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OPINION
Page 4
Keeping the
Friday, March 26, 1982
The Michigan Daily
,x
Middle East
By Jeffrey Colman
Today, March 26, 1982, marks the
third anniversary of the signing of the
Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty in
Washington. The treaty; along with the
Camp David accords, was the
culmination of long, skillful
negotiations involving the United
States, Israel, and Egypt. These two
,documents incorporated principles, in-
centives, and guarantees designed to
ensure the continuing success of the
peace process.
It is appropriate .today to ask our-
selves if the anniversary of the peace
treaty is worth celebrating. Has the
Camp David peace process contributed
to peace in the Middle East and the
world?
REVIEWING
THE TREATY
Sinai withdrawal: Israel agreed to
withdraw its military forces and
civilians from the Sinai Peninsula in
phases. Israel has fully complied with
this provision of the treaty and plans to
complete its evacuation on April 25 on
schedule.
Security arrangements: The treaty
places limits on the size and strength of
military forces and establishes specific
arrangements for monitoring the
peace. The United States has
organized a multinational force to
patrol and police the Sinai after Israeli
withdrawal.
Normalization of relations: Since the
signing of the peace treaty, Israel and
Egypt have exchanged ambassadors
and accorded each other full
recognition. In other areas of relations
such as trade, tourism, and culture, the
Egyptians have been less forthcoming
than the Israelis although great progess
has been made. Most important for
both countries has been the end of the
state of war and the handling of
disputes in a "normal and friendly"
way as mandated by the treaty.
Suez passage: As guaranteed in the
treaty, Israeli ships today enjoy the .
same right of passage through the Suez
Canal and its approaches as the vessels
of other nations.
Oil from Sinai: In accordance with
the treaty, Israel and Egypt have
reached agreement on the sale of Sinai
oil to Israel under normal commercial
terms.
Negotiations on Palestinians: Since
the treaty's inception, Egypt, Israel
and the United States have been
negotiating for the implementation of
Palestinian self-rule according to the
principles of the Camp David accords.
The on-again, off-again talks have not
Sadat, Carter, and Begin seal the Camp David accords with a handshake.
yet resulted in a final agreement. Nor
have the three countries successfully
included the Palestinians on the West
Bank and Gaza Strip in the autonomy
talks.
Role of the United States: Camp
David and the peace treaty made the
United States a full partner in the peace.
process. The Reagan administration,
however, has failed to exercise the
leadership necessary to strengthen
Camp David because of its blind
devotion to opposing communism at the
expense of other goals. Yet the United
States remains the guarantor of the
peace treaty; it is American support in
the form of aid and diplomacy which
provides the incentive for both Israel
and Egypt to remain at peace.
Participation of other Arab coun-
tries: One of the greatest setbacks of
the Camp David process has been the
failure to gain support of other Arab
nations, especially Jordan. The need to
bring the other confrontational states in
to the peace process was fundamental
to both the Camp David accords and the
peace treaty. American policy, by
rewarding the rejectionists of the peace
with sophisticated arms and other
special privileges, has not provided en-
couragement for such participation.
ANSWERING
THE SKEPTICS,
In spite of its deficiencies, the Egyp-
tian-Israeli peace treaty is as great an
achievement today - as it was three
years ago. Yet there are a growing
number of non-believers who doubt that
Egypt will continue the peace process
once Israel returns the last piece of
Sinai on April 25, 1982. They imply that
Israel would be better off without the
treaty.
The arguments of these skeptics are
unconvincing because they ignore the
guarantees and incentives embodied in
the treaty. Egypt as a nation has in-
vested too much in the peace process to
go back on its commitments in the near
future. Egyptian President Hosni
Mubarak, like his predecessor,
recognizes that poverty, over-
population, and slow economic
development are Egypt's greatest
problems. Breaking the treaty would
result in the loss of American aid and
possibly another costly war. Mubarak
knows that the consequences for Egypt
could be disastrous.
As for Israeli security, for the first
time the Jewish state has genuine
peace with one of its neighbors. Egypt
is no longer part of Israel's war
calculations. The presence of a
multinational force including American
troops on the Israeli-Egyptian border
shouldalso make the Israelis feel more
secure.
Israel did 'not go to the negotiating
table out of naivete or desperation. The
Israelis-like the Egyptians and
Americans-bargained hard, and
agreed to the treaty only because it was.
in their best interest to do so.
No treaty-including the Egyptianr-
Israeli agreement-is perfect or per-
fectly verifiable. Politics and,
diplomacy by definition involve choices
of risk. Egypt and Israel, negotiated a
treaty because the alternatives they.
faced were either too dangerous or im-
plausible.
The Camp David process still
remains the best and least risky option
for Middle East peace, in spite of its
shortcomings and limited scope.
Future success of the peace process
depends on the willingness of all parties
to the conflict to take the risks
necessary for resolving other disputes.
Without the active leadership of the
United States, future peacemaking ef-
forts will be impossible.
But the wish of both Israel and
Egypt-"no more war, no more blood-
shed"-is a living reality for both coun-
tries today. Considering the human)
cost of previous wars and the present.
bloodshed elsewhere in the Middle:
East, the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty
is worthy of celebration.
Colman is a graduate. student in
the University's Institute of Public
Policy Studies.
-
Edited and managed by students at The University of Michiga
Vol. XCII, No. 138
420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
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Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board
Repression returns
r
T HERE HAD BEEN a glimmer of
hope. There had been speculation
that under the rule of the new junta,
Guatemala might come. to resemble
some form of democracy. But that
speculation turned out to be just that:
speculation. It's back to the same old
methods for the struggling Central
American country.
