European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - February 14, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars and stripes tuesday february 14,1989 Anthony Lewis Shamir s logic ensures an endless conflict or. For my minister to achieve order in the Nasbah i have to act brutally to Ward people free of crime too. I feel humiliated by this behaviour. The situation has become a catastrophe. It s breaking us and strengthening the  israeli Soldier when prime min ister Yitshak Shamir visited troops in the West Bank City of Nablus last month. For 14 months now Israel has been trying to suppress the Intifada the palestinian uprising by Force. Its increasingly severe measures have exacted a heavy Price on the palestinians in the occupied territories. At least 347 palestinians have been killed 20,000 have been wounded. In the year 1988, 20,000 palestinians were imprisoned some after prosecution More detained without trial on suspicion of participating in the uprising. By military order 157 palestinian Homes have been blown up and 54 sealed because someone in each Home s family was suspected. Forty five suspected leaders of the uprising have been deported. Villages refugee Camps and even cities have been kept under curfew for Days and weeks at a time. Telephone lines have been Cut Here and there and inter National Calls blocked to and from All of the West Bank and Gaza. The measures taken by Israel against the uprising Are Laid out in the current Issue of the new yorker in a piece by Amos Elon the noted israeli writer. It is a powerful account of the human Cost of these 14 months. But Israel has paid a higher Price for its policy than have the palestinians. That is the conclusion to which anyone Reading Elon s somber article must come. Israel now has three times As Many soldiers on duty in the West Bank As the number needed to conquer it in 1967. They Are doing policing that emitters Many of them and their officers fear makes the army less ready for its real Job of defending Israel s Security. The sense of Law so fundamental to the jewish tradition has been corrupted. Despite Strong evidence of sol Diers violating orders in the beating and killing of palestinians hardly any have been seriously penalized. In the . View various measures have violated International Law. The idea of collective punishment has insidiously Arnold Sawislak Israel responds be taken Over from the idea of individual guilt. The financial Cost to Israel is High at least $2 billion so far some say nearer $3 billion. That includes direct military expenditure the decline in tourism and the Impact on the Economy of increasing military Reserve Call  to 60 Days a year. It All adds up to what the Soldier told Shamir in Nablus a catastrophe for is Rael. That a Soldier spoke As he did and others too was a tribute to the democratic character of Israel. But the country s political leadership today is not up to the Soldier s level of Candor and Honor in facing reality. The coalition government s policy re Mains based on Force. But Force has not stopped the uprising so far. What More brutal measures would be effective top military officers have been warn ing that it is not a military problem. The chief of staff it. Gen. Dan Shimron said there is no such thing As eradicating the uprising because in its essence it expresses the struggle of  in Short the solution to the Intifada can Only be political. That Means talk ing to the palestinians. And that in turn Means talking to the Plo. By now even those who Are wilfully Blind know that the palestinians in the territories want no one but the Plo As their negotiator. Israelis Are coming to accept that difficult reality. A recent poll showed 54 per cent in favor of talking with the Plo. But the government spends its Energy denying the reality. It says it will never talk with the Plo. Instead of encouraging the main line palestinian leadership s historic move toward a political settlement it plays up the irreconcilable Plo extremist factions. The logic of Shamir and his colleagues is to deny the political existence of the palestinians. It is the logic of endless conflict bleeding Israel s substance. A conservative american jew Benno Weiser Varon professor of religion at Boston University has just made that Point in a moving Way. He was Long opposed to dealing with the Plo and he still does not Trust it. But he has come to believe that a palestinian state like a jewish state is a historical necessity. I can t help being a realist Varon wrote. The status quo Intifada is a no exit  new York times pay raise Issue left Congress bleeding again americans never have had much respect for politicians As a class and the Flap Over congressional pay this year has provided another Triumph for the kind of cynicism that corrodes Trust in representative government. This has to do with much More than the merits of the pay raise Issue. It certainly can be argued that peo ple with the kind of responsibility and Power vested in members of Congress judges and top Federal officials have been underpaid. But making that Case presupposes reasonable Public discussion of the Issue and the reaching of a democratic consensus on the proper course to follow. That did not happen this year or in 1987, the last time these same officials got substantial pay raises. The net impression left by the epis9de was that the fix was on to grab a 51 percent salary increase without any member of the House having to vote on the record and that Only the Hue and cry raised by the Media Ralph Nader and other whistle blowers forced the scam into the open. The whole thing looked like one of those scenes from a Western movie in which the Saloon Gambler gets caught with aces up his sleeve. And sadly that is what Many americans have come to expect from their politicians. It is amazing that members of Congress who Are supposed to be Able to hear Public opinion louder than anyone else in Washington did not foresee the outcry when it became Clear that the pay raise could become Law without a full congressional debate and an on the record vote. Will there now be political repercussions from this affair probably not although in some extreme cases americans have demonstrated that they do not like being made to look like suckers. When Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon after Nixon resigned the presidency because of the water Gate scandal Many americans believed some kind of Deal had been made. People Felt it was a Case of one politician giving another politician the kind of break no Ordinary citizen Ever could get. There was no hard evidence to support such a suspicion but some political observers believe the Pardon was a Factor in Ford s narrow 1976 defeat. Even More believe it contributed to the Republican loss of 52 House seats in 1974. Watergate of course was a surpassing event in american politics. No similar level of fallout can be traced to the previous fast shuffle pay raise in 1985 or the Iran arms Contra Aid affair of 1986-87. Congressional leaders Republican As Well As Democrat apparently believed any Hullabaloo Over the pay raise would blow Over and that members would not be called to account in the 1990 elections for the Way they got their wages increased in 1989. But the size of the increase and the Slippery Way it was to become Law simply offended too Many people and the Public outcry derailed the leadership plan. The result no pay raise this year. Even if voters memories of the whole sorry Epi Sode fade and nobody is punished two years from now damage has been done once again to the reputation of democratic self government. Is there anyone Here who cares about that United press International