/ 0~G 1a tI /v' ,\ _ l? Y.. n. r i , F1 VVIAAT \\N U AMERICAN FRMERS KILLING CALVES IN PROTEST AGXIN$Y LOW __._ \1 / WHAT'5 MEAT ? >\+\NNN MIN I aft * Iell T]IF II; 1IV X' N F ;!4i:' ?\,' r tit r Eighty-four years of editorial freedom Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan 52 Thursday, October 24, 1974 News Phone: 764-05 Who By KENNETH STEIN CINCE THE October w last year the top i Palestine and the Palest has dominated the attent all parties in the Arab-I conflict. Where primary co on the part of Egypt, J and Syria after the June war was for Israeli with al from all occupied territ the seemingly apparent p now is for a just solution Palestine problem. Anwa dat in a recent interview London Observer clearly cated that from where he as Egypt's president the of the problem was not Go Sinai, but the future ofF tine and the Palestinians. In contrast to the afterm the June 1%7 war which interpreted by Palestinian rilla groups as a sign tha ular armed conflict woul get for them their legit national aspirations, the l military successes of Egy Syria in the 1973 Octobe have been interpreted by guerrilla groups as m that armed struggle can i achieve for them their ult purpose. OTHER MORE moderat ments of the guerrillar ment, the Palestinians re on Jordan's West Ban] in the Gaza strip, and Pa ians in Jordan appeart willing to accept some fo political accommodationv Israel. Either ascenien denial to control and rep the Palestinians on the st international diplomacy caused further fissures i figment of Palestinian The massacres perpetrate spring at Maalot andF Shimona were unquesti manifestations of conster that a compromise over I right to exist might be m In the lexicon of diplom the recognition by the A summit conference in Nov 1973 of the Palestine Li tion Organization (PLO) equal nation state repres Palestinians lent legitima their cause. Furthering th sire to have the intern community debate their tion, the Palestine Questi pears on the UN Gener sembly's agenda apart fr usual place within the deb the Middle East. And ag urged and battered about the Arab defeat in Pale 1948-49, the idea of estab a Palestinian governme exile had been raised. S concept has been recent dorsed by the Soviet Unio President Sadat, but the i tion of such a government by necessity frighten and some while pleasing Hence in the absence o sensus or compromisea Palestinians this concept been put at least temo on the back priority bur The difficulty in putti gether a government in betravs the existence of v and diverse leaders who to represent the Palest There are at present at three large groupings who to be the rightful snokes the Palestinians: The P King Husayn of Jordan a resident leaders on the Bank. Each group hasa extricable claim to some of what was once Man Palestine, is dependent o side economic support f well being, and wants asc cy over its two rivals. PERHAPS MOST onmpl define is the PLO. Fon 1964 to embrace most of represents undermine the legitimacy of the since th tar of Hashemite Kingdom and i t s solution c of right to the West Bank. In Ar- ceptance inians ticle Two of the Palestinian Na- gime. N inaof tional Covenant adopted by the saw the Ionse first Palestinian Congress in ing for a sraeli Jerusalem in May 1964, it was in the M incern stated (and it has not been NOWI ordan, amended as other articles of the change 1967 Coverant have been) that "Pal- PLO wa draw- estine, with the boundaries it (above) ories, had during the British M a n- tions no riority date, is an indivisable territorial to exist, to the unit." Even when not read with The PL r Sa- Article One which says that point th in the Palestine is an integral part of willing t mdi- the greater Arab homeland, Ar- commun stood ticle Two seems to question the of refu core right of the Kingdom of Jordan to gain Pales- to exist, at least on the West state. It Bank. have R Article 25 of the Palestine "achiev ath of Mandate gave Great Britain the ment of was right to postpone or withhold or "ach guer- application of the provisions for tlement t rnot a Jewish National Home from ple." imate the "territories lying between Clearl imte the Jordan (River) and the eas- maneuv imited tern boundary of Palestine." verbal a pt and This was an effort to placate the get the r war Arab claim that they had been neva pe some promised independence after the Sovi eanig World War I and support for an States a n fact independent Arab Kingdom for what if imate their support of Great Britain what it against Turkey. The recipient of due out this kingdom was Husayn's what if e seg- grandfather, King Abdllah. terests move- t sident the au k and NOT ONLY was Husayn's iegi- the cen lestin- timacy to the West Bank