European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - March 9, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 the stars and stripes columns Willuam Buckley limited self Rule for West Bank a Wise option Henry Kissinger has expressed scepticism Over the prospects of sums for Secretary of stale George Shultz in his diplomatic Blitzkrieg in which he is determined to Square the Mideast Circle. What Henry Kissinger did not by ii what everybody knows Loo Well to require saying. It is that the Only muscle we have in the situation is our support of Israel and that we Are not going to use that muscle. The conventional Way of putting this is that we Are not going to use muscle in an election a More accurate Way to Pui ii is that we arc not going 10 use thai muscle in an election year or in a non election year. Quite apart from the geopolitical fact thai Israel is a strategic ally and the sentimental fact that we joyously associate ourselves with the cause of a Homeland for the jews the leverage israeli loyalist in America exercise on political affairs simply excludes putting hard pressure on Israel Jesse Jackson in t going to come out against affirmative action and Jesse Helms is not going to come out for outlaw ing tobacco and nobody except political no Croppi liars is going to come out for suspending Aid to Israel until it does our bidding. Our bidding being what that is the interesting question. Suppose that the israeli lobby in the United states were As powerful As say the chilean lobby or the panamanian lobby. What would we be asking Israel to do on the Assumption that we did not As in if Case of Chile and Panama desire the destruction of Fth incumbent governments the first thing surely is to figure out some formula for recognizing the Palestine liberation organization. The arguments against doing so Are perfectly plausible perfectly honorable perfectly persuasive but they arc serving to subsidize a situation that grows progressively intolerable. The whiles in South Africa can continue to Rule Over the Blacks for Many years to come the situation in South Africa being different the Issue of a Home and for the Blacks in South Africa is not the Domi Nant Issue equal Ity is. But what has been happening now for three months in the West Bank and in Gaza can i go on happening say for another 30 months. This is not the observation of a disinterested Polit ical technician. It is the graduating consensus or civil society within Israel. The Only Way to Cope Wilh Young men throwing stones is to throw Back bigger stones. And bigger stones translates into rubber bul lets Lead bullets beatings imprisonment torture and exile. A country better a movement can get a with that kind of behaviour Over a Short period. The israelis who fought for Independence be tween 1946 and 1948 were Here and there guilty of outright acts of terrorism. So were the algerians who rough for their Independence. But these excuses were viewed and understood As the awful grinding of gears that accompanies the Forward movement of revolutionary activity. Nothing that Lenin did be fore october 1917 is seriously offensive to moral aesthetes it was what he proceeded to do after he came to undisputed Power that gradually blackened his name. The israeli government cannot live with itself Over a protracted period if it finds that every Day More and More people arc mutilated and killed in order to document Israel s right to prevail Over 1.5 million palestinians with a resident Force on the order of 73,000, that there should be negotiations is obvious unless in is equally obvious that neither Side is pre pared to yield a single Inch. But that is not obvious. The israelis could agree to negotiate with he Flo after carefully stipulating its reservations because the palestinians Are simply not going to recognize a substitute bargaining entity and King Hussein is not about to sacrifice his kingdom by representing himself As a substitute far the . Bolshevik literature docs not affirm the right of the free world to exist we will Bury you it does not live by the treaties or declarations it makes Yalta Helsinki chemical weapons Salt i abm . Covenant on human rights but even so we recognize the Kremlin As the de Facto and to the extent the term is usable when speaking of the soviet Union the de Jure government of Russia. The undeniable requirement of the state of Israel is its Security and the Goat for the West Bank ought to be what goes by the name of an austrian Solu Tion self Rule but under strict supervision to prevent military or paramilitary concentrations aimed at undermining Israel s Security. That is a modest enough goal but it is better infinitely better than the prospects faced now by Israel with its adamantine stand against sitting Down with the Plo. Anthony Lewis israeli repression turns off . Jewish leaders All of us who have fell an emotional link to Israel since the moment the state was born in 1948 now face Funda mental questions. Do we believe that is Rael s safely lies in holding on to he Wen Bank and a a or would it be Wiser for Israel to seek an accommodation with the palestinians an Exchange of land for peace those questions confront american friends of Israel not Only because of per Sonal feelings of attachment but also for an inescapable political reason. Secretary of slate George Shults has presented the divided government of is Rael with a plan for negotiations. Prime minister Yitzhak Shamir who wants is Rael to hold on to All of the occupied territory is resisting the american plan and he looks to the american jewish Community for support of that Resis Tance. Last week members of the conference of president of major american jewish organizations met in Israel with Shamir. He told the leaders that they would Burl Israel if they publicly disagreed with his policy. Every critical statement of a jewish Leader docs much More harm than Many violent demonstrations in Gaza he said. It is inconceivable that god for bid american jews would permit them selves to be used in the Campaign against in the past such emotive language would no doubt have been effective. American jewish leaders have been reluctant to disagree in Public with israeli government actions. But events in the occupied territories Over the last three months have made it increasingly difficult for friends of Israel to remain silent. For the events have made it Clear that Shamir s policy of holding on o the territories can be car ried out Only by severe and unending repression of the palestinian inhabitants repression that enacts a terrible Price in Israel and thai plants Itic seeds of bitterness and danger Day after Day we have seen what the policy Means israeli soldiers beating palestinian captives settlers using a Bull Dozer to Seal off a palestinian Village and shooting Young men who watch from balconies Soldin bursting into a Hospi Tal and firing tear Gas. On National Public radio last week Deborah amps reported on the Remote West Bank Village of Jam main its peo ple were uninterested in politics. Then the protests started. In february Villag ers said israeli soldiers took four Young men up in a helicopter and pushed them out Asil hovered 10 feet above ground. Now the Village in politicized. The policy of repression has had i heavy Cost in israeli values Asil has in palestinian feelings when the army commander in the West Bank Gen. Amrom Mitina ordered the detention of soldiers seen on american television beating palestinians right Wing politicians demanded that Mitina be Dis missed. Last weekend the Shamir government moved for the first time to keep journalists out of the entire West Bank. The idea is that the protest and the repression will not Mailer if the outside world can be kept from seeing them. " will american supporters of Israel keep silent about the realities of what is happening in the West Bank and Gaza i do not think so. The president of the american jewish committee Theodore Ellenoff spoke nut at once against he closing of the West Bank to the press. The solutions for problems in the area Are not to be found in censorship but in politics he said. Last yeah before the palestinian protests began the american jewish Congress called for political negotiation on the future of the occupied Crri tories. It was criticized for doing so but hour others Are moving in the same direction. The chairman of the conference of presidents Morris b. Cabrara has vigorously defended Israel against critics Dur ing the palestinian protests. But in Jeru Salem last week he said he had old israeli leaders the status quo is not indefinitely acceptable to american jews., the occupation is the cause of the when Shamir comes to Washington next week he will find an american jew ish Community troubled by his policy of holding on to the West Bank and Caza. An open letter to him in he new York review of books from jewish intellectual across the political spectrum Speaks for Many in saying of that policy it makes peace negotiations impossible. It casts the jews in Israel and those who care about them ail Over the world in the impossible position that the jew ill stale can live Only by forever repressing the new Yak tbt11 n
