European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - February 9, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 columns Anthony Lewis the stars and stripes tuesday february 9,1988 friends should warn Israel on current actions when you see your Best Friend cling in a Way thai will ruin his life do you pretend nol to see do you insist in others that it is really not so bad Asil looks do you Lell yourself that in is i business not yours americans devoted to Israel should be asking Ihm solves such questions As they contemplate what 15 happening in the West Bank and Gaza for Israel is on a path of mortal danger to its character and even its existence. Those who re main silent at such a moment arc not True friends. During the to years of occupation the. Jewish Community in the United states hat been largely silent about Israel s policy. The explanation Given was that israe Lis were on the line and outsider should not la a them what to do. The theory sounds like a benevolent neutrality but in practice in has been anything but Neutral. In that time american jewish organisations have led the Way in urging us. Aid to Israel without strings without criticism. Israel is the largest . Aid recipient now Felting s3 billion n year. And it of Ali generous private contributions from americans. The effect of All that Aid has been to give powerful support financial and political to israeli policy in the occupied territories tin policy that has amounted to creeping Ann Calion. Israeli oppo nent of the policy were shorn of the argument that friends abroad really disa greed with it. Silence in America helped those in Israel who wanted to go on set Iling in the West Bank and Gaza making it harder for Israel Ever to leave. In the current crisis Many american jews have been troubled not Only by immediate israeli tactics in pulling Down palestinian protests hut by the longer term implications of holding on to the occupied territories. Some have voiced their concerns among them leaders of important jewish organizations but others continue to Avert i hair eyes. They say for example that the amen William Safire can press and television have been unfair in i hair portrayal of the palestinian pro tests and israeli response. Bui Israel s press has been just As Blunt in reporting the instances of beating randomly selected palestinians. And the film on american television has been taken mostly by israeli Crews. Another cause for concern is that some american jewish leaders continue to deny the reality of the grievances Felt by palestinians in the West Bank and Gata. For jews to Inek sympathetic understanding of a people denied control of their own lives seems to me especially sad. The current chairman of the Confer ence of presidents of major american jewish organizations Morris b. Abram issued a sent cent that spoke of the pro tests As designed to terror ii and to undermine the foundations of a democratic he said the disturbances were rot just incidents of Domestic unrest Bui were nothing less than a new form of warfare against he said Israel was just trying to restore normalcy to Gaza and the West anyone who wants to know what normalcy Means for the palestinians under occupation should read two extraordinary articles in the issues of the new yorker dated feb. 8 and feb. Is. They arc by an israeli Wriler David Grossman who spent seven weeks in the West Bank last year before the uprising. He wrote a Book that was a Best seller in Israel the new yorker pieces Are taken from in. What Grossman shows is a life of humiliation for he palestinians of Petty bureaucratic harassment and nighttime raids and blown up houses. And he shows the inevitable result the buildup of frustration and hatred. One of the palestinians Grossman meets says to him Start thinking about us As your future neighbors. In the end we will be the people with whom you have to live Here. It s not the japanese with whom you will have to come to an agreement of peace and iras. Right even try end i know that it ii Proba Bly hard for you right try. God for bid to respect us american jews should try Loo. They should try to think of palestinians As human beings with the usual human desire for respect and the usual feelings of National Pride and they should speak out when they Sec the danger of Israel trying to control another nation. The economist a conservative British Magazine supportive of Israel said some friends of Israel pretend that if israeli leaders gave their soldiers belter training in riot control and spoke less bluntly to foreign journalists the familiar old Israel would smile Forth again. These friends Are wrong. If Israel is turning ugly it in not because its army is inept hut because it is a Small jewish nation which since 1967 has been sitting heavily on a Small palestinian naw yet k Towl i is Twe Bush is held hostage by his own past Safe menus a cant George Bush simply come clean on his participation in the arms for hostages decision Why docs he respond by attacking the press for daring to ask the question or by hiding behind his confidential relationship with the president or by claiming thai he s already answered everything As Bob Dole keeps reminding us the questions just won t go away Why nol put the Issue to rest once and for All with a single dramatic Lay it All out speech because it s not that easy. Indeed resolving the in Herent contradictions in his Story May be impossible. Here ii an attempt to Deal with the real world of his imprisonment let in assume for argument s Sake that Cia chief William Casey discussed with the vice president who is a former director of Central intelligence the vexing problem facing american intelligence a few years ago station Chi Fin Beirut William Buckley. The concern Here went beyond compassion. Honor among spooks was also involved the world of spies expects a nation to Strain to gel Back its captured agents with trades or raids. Moreover our Man was being tortured to extract from him the names of our entire network in the Middle East so gelling him out was a matter of National Security. Let us assume further that the idea of dealing with Iran nut Forward by National Security aides Mcfarland and was not couched in Stark terms of arms for Tio Siagas. In the real world people tend to slip around such harsh reality this could be presented As a Way Ofca Langwith influential intermediaries nol As paying Ransom to the actual terrorist kidnappers. And so the colossal misjudgment in which vice president Bush was probably involved went ahead when presidential findings had to be signed the mat Ter came up before the National Security Council where the secretaries of state and defense were let in on the secret. At one meeting at least on Jan. 7,1986, they expressed astonishment and Strong disagreement. What did the vice president say that s a legitimate question to a Man who would be president and All participants have been released by Reagin to say what was advised. Jim Leirer and 1 worked Over Cap Weinberger pretty hard the other night but that old loyalist is saying nothing to Embarrass Bush. George Shutlz however decided to Tell the truth from the Start he recollects that the vice president was right there Hal the secretaries of state and defense were forceful and outspoken in their opposition and that my impression was that the others had a different View now we come to what makes campaigning so difficult for George Bush. He cannot Start with a clean slate he ii the hostage of his past statements. He thought it would be Safe to say at first Only that he supported the president s decision but that Eva Sion intimated that he went along with in afterwards not before. Then he said tint he cd pressed misgivings to give the impression he had been son of on the Side of those opposing the Deal in fad in turns out thai the key reservation was about dealing through the israelis though it is hard to imagine a Cia Man nol wanting some cutout. His third line of defense was that he was out of the Loop deliberately excluded from key meetings in which presumably he would have changed the direction of events. My first real Chance to Sec the picture As a whole did t come until december 198when the whole world knew. A fourth approach came recently when he recalled his feelings about the captured station chief but the May conflict with the Oul of Lac Loop defense. Put yourself in George Bush i shoes now. You cannot go Back and Unsay what you have said without admitting cover up so that s out. You cannot wholly rely on your own memory about what you hid in meetings because in real life people do forget an contradictory classified memos May yet surface,.or Amiram Nir May publish or men about to go to jail May seek clemency by remembering otherwise. Admit that you were hip do in rus Jan s orca text Blunder and tried to sneak out afterwards never political suicide. That leaves you blasting the Media for daring to ask and defending the abstraction of confidentiality Odis cushions Between the president and vice president when everybody knows that you and he would instantly breach that confidentiality if you had old him privately Don t do it which is Why George Bush hostage to past Eva Sions is trying to Lough in out. That s All he can do now. A Edth tlft1l Hajj i