ques- Israeli a tioned in the Palestine Ntional to be Covenant, but the PLO's firt THER rm of leader, Ahmed Shuqaidi, de- that wit w ir clared in June 1964 that the lib- moderat - oreration of Jordan from Husa n m es.nt y. mentsin e of was a necessary preliminary to selves Sa s the liberation oftPalestine. Per- counter ihae iodically since then, PLO lead- taking u n the ers have challenged Husayn's tarfare unity, existence both as a monarch and curs, p as renresentative of an ?Arab litically Kiryat state to the east of Palestine. deeper onable The confrontation betwen to surfa nation Hsayn and the PLO reached its sional d srael's climax in Sentember 1970 when try. Re ade. more than 2,000 Palestinians more n natics, were killed in Jordan. Most -e- A r a b cently, at the Palestine Na- ember tional Council meeting in Cairo, ibe".i- it was decided to keep political as an ontions open as well as to con- enting tinie the struggie against s- Icy to rael and King Husavn. Certain? eir de- segments of the. PLO believe ational beyond any doubt that Husavn situa- is a major obstacle to be hur- on ap- led even before consideration of al As- tackling the problem of Israel on its can be made. (Palestine Af ate on fairs, February 1974). am as 2:nce THE UPCOMING debate on tie in Palestine -at the UN will once lishing again raise the question of Nu- nt in sayn's legitimacy. If the PLO uch a has its day, discussion w i I1 ly en- center around Resolution 242, n and adoted nanimously by the Se- forma- cnrity Council on 22 November would 1967 as a broad working outline arger for reaching a solution in 'he T otners. Arab-Israeli conflict. That re- f con- snhltion has at least three points ings of among which apear open for contra- are also :h s vrsv. Tbevare: 1) "withdraw- the Pal orarily al of Israeli armed forces from ure to er. territories occunied in the re- politica] ng to- cent conflict (1967); 2) " r- would o eile miation of all claims of belli- for the arious gerenev and resnect for and not p seek acknowledgement of the sover- bedfello inians. einty and territorial integrity the We least and political independence of Alrea claim ererv state in the area;" and Israelis nen of 3) "achievement of a j u s t thwart ? L 0 , settlement of the refugee prob- tine in ad the lenm." I sami c West Current debate in Israel is comtrie an n- not, as previously, dominated reveali or all by those who do not recognize -the disc datory the existence of a Palestinian rope wh >n out- neonle. ssraelileadership today will be 'r its is focusing on the meaniig of ennen- Resolition 242 and its applica- tioniwil tion to a settlement. For t h e the Rab Israelis something short of the end hex to peace agreement is found in clearly ned in point two expressed in the con- claim t ft~ie cept of non-belligerency, least be e October war the Re- has won conditional ac- by the Damascus re- lot surprisingly Jordan Resolution as an open- just and durable peace [iddle East. THE UN debate might that possibility. T h e nts to remove point two as it would cast ques- t only on Israel's right but also on Husayn's. O wants a change in ree as it is no longer o have the international ity view it as a group gees. Instead it wishes the status of a nation s hope then would be to esolution 242 read the ement of a just settle- the Palestine problem" ievement of a just set- for the Palestinian peo- y all this diplomatic ering and attempt at acrobatics is intended to PLO a seat at the Ge- ace conference of which et Union and the United re the co-chairmen. But the PLO fails to get perceives as its just of the UN debate? And local Arab national in- overcome the claim that se of the Palestinians is tral core of the Arab- conflict? .E IS a strong likelihood thin the PLO the 1 e s s te, more radical ele- ray seek to assert them- by either establishing a weight to the PLO or by p arms in intra-guerrilla If armed conflict oc- articularly in already po- unstable Lebanon. a societal conflict is liable ice between the confes- ivisions within the coun- newed attempts by the nilitant guerrilla group- the Palestinians? "King Husayn can certainly do without the. establishment of a Palestinian state on the West Bank that would be as threatening to him as it would be to the Israelis." :.Sti :4:":S'1: i "..S iS' St l . " .N strained. Likewise the associa- tion with the British connection and later with the United Siirtes has tended to taint the monar- chy's image in the eyes of fellow Arabs who have sought to throw off the dominant influence of foreign presence in the Middle East. AFTER THE British e vacua- tion of Palestine in 1948, whe most Arab countries *uibbled about strategy to be adopted -is a vis Palestine, only King