• EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK s - • 0 • • • • 0 10 • It's not .0 just * • seeing. :a great: show. I t: • Anatomy Of A Conflict I listened intently as a Jew and an Arab — armed with words, not guns — talked candidly about the Middle East. I didn't come away from the radio show confident of a quick end to Palestinian terror against Israel. But I did find a vein rich with insight running through the give- and-take. The show highlighted the fundamental differences in how Jews and Arabs view what fuels their centuries-old battle over biblical land. With keen interest, I tuned in on Aug. 26 to Luther Keith's "Back To Back," which airs 4-6 p.m. Tuesdays on WQBH 1400-AM. Second-hour guests were Allan Gale, associate director of the Jewish Community Council of Metropolitan Detroit, and Osama Siblani, publisher of the Dearborn-based Arab American News. Keith is a senior editor and columnist at the Detroit News. Siblani floated the idea that an Israeli pull- back of troops from Palestinian-inhabited ROBERT A. lands would bring an end to terrorism and SKLAR clear a key barrier to a two-state solution in Editor the war-torn region. Over the past 35 months, Palestinian terror has killed at least 851 Israelis and foreigners and maimed or wounded thou- sands more. Arab states have accepted Israel as a Jewish state and a part- ner in the Middle East, Siblani said. But he offered no evi- dence of that beyond the peace treaties Jordan and Egypt have with Israel. He cited the 1993 Oslo accords, but I'd brand them a failure in the wake of the Palestinians' rejection of then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak's generous compromise for peace in 2000. Palestinians just want an identity, said Siblani, who grew up in Lebanon. "That's all that they are asking for," he said. "They don't have a country they call their own. The Israelis have come in, taken their land, confiscated their property and kicked them out. The struggle has been between an occu- pier and an occupied people." To illustrate the desire for Mideast peace, Gale Gale recounted how the U.S.-backed road map also was drafted by entities never high on Israel's list of allies: the United Nations, the European Union and Russia. Even the Ariel Sharon-led Likud Party isn't opposed to a Palestinian state under the right conditions, he said. Continued violence against Israel is what's shredding the peace process, Gale said. "The issue for American Jews, and for our brethren in Israel, is that violence leads to nowhere," he said, and he's right. "Just as the United States will not negotiate with Al Qaida," he said, "I don't think we should expect Israel to be negotiating with Hamas and Islamic Jihad. The only way for that to happen is if they change their stripes and become partners for peace. Frankly, seeing their actions and their words, I don't see that happening." fence) between Israel and the West Bank, and by destroying West Bank villages. "We need to bring more people to the middle, to talk like you and I and try to resolve this issue," Siblani, in the radio station's Detroit studio, said to Gale, participating by phone. Siblani's call for talk instead of murder is heartening to hear. I hope it pulsates throughout the Palestinian world. But I'm distressed that Siblani drew a parallel between Palestinian suicide bombers — who, disguised as religious Jews, blow to bits civilian men, women and children — and Israeli defense forces, who bulldoze suspected terrorist haunts. Uprooted villages is an unfortunate price of war. Siblani is convinced the terror would stop if Israel withdrew its troops and removed illegal settlements from the territories. But I see that as only increasing Israel's risk. The road map calls for both concessions when the threat of terror ends. Siblani said lack of a homeland has driven Palestinians to despair — notwithstanding that Jordan was envisioned by virtue of the British Mandate of Palestine to be that place. "They are angry because they have been occupied- for a long time," Siblani said. "Some people were born and later died under occupation; their kids are still under occupation. They can't go to school. They cannot go to work. They don't have good health care. And they don't have citizenship. They don't have any place they can call home. And they are mad, and they are taking it to the street and they are creating this vio- lence." Countered Gale: "Whether it's what you call the occupa- tion, the history, the refugee issue, borders, prisoners, what have you, Israel is ready diplomatically to peacefully negotiate all of these issues to the satisfaction of both parties. Certainly, there will be some compro- mises and some of them may be painful for either side. But the time for violence is over." My take is that Israel has no choice but to keep military pressure on the masterminds of terror. To not do that is to invite Israel's destruction. • • • • thaf?' c1115 pooplo m-1- 11 • • clicabirrtioc li ✓o • full, S S li ✓es. JARC'S 23rd Annual Fall Fundraiser A NEW MUSICAL A8BA • S S Down The Road Gale's prescription for peace requires Mahmoud Abbas, the seemingly powerless Palestinian prime minister, to become "a leader who leads his people to a better life by ending violence, by uniting all his people and by having a monopoly of power." Siblani, who is also president of the Arab American Political Action Committee, said hope lies in the U.S., as a neutral broker, creating a climate for "negotiations that everybody will benefit from." Negotiations or not, Palestinian leaders must stop the government indoctrination of kids as young as 6 to think great heavenly rewards await if they embark on suicide attacks as shahids for Allah — when they're older. From death games to death wishes, Palestinian children are taught to attack Jews out of fear and hate — and in pursuit of a Palestinian state that absorbs Israel. As Itamar Marcus, the-Jerusalem-based director of . Spreading The Blame the Palestinian Media Watch, put it: "If just 1% of Siblani the children attempt to fulfill their duty and seek Siblani said he did not condone the terror ema- Shahada through suicide terrorism, the ramifications nating from Hamas and Islamic Jihad, but said will be cataclysmic. The targets of the future Palestinian terror these Palestinian groups shouldn't shoulder all the blame for wave will be Israel, and in all likelihood, other western democ- the Mideast conflict. The Sharon government, he said, also is racies as well." El undermining peace by building a "wall" (largely an electrified Fisher Theater Sunday, Nov. 2 1:30 pm & 7:30 pm Tickets at www.jarc.org or (248) 538-8610 x418 Your15_. A-010-1- rarhi! ( Ages 21 to 40 ) Mamma's VIP Lounge 5-7 pm Fisher Building — join Us. I • For 34 years, helping people with C disabilities be fully included in community life. 4) , WT 9/ 5 2003 5