0 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 Weasel YOOR CAE OF GRuNGkA" GONNA (?FT BARS? ANOHER IIME/0SCN YoU'RE N OT SURE WHiY SIN4CE THEWES A WHIEN PIP: SORRY, FRE-P, iBur x OUST FFEL TAT IF A COMPANY( Is INOL EPg IN UNI;THCML P~PxTkEsVE SHOLWPNT SvP'r IT. NWme. PTpomamT IZ R~P~mp MI- FoR4OIA 1a MO'mER& IN ThiRI' WORD C LOMiRI FS. 1144 WOMEN4, WANMNGe TD B MOtERN p BUY 711STUFF Bo-T IN THF- U Q'kVELttoP- coumIES, W'ATE& Is OM CO (NTAMINAWI4 STERII4APON P1ROca7VS AW4~r UNKNOW9, AHDTp rg PIoIETRYf To STIA 19 POWKep MU.K. ZSQI'PYS BY OA t7)I'LOW, IT. A MI WON4 VIA~S ~EAWO YEAR ASA Kesa~roF hIS S ANDEMO 'cPINE APVtER11SMh AM4F. By Robert Lence AW, CoMe O cIna WH Y F6MT IT?, FXl'toiTiN(,POcOR Th1IRD WORi-4' CouNTRts FK P~ofii- IS As AMSRICAM As APPLE PIE! 80 0 6 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 6 6 Letters and columns represent the opin- ions of the individual author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the attitudes or beliefs of the Daily. .ms. Wasserman 501ATOR, OF COURSE WG R i~rNIZeTA IE WAR. 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