Ab- dullah of Transjordan emerged as the military and territorial benefactor against Israel. Ab- dullah's own ideology reflected the concept of an Arab nation in 'Greater Syria,' a residual, conceptual afterbirth of toe World War I period. In contrast to Abdullah's desires to unite the entire Levant, Egypt's then King Farouk wished to deprecate ai'y attempt to take the center of Arab affairs away from Cairo. In order to consolidate his posi- tion on the West Bank i, the eyes of the local notables, he adroitly appointed Palestinians to take key nositions within his kingdom. These appointments were politically weighed to coun- ter balance the government in exile set up in Gaza by B-3jj Amin al-Husayni and backed by Egypt. Finally, before his as- sassination by a partisan of the former Grand Mufti in July of 1951, Abdulah formally annexed the West Bank. BETWEEN 1948 and 1967 but capable of offering politi- cal and physical protection. In the hill areas of the West Bank's cities (such as Hebron, Jenin, Nablus, Ramallah, and Tulkarem) local tax collectors, religious leaders, and land own- ers asserted themselves over a peasantry that barely made a subsistence living. This group, more isolated from Zionist set- tlement and land purchase dur- ing the Mandate, became the hard core of the Palestinian Arab leadership. As during the period of the Mandate this lead- ership vanguard continues to be plagued by traditional local riv- alries between families for po- litical dominance or denial of strength to opposition factions. WITHIN THE leadership core today the merchants ap- pear to have only transitory political strength. They are con- stantly at the mercy of having their markets cut off by wars or threats of belligerency. Their economic punch is cyclical varying with the ebb and flow of tourism from both Israel and Jordan. With Israel's inflation at an all time high, the for- merly very lucrative trade pat- terns have tapered off. The lo- cal religious leaders continue to maintain their function as the spiritual leaders of the West Bank, but since the demise of the former Grand Mufti of Jerusalem their political pres- tige has waned too. Today the only really strong religious - political leader on the 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mi. 48104 Economic Utopia, at last (gasp) dERALD FORD RECENTLY recom- mended that in order to beat the high cost of medical care one need simply stay healthy. While I will not argue that being well is the best way to avoid today's outrageous medical costs, his statement leads one to con- sider alternative methods for fighting inflation that are equally profound. For example, if the cost of food ap- pears unbearable, one simply does not have to eat! One of the better proposals on the subject came from Jonathan Swift, the 17th century satirist, in his "A Modest Proposal-". "A young healthy child," he wrote, "well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food -- whether, stewed, roasted, bak- ed, or boiled." IN OUR TECHNOLOGICAL age I suggest a more fitting and far more humane method of curing our economic malignities. Since the gov- ernment has yoked the very vortex of all human endeavor in order to extract, expropriate, and encumber it with every conceivable tax burden, it is possible, with one intelligent fell swoop, to forever efface such con- temptible burdens from the face of our country. In its place I would re- sort to the very simple expedient of putting a tax on every breath we take. Lest one laugh at this, let me point out that, with the knowledge that the average citizen inhales ap- TODAY'S STAFF: News: Glen Allerhand, Dan Biddle, Cindy Hill, Lois Josimovich, D a n Korobkin, Jim Nicoll, Cheryl Pilate Editorial Page: Marnie Heyn, Wayne Johnson Arts Page: David Blomquist Photo Technician: Steve Kagan proximately 10,000 breathes per day, an unbounded cornucopia of reve- nue exists. The method of tapping this bound- less source of revenue is very simple. No documentations, forms, or reports would ever have to be filed with the government. Congress would only have to pass a simple law requiring every citizen from the age of 21 and up to wear a scientifically - designed BREATH-O-METER around his neck, a sort of permanently installed, and forever irremovable chain-lockingI device. ONCE THE CITIZEN is so chained, Congress could then decree the amount of money each citizen would be required to pay for every breath. Like all forms of taxation the govern- ment, in its beneficence, would start out with a small rate. With time and need this could progressively in- crease. Unlike today, a citizen would never be found guilty of fraud or chicanery. Once thus permanently shackled, one could find respite only in decapitation or in demise. Should there ever be a shortage of tax revenue in some, unforeseeable future, an order would be issued to the police or to the National Guard, depending upon the extent of popu- lar resistance, to give chase to the populace. This would increase their respiration level commensurate to the government's need. Recourse to this measure could be avoided if the gov- ernment would offer incentives for the public to breath more. JF, BY CHANCE, the Lord of the Universe should look down upon our earth and at once perceive this new form of human justice and equi- librum, He or She will proclaim in a loud voice that henceforth homo sap should be born with much larger lungs and at least three nostrils. -ALAN RESNICK King Husayn attacks against Israel ilikely. Most ominous for estinians would be fail- reach concensus on a l accommodation. That only open the door wider triangle of estranged but olitically uncomfortable ws of Israel, Jordan and st Bank leadership. dy we have seen that the will not be able to the UN debate on Pales- view of the Third World, and Eastern Block es who support it. Most ng in the debate will be iplined but uneasy tight- ich the Jordonia delegate walking. Jordan's posi- l be made clearer after bit summit scheduled for of this month. Jordan is tryingto protect i t s e the West Bank and at te the spokesman of the Jordan was bedeviled by prob- lems which accompanied t h e West Bank's annexation. Agri- culturally poor and industrially lacking, the West Bank was an economic liability. Abdullah's land grab brought the Hashe- mite monarchy not only the in- digenous West Bank population, but also those Arabs who were fleeing to the East and W e s t Banks after the 1948 war. In ad- dition to doubling. Jordan's pre 1948 population, the West Bank's annexation also brought to Am- man a plethora of ideological groups who in one fashion or another did not show a keen liking for the monarchy. Pales- tinian nationalists, Communists, Pan-Arab nationalists, and Is- lamic fundamentalists injected new political activity into a po- litical climate that had 'prev- iously only known the status quo. The first task at hand for the young Husayn, not yet twenty when he ascended the throne, was to consolidate his position both in Amman and among the West Bank leadership. In 1956 he removed British dominance over his Bedouin dominated Arab legion; in 1957 he outlawed all political parties; and in 1963 and 1966 he quelled opposition to his throne in Nablus, Hebron, and Jerusalem. After the first Arab summit in Cairo in 1964, the PLO be- came Husayn's foremost threat to hegemony over the W e s t Bank and to Jordan as wel. in the meantime Husayn continued the practice of appointing West Bank natobles to positions in his Cabinet. By so doing he has cur- ried sifficient favor with the West Bank for there to be a strong political core inwilaing to see the PLO fill the vacuum that might be created b any Israeli withdrawal. The cracR- down of the guerrillas in Sep- tember 1970 had a two edged effect: it weakened the PLO on the East Bank, particularly the more militant groups; and it saw a number of Palestinimans on the West Bank view Husavn at last as an equal nemesis as Israel's occupation. In the triumverate that seeks to represent the Palestinians, the most critical is the small yet powerful elite which com- prises the West Bank leadership. It is a group of landowners, re- ligious leaders, merchants, en- trepreneurs, and vocal intelle- gentsia. As in the past the large landowners who hold political and social sway over the vil- lages of the West Bank have the most political clout. Their as- cendency to political control has come from more than a hund- red years of forming traditional societal bonds with the local Arab agriculturist. Certainly their sway is wavering as more and more West Bank. laborers find better pay by working :n- side Israel, but nevertheess they continue to hold the reigns of influence. AS COMPARED to the rest of Palestine, the hill regions of West Bank is the Mayor of He- bron, Sheikh Muhammad al-Ja' bari who has had close connec- tions with the Hashemite house in the past. The younger intelli- genisia, comprised of writers, publicists, and intellectuals, is perhaps the least willing to compromise with either King Husayn or the Israelis. Like the younger generation of Arab na- tionalists in Palestine during the Mandate this group finds more ideological compatability with doctrine that can seek to undermine the power of the traditional land - owning elite. Its inclination is more toward the various views expressed within the ideologies of the PLO. SINCE 1970 the PLO has not been successful in garnering