Breeding Hawks

MICHAEL J. JORDAN

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Jerusalem

T

hirty-six hours into their hectic solidarity mission
to Israel, the 80 or so mostly North American
Jewish leaders were increasingly pessimistic. Israeli
politicians and analysts had fed them a heavy diet of
prognoses unrelentingly gloomy not only about the
prospects for peace in the Middle East, but even the
prospects for averting all-out war.
Then the news hit that a busload of Israeli settlers,
heading toward Joseph's Tomb in Nablus — recently
vandalized by Palestinian rioters — had come under
fire. According to the Israelis, a gun battle ensued
between the Palestinian shooters and Israeli soldiers
trying to airlift the injured settlers. Israelis were ques-
tioning the wisdom of allowing such a trip to happen.
But in a meeting with Deputy Defense Minister
Ephraim Sneh, the visitors focused less on questioning
the causes of the incident than on Israel's reaction to
the violence that stemmed from the settlers' trip.
After repeated assurances that Israeli security forces
have shown "great restraint" in clashes, several in the
crowd wanted to know when Israel would hit back
harder.
"If they're going to do something, now I would
understand why they're going to do it," Susan Greene,
president of the Birmingham (Ala.) Jewish Federation,
said after the meeting.
"The people of Israel cannot live like this. They've
gone every step" in the peace process, said Greene,
and it just doesn't seem like it's working."

Doves Fly Away

Greene was not alone.
The two-pronged purpose of the mission was to

express solidarity with the Israelis and take their mes-
sage back home, but over the course of the two days
the crowd's attitude about the prospects for peace
hardened palpably.
Perhaps that was inevitable, said participants on the
trip, which was sponsored by the United Jewish
Communities with the support of the Conference of
Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.
Their visit pierced the filter of an international
media seemingly tilted against Israel. And the more
they learned of the on-the-ground reality of the con-
flict that has engulfed the region over the past month,
seemingly destroying seven years of peacemaking
efforts, the more hard-lined they became.
This lurch to the right may be a sign of things to
come: As pundits talk of "the death of the left" in both
Israel and the West, the shift among mission members
who once considered themselves doves may presage a
similar shift within American Jewry as a whole.
Speaker after speaker drilled home the message that
Israel, throughout the process of negotiating with the
Palestinians, took a leap of faith and willfully over-
looked the failure of Palestinian Authority President
Yasser Arafat to implement numerous agreements —
the most prominent of which, it now seems clear, was
to stop inciting hatred against Jews in schools, in
mosques, on state-controlled television, and by the
peacemakers" themselves.
Speakers included Israeli Prime Minister Ehud
Barak, acting Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami,
opposition leaders Ariel Sharon and Natan Sharansky,
and the U.S. ambassador to Israel, Martin Indyk.
Interspersed were several visits to the scenes of recent
clashes.
In Gilo, for example, they visited a hilltop commu-
nity on the outskirts of Jerusalem that has seen heavy
exchanges of gunfire over the past few days with a
Palestinian village in the valley below.
The mission arrived just after Israeli security forces
erected 7-foot concrete barriers and bulldozed
HAWKS on page 10

"

More Than Kiddie Games

MICHAEL J. JORDAN

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

New York

W

orldwide denunciations of
Israel are piling up, led by
an old nemesis, the United
Nations.
Recent resolutions of condem-
nation by three U.N. bodies —
the Security Council, the General
Assembly and the Commission
on Human Rights — underscore
a vital point, say Jewish observers:
how crucial it is for Israel to pre-
vent the "internationalization" of
the conflict currently engulfing
the Middle East.
Despite positive signals sent out
earlier this year with Israel's entry
into a U.N. regional grouping

and at the U.N. Millennium
Summit in early September, espe-
cially for Israeli Premier Ehud
Barak's peacemaking efforts, the
international arena continues to
be an environment hostile to
Israel.
That is why at the Oct. 16
summit in Egypt where U.S.
President Bill Clinton tried to
broker a cease-fire, Israel rejected
the idea of an international
inquiry into the causes of the out-
break of violence. Palestinian
Authority President Yasser Arafat
pushed for an "international
inquiry" to assign blame for the
bloodshed.
But such an inquiry and subse-
quent "internationalization" —
bringing in the United Nations

— would not only have provided
the Palestinians with a sympathet-
ic ally, it would presumably have
watered down the role of the
United States.
To date, the United States has
walked a fine line between being
an "honest broker" in peace talks
and an open ally to the Jewish
state.

Double Whammy

At the United Nations, the long,
well-documented record of anti-
Israel bias stems from the huge
voting bloc of Arab and Muslim
states. The bloc, say analysts, has
historically used its sheer num-
bers, and sometimes oil-related
and economic blackmail, to bully
other U.N. member states into
ganging up on Israel.

KIDDIE GAMES on page 12

Finesse In Cairo

Arab moderates get their way,
but they cannot ignore militants.

GIL SEDAN

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Jerusalem
s far as Palestinian Authority President Yasser
Arafat is concerned, Arab leaders failed to
deliver the goods.

1M

At the end of their two-day meeting last week-
end in Cairo, the leaders issued a resolution blam-
ing Israel for the ongoing violence in the West

Bank and Gaza Strip. But they did not call on
Arab states to sever their ties with the Jewish state.
Neither did the prolonged violence prompt
them to call for a renewal of the Arab boycott on
Israel. Nor were there any threats of a unified mil-
itary stance against Israel.
Even Yemen's hard-line president, Ali Abdullah
Saleh, who described Israel as "a cancerous growth
in the Arab nation," failed to offer any military
commitments to his
Palestinian brethren.
fop: Secretary-General

Who Will Reign?

of the Arab League,
Esmat Abdel Meguit4
left, and Emtian
Foreign Minister Anti-
Moussa, right, gesture
in Cairo on Oct. 22.

"The Palestinians were
the issue" that brought the
Arab leaders together, "but
Arafat played only a secondary role at the sum-
mit.''
The "Al-Aksa intifada that began late last
month provided the reason for convening the
summit. But it soon developed into a contest over
who holds sway over the Arab world: the moder-
ates or the extremists — those who have every-
thing to lose or those who have nothing to lose.
Predominant among the moderates are Egypt and

Jordan, the only two Arab states that have signed
peace treaties with Israel. The leaders of both nations
have been concerned about what might happen if
the intifada (uprising) spills over into their territory.

As millions have taken to the streets in anti-

CAIRO on page 12

10/27

2000

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