the majority and minority communities in the
Jewish state.
They wonder how seriously business and trade
will be affected, and for how long.
a Will Israelis
still flock to Arab restaurants, Arab garages, Arab
shops, after the nights of mayhem they have all
witnessed on their television screens? If violence
can sweep through the familiar streets so quickly,
can contort familiar faces so totally, what are the
chances of even a modest facade of neighborly
relations being reconstituted?
Given the remarkable resiliency of individuals
and society, the prospects of the week's illness
being healed are probably better than they
appear right now.
But the same disturbing questions are neces-
sarily nagging at Israel's policymakers when they
contemplate the collapse of trust between their
state and the Palestinians' state-in-the-making.
Only last week, Barak and Palestinian
Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat were dining
jovially together at the prime minister's home in
Kochav Yair, at what both sides said was their
warmest meeting ever. Forty-eight hours later,
they were enemies.
Urged on by the international community, the
two leaders strove this week to rein in the vio-
lence, and even to turn it into a catalyst for
resumed peace negotiations.
On Wednesday, they met with U.S. Secretary
of State Madeleine Albright in Paris. Later, they
were to fly to Egypt for talks there organized by
President Hosni Mubarak.
Plainly these goodwill endeavors by America
and Egypt are predicated on the dual hope that
the violence can be stopped and that a new
determination to achieve peace can be nurtured.

Hardening Hard Lines

Some observers in Israel maintained that the
week's disturbances, though unpredicted in their
ferocity, could have been expected once the
peace process touched the raw nerve of
Jerusalem and the Temple Mount.
These observers suggested that in hindsight,
the dozens of fatalities and hundreds of injuries
might yet be seen as the last blood that needed
to be spilled so that the two combatants could
finally lay down their arms and make the painful
concessions that a peace settlement requires.
Another view, however, was just as cogent —
and seemed more realistic— against the back-
drop of the ongoing disturbances.
This view holds that the violence will have
hardened the hard-liners on both sides and will
make it all the more difficult for the two leaders
ro achieve a workable agreement and secure a
solid majority behind it.
Many Israeli Jews have grave misgivings about
sharing Jerusalem, which had become a major
sticking point in negotiations.
And on the Palestinian side, concessions on
Jerusalem are likely even more unpalatable, now
that dozens of people have died — as Palestinian
opinion sees it — defending Islamic claims in
the holy city. 171

So Close To Peace

Jewish leader meets with Mubarak and Arafat just before violence strikes.

HARRY KIRSBAUM
StaffWriter

jr

oel Tauber says he doesn't want to make judg-
ments, he only wants to report on what he
heard.
Invited as a representative of the American
Jewish community to show support for the peace
process in the Mideast, Tauber and a group of nine
others met Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and
Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat on their
home turf early last week. Tauber, a Southfield business
executive, is chairman of the United Jewish
Communities executive committee. -
What they heard from these world leaders just days
before violence broke out in Jerusalem and the West
Bank was that peace was close at hand.
The Israel Policy Forum, a small yet powerful
New York-based advocacy group for the Mideast
peace process, wanted the UJC, the New York-based
umbrella organization for Jewish Federations, to join
the American Jewish community in demonstrating
their support to Arab leaders in the peace process.
Tauber went along.
.
"We couldn't negotiate the peace process, but just
show our support in the hope of pushing it over the
hump," he said. "We were received very warmly by
everyone."
The three-day visit brought Tauber and the group to
meet with Mubarak and some high-ranking advisers in
Cairo, then board a charter flight to the Gaza Strip for
the meeting with Arafat and his aides.
"Mubarak is very concerned about the fundamental-
ists," said Tauber. "The wrong kind of peace treaty
could destabilize the entire Mideast. The fundamental-
ists in their own countries are so well-armed and so
extreme, that they could take to the streets.
"He [Mubarak] made it very clear that it was the
responsibility of Arafat and his people to make the
treaty. They and the other Arab leaders will support
Arafat's decisions," Tauber said. "However, the feel-
ing one gets is the support lacks depth."

On To Gaza

In G a la, the group met first with Dr. Nabil Shaath,
the Palestinian Authority Council's Minister of
Planning and International Cooperation.
"At the time, it was clear that there were solutions
on the table that both sides could agree to," said
Tauber. "That goes to security, territory, refugees and
Jerusalem, but not to the Temple Mount."
Tauber wont put a value judgment on it, but said
there seems to be a lack of appreciation by the Arabs
of the importance of the Temple Mount to the
Jewish people, and that feeling began at Camp
David.
"Their thought at Camp David was that the

[Western] Wall and the Jewish Quarter were what'the
Jews worshipped and were at the heart of what the
Jews were concerned about. There wasn't even an issue
of sovereignty. Since the Palestinians had control over
the Temple Mount itself, and that's where they physi-
cally prayed, they thought it would remain under their
control."
The United States, Israel and the Arabs tried to find
some language that was satisfactory to all parties,
Tauber said. "They came up with a very American
concept, where Israel would own the rights below
ground, the Arabs would own the land above ground,
and the air rights would be discussed.
"That's where they were when we left, and we were
quite pleased," he said. It started as a cold meeting,
Tauber said, but Arafat grew friendlier, and even
offered to pose for pictures with the group.
There was no indication that the recent armed con-
flict or uprising was premeditated in the body language
or conversation of Arafat or anyone else, Tauber said.
"Those are the facts."
The Israelis and Palestinians were getting too close to
signing an agreement, he said, and that's why he thinks
Arafat put off the Sept. 13 declaration of the
Palestinian state.
"He has a vision of himself, marching in as the new -
president of the state of Palestine," Tauber said He
even calls himself the president and not the chairman."
Tauber said that recent Israeli government releases
indicated other signs that unrest was beginning to
occur.
"There is a chance that it was spontaneous. I don't
think it was in Arafat's mind, but when he saw an
opportunity to get international acceptance, he jumped
into it," Tauber said. "I just don't think it was
planned." 1-_1

