Palestinian
national aspirations, and Syrian presi-
dent Hafez al-Hassad is now more
focused on succession and leaving a
legacy for his son," he said.
They look toward the Clinton
administration, he said, where most of
the progress on peace has come since
1993.
"They understand that the relation-
Aaron Miller
ships, especially with the president, are
perishing after this year, and they
regional conflict — and it must be
resolved as one," Miller said. "It is a day- want to take advantage of this fact,"
he said. "This administration is doing
to-day problem. There is no status quo
everything it possibly can to facilitate
with the Israeli-Palestinian relationship."
agreements in the next year. And I'm
He said that Israel and the
sure the successors will do the same."
Palestinians have engaged in a series of
Miller noted that Israel is a "tiny
implementing agreements that,
country living in a very difficult and
"although not perfect, has allowed both
dangerous neighborhood." Israelis are
sides to take the first step for a resolu-
being asked to return real estate —
tion of perhaps the bitterest dimension
the most important commodity in the
of the Arab-Israeli conflict."
region besides water — for peace,
With different interests and per-
something less tangible, he said.
spectives, the rest of the Arab world
Holocaust-denying editorials in Syrian
must understand that "there's no room
newspapers and anti-Jewish textbooks
for bystanders," he said. "They have
in Palestinian and other Arab schools,
to do their part in creating the region-
need to be fundamentally redressed so
al climate within which the other
that the Israeli public understands
negotiations over the core issues have
"that they're getting something real for
to take place."
what
it is they're giving up," he said.
Miller called the current trouble with
"Ultimately, it will be left to the
a reaching Syrian agreement a "tempo-
Arabs and Isrielis and Palestinians —
rary impasse" and Israel's agreement
not to this government, and not to
with Egypt "not perfect," but one that
you — to determine whether or not
has eliminated a two-front war. He said
the future that Arabs and Israelis want
he "could not have believed that Jordan's
for themselves and their children is a
late King Hussein would be the second
future based on the fighting and con-
Arab leader to sign a peace treaty.
flict and violence of the past, or a
"With the exception of Iraq and
future based on real peace." ❑
Libya, every Arab state has either

Equitable,
Durable,
Doable

Remember
When •

From the pages of The Jewish News
for this week 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50
years ago.

Mark Schlussel became the first
Orthodox Jew to be president of
the Jewish Welfare Federation.
East Germany for the first time
acknowledged the material obliga-
tions it has toward the Jewish vic-
tims of Nazi persecution.

Israel's hopes for winning tennis
Davis Cup faded following two
straight defeats at the hands of
Swiss players.
Ten persons were injured when a
bomb exploded at a bus stop in
•
Petah Tikva, Israel.
Golda Krolik was among a
group of civil rights activists hon-
ored by the Detroit Urban League.

'

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Michael A. Pelavin was appoint-
ed mid-continent chairman of the
Young Leadership Cabinet of the
United Jewish Appeal.
David Miro, attorney and former
president of Congregation Shaarey
Zedek, was the recipient of the
1970 National Community Service
Award presented by the Jewish
Theological Seminary of America.

Daphna Einhorn, 7-year-old
daughter of Ephraim Einhorn, the
former rabbi of Congregation
Ahavas Achim, was chosen to play
in the movie The Story of Ruth.
Mrs. Shirley Schneider is chair
of a leadership conference of
Democratic Women of Wayne
County to be held on the Wayne
State University campus.

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The Zionist Organization of
America has presented a selection
of 50 books dealing with Zionism
and Israel to the White House for
President Harry Truman's library.
Detroiters Leon Kay and Benjamin
Wilk were among the delegates at the
conference of the American Technion
Society in Chicago.

— Compiled by Sy Manello,
Editorial Assistant