strength on the West Bank. The Israelis have cracked down hard on guerrilla cells in the occupied - administered terri- tories. Husayn's crackdown of the guerrillas forced them to be more geographically distant from Israel and the West Bank and hence their effectiveness and influence suffered. In the municipal elections held on the West Bank in March 1972, the PLO did not keep candidates from running or the large num- ber of electors from turning out to vote. The very small turnout of Arabs in East Jerusalem during the Israeli elections held last December is attributable more to the resident Arabs' own aversion to Israeli occupation and less to any overt attempt by the PLO to keep the voter turnout low. Certainly the in- spirational aftermath of the Oc- tober war's results played a large role in the decision of many not to go to the polls. E C O N O M I C A L L Y the West Bank labor force and merchants are better off than they were prior to Israeli occu- pation. If economic determinism is the key, then the West Bank leadership will probably go in whatever direction least upsets traditional economic and politi- cal relationships. King Husayn can certainly do without the establishment of a Palestinian state on the West Bank that would be equally as threatening to him as it would be to the Is- raelis. Certainly the Israelis and other powers for that matter, would much prefer not to have a Palestinian state on the West Bank supported by Moscow. Barring any sudden change of regimes in the Middle East or of the ultimate political objectives of the PLO, the PLO seems less likely to represent the Palestin- ians over the long haul. In the short term they will get their chance at the UN and perhaps at the Geneva peace talks when they resume. The possibility, however. cannot be totally excluded that certain less extreme segments of the PLO are weary of the political battle. These groups led by Ya- ,sir Arafat are less committed ideologically to the communist doctrine of George Habash's Popular Front for the Libera- "The difficulty in putting together a government in exile is betray- ed by the existence of diverse leaders who 'seek to represent the Pal- estinians. There are at present at least t h r e e large groupings who claim to be the rightful spokesman of the Palestinians." assasumsgammmaisimt s S:-e~smsassaaasim sesasseammsosms~sim nsoes then existent guerrilla organi- zations, it is now the umbrella organization for more or less a dozen separate guerr'lla groups. Some groups within the PLO tend to represent a parti- cular Arab government's inter- est such as Egypt, Syria or Iraq while others are ideologi- cally and philosophically inde- pendent. They all seem to agree on their goal which is their legi- timate national aspirations or the establishment of a democrat- ic secular state in Palestine. The strength of each guerrilla group varies in size, but most recruitment is done through the existing Palestinian refugee camps in Jordan, Syria, a n d Lebanon. Financial resources come from -various Palestinian groups, countries and individuals on the Arabian peninsula. Miii- tary, political and some econom- ic support comes from China, The Israelis appear wilng to return part of the te:ritories they occupied in return for agreements of non-belligerency. Not only will this in a de facto manner force Egypt, Jordan, and perhaps Syria to sign an agreement which will tacitly recognize Israel's right to exist, but the Israelis will have made Resolution 242 operative and not susceptible to reinterprera- tion or revision. SINCE ITS adoption, A r a b circles have viewed Resolution 242's reference to occupied ter- ritories as meaning all the oc- cupied territories. In support of that view the French transla- tion of the Resolution is the text used by the Arab countries as it says, "des territoires." In February 1973 in a discus.,ion I had with Lord Caradon, the au- thor of the Resolution, he clearly Palestinians in its now truncat- ed kingdom. JORDAN WANTS the n e x t stage of negotiations on disen- gagement to be between her and Israel, an obvious affront to Palestinian guerrilla claims to the West Bank. For Israel the question is not if Jordan will declare readiness to negoti te with her. Knowing that Jordan wants and needs a political ac- commodation has afforded Israel the chance to negotiate f i r .s t with Egypt, the perceived locus of Arab policy making in he crisis. Giving more territory back to Egypt, the reas-aing goes, makes it less likely and potentially more costly far Pre- sident Sadat to renew hostilities. The time lag in waiting to deal with the Jordanians also gives Israel the option to wait and Eee how the tussle over who reore- - m1..:.. I