European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 29, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 the stars and Stripe columns George will adm Nis fration should screen reverse Plo policy nine months after a diplomatic debacle the United Stales is in danger of making matters worse. The Bush administration which is relentlessly and some times obnoxiously eager to underscore the obvious thai it is not the Reagan administration May Well pick up where the Reagan administration left off in appeasing the Palestine liberation organization Plo. The question is what will happen if Yasser Arafat requests a visa to visit his Kindred spirits of which Here arc All Loo Many at the United nations last autumn to enable it to do what it had Long wanted to do Deal directly with the Plo the state department became Arafat s lyricist coaxing him to sing the right Well the state department s idea of he right words. The three . Conditions were recognition of Israel acceptance of . Resolution 242 and renunciation of terrorism. The Plo did none of the three but feigned agonies of surrender so state ruled that it had done All three. The Plo slightly softened its rhetoric of implacable hostility toward Israel hostility still enshrined in the Plo covenant which declares Palestine indivisible and vows elimination of zionism in the Plo accepted Resolution 242 As the Plo misconstrues it to require Complete withdrawal to the 1967 Borders. But the Plo accepted 242 in the context of Rele vant . Resolutions. These zionism is racism and the rest have the cumulative meaning of Man dating Israel s destruction. Today As 10 months ago. The Plo speaking to its constituencies reassures them that its diplomatic a Nevers arc merely part of a phased approach to the liquidation of Israel. The two stage two state strategy is to reduce Israel to indefensible Borders by Means of a Plo satrap on the West Bank and then use violence. Regarding terrorism the Plo said we never have used it we Promise to Stop using it and attacks against israelis Are not terrorism. Since then the Plo has increased terrorism in three ways. There have been More attacks across the Border including squads from the Fatah faction. Plo radio from Baghdad incites and praises terrorism within pre-1967 Israel such As the act of plunging an israeli bus into a Ravine. And there has been a Sharp increase in murders of moderate palestinians 89 so far on the West Bank. Israel has serious plans for accommodating its Security needs and palestinian political aspirations. Israelis cite As a possible Model Spain s concessions to catalan cultural and political autonomy. Implicit in that analogy is Israel annexation of the West Bank refugee Camps could be replaced by towns for $2 billion if say 10 european nations would put their Money a Mere $40 million each Flora Lewis for just five years where their Mouths incessantly Are. But what moderate palestinians will come Forward to negotiate they Sec other moderates murdered and the United states is worse than merely mute it is absolving the umbrella concerning whether the Plo is a terrorist organization. Slate s position is it cannot be such an organization because we arc talking with it and we arc not allowed to talk with terrorists. State also says the Plo is an umbrella organization and that Fatah is one faction bound by Arafat s supposed renunciation of terrorism. How docs stale verify compliance the Point of the Plo umbrella Structure is to allow appeasement minded westerners to say they cannot Trace a thread of responsibility for palestinian terrorism. Six months ago. Arafat reaffirmed the Plo goal of the Complete liberation of the palestinian soil and the establishment of a palestinian state Over every part of five months ago the head of the Plo s political department said the recovery of but a part of our soil will not cause us to forsake our palestinian land. We shall pitch our tent in those places which our bullets can reach. This tent shall then form the base from which we shall later pursue the next months ago the Leader of the Plo s second larg est faction said the establishment of a palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Wilt be the beginning of the downfall of the zionist Enterprise. Our goal is the Complete liberation of the National palestinian Las month the Fatah conference in Tunis reaffirmed that the 1948 partition of Palestine was a the Bush administration which prides itself on be Lieving that All differences arc split table cannot imag Ine in playability and therefore cannot recognize it in the Plo. Or so say critics who Hope they arc not proven Correct by a visa for Arafat cd Washington Pom Wynten Otzoup search for life in space fills intellectual vacuum when the mail brought a big pack age about the search for extra terrestrial intelligence or Seti my knee Jerk re action was that first we need to find More Leric serial intelligence. But it s an interesting idea particularly now that there seems to be a philosophy vacuum and a disenchantment with science for being so technical and materialistic despite its awesome achieve ments. The debate set off by Francis Fukuyama a slate department policy planner has reached Europe. He foresees the end of history and centuries of tedious boredom because the great crusade against communism is coming to an end and losing its capacity to mobilize emotions. Neither the revival of religions nor nationalism is Broad and stirring enough in his View to spurt vitally hostile juices into thinkers around the world. Of course he stirred a Good Deal of ridicule. Yet he has highlighted a Lack of focus in political thought now that most agree it is better to be practical than preachy. Freedom is Only an exciting galvanizing idea when you Don t have it or feel it threatened. There is a Felt human need for a sense of higher purpose beyond satisfying everyday wants a goal that can be shared with other individuals and with the future. To my mind there is no shortage in this cantankerous and destructive world. But the Seti people do offer another possibly encouraging place to look and they provoke reflections on those who fear they re running out of transcendent causes. The Seti Institute is a California based non profit research organization. The work is funded by the National aeronautics and space administration and various universities and academics. It is headed by Frank d. Drake an astronomer with a firm scientific Back ground and the projects arc As rigorous As they come. It has no connection with ufos and other non scientific nonsense such things make us shudder he writes. Astronomers say that ten billion potential life Sites in the Galaxy is a reason Able the distances make effective investigations impossible. But since the Laws of physics arc the Sam everywhere if there is a civilization somewhere that has mastered electro magnetic communication it s conceivable we could hear it. The scientists suppose it would know As we do that a certain segment of the microwave band has the Best Chance of being detected. So they want to search the skies for such a signal. The Pioneer 10 spacecraft broadcasting from 3 billion Miles away at the Edge of the solar system with a Power equal to Onc-20th of a Candle has been picked up. Two types of search arc under Way. A Broad Survey that May not be sufficiently sensitive and a More attentive sweep of some 800 solar Type stars out to about 80 Light years. There Are other projects on the Chemi cals whose combination could produce life and on an enzyme so Basic that components of its molecular cells May be re lated to the hypothetical Urka Ryoto the common ancestor of existing life. Drake s argument is a display of quite modern earthling intelligence that Nasa should increase funds for Seti now about $1.5 million a year so that it can use better equipment for an expanded Experiment. There is a Money Side to every cause. But he bases it on the belief that this could bring an enlightened understand ing of humanity s place and