A junta, headed by ex-presidential
candidate and general' Rios Montt,
suspended the .Guatemalan con-
stitution yesterday, along with the ac-
tivities of all political parties. For
three years, with the regime of the
ousted president General Romeo
Lucas-Garcia, Guatemala suffered un-
der the tyrannical rule of the military.
in addition, for the past two decades
one general or another has brutally
oppressed the people of the nation.
Now it seems as if that brutality will be
continued.
The constant flow of repressive
leaders has exacerbated the problems
plaguing the nation. The failure of
Guatemala's economy-spurred on by
a drastic drop in the price of coffee,
which makes up one-third of the coun-
try's exports-seriously weakened the
Garcia regime. The Guerrilla Army of
the Poor, a largely native Indian, lef-
tist insurgent group, has grown recen-
tly and now poses a serious threat to
the rule of any military leader in
power. With all these pitfalls surroun-
ding the power base in Guatemala, any
group that takes control is bound to be
more concerned with securing its own
foundations of strength than with
aiding the nation.'
This current economic instability
will ensure that any of the good inten-
tions of the new junta (if there were
any) will be foregone in the scramble
to secure a political base. The regime
may hope-in its suspension of the con-
stitution-to secure power now and
improve conditions later, but the
abandonment of constitutional justice
in the pursuit of social justice is sure to'
lead to no justice at all.
The new junta offered hope of im-
provement, of a chance to turn away
from the repression it replaced. But
now, with its steps to crush liberties,
the new junta is showing'itself to be-no
improvement, only a mere variation of
its predecessor. Just a continuation of
the same old thing.
LETTERS TO THE DAILY:
Greek system lacks
fraternal-unity
40
To the Daily:
I am writing to express my
dissatisfaction with the Greek
system. I pledged a sorority in
the fall of 1980 and initiated the
following term.
The first thing I find fault with
is the rush system. Rush is sup-
posed to be a time when houses
are supposed to weed out the girls
who aren't right for the Greek
system and to get to know the girls
they will be accepting. Instead, it
appears to be a time when girls
are put on show and judged
mainly by appearances. I know
now that my personality simply
does not fit into the Greek system
Shameful mob violence
-A.- _
To the Daily:
As one demonstrator said,.
"they're.only a bunch of little
kids." He was right. They could
belong to any street gang, use"
any symbol or name, but why
should they when they can stir
up an entire community-a
community supposedly com-
posed of some of this country's
more intelligent people-and
goad them into the very violence
they profess to abhor merely by
parading the swastika and
calling themselves Nazis.
It's all very well and good that
we remember the atrocities
committed by the Nazis, but it's
doubtful that the Neo-Nazis (all
fifteen of them) even know the
full extent of what they say they
stand for. They're little kids, out
for attention, and the media and
the "responsible" citizens for-
ming the Committee to Stop the
Nazis play right into their hands.
If we are to score a "victory "
over the neo-Nazis, we must
make sure that we know what we
stand for.
The United States Constitution
guarantees freedom of speech
,and the right to assemble
peacefully. When we attempt to
deny anyone these rights on the
basis of not agreeing with their
ideology, we jeopardize. the
freedom we're trying to
"protect". When ,we resort to
violence and the propaganda to
encite it, (for a definitive exam-
ple read the ,posters distributed
by the Committee to Stop the
Nazis) we become hypocrites,
breaking our own.principles. One
does not preach peace with a billy
club in hand and expect to be
taken seriously.
I applaud the coalition which
sponsored the Human Dignity
rally, for they act as they speak.
But I am ashamed of those people
(included "respected" professors
and men of "peace") "who lent
their support to blind hatred and
mob violence, for that is what
scares me-not a bunch of little
kids.
-Trish VanderBeke
March 24
at all. But instead of trying to find
out if I fit in, the Greek system
was simply interested in getting
me to pledge and stay in the
system.
As for the Greek system being
a unified community, let me
laugh heartily. This week is
Greek Week, when all the houses
on campus attempt to show the
community how much fun all the
Greeks have together. If only you
could see what's happening in the
background. All I've ever seen
are power plays. It's all a game
of power and status and not of
brotherhood and sisterhood. Un-
fortunately, I don't even see.any
unity within a house. Instead, I
see the same power plays bet-
ween different cliques in the-
house. If you don't belong to the
right clique, your ideas and
opinions simply don't matter.
You do see sisterhood and
brotherhood once in a while, but
those times are, unfortunately,
few and far between and usually
over trivial matters. We seem to
get more pleasure cutting down
someone or some house rather
than praising that person or
house. Perhaps that has more to
do with human nature than with
the Greek system itself.
But, and I cannot add this
strongly enough, the Greek
system does appear to work for
some people. I do not expect the
Greek system to be perfect.
Nothing is perfect. But I, wrote
this letter so that someone who
had some knowledge of the Greek
system could criticize it intellec-
tually.
I wrote this-so that people in the
Greek system could take a closer
-look at themselves and their
houses.
And finally, I wrote this letter
so thattpeople interested in
joining the Greek system will
take a careful look into what
they're getting themselves in-
volved in, rather than just
flowing with the crowd. I do not
want to discourage anyone from
rushing any house. I simply want
people to be more educated about
a system before they commit
themselves.
-Mimi Yoon
March 23
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Letters and columns represent the opin-
ions of the individual author(s) and do not
necessarily reflect the attitudes or beliefs of
the Daily.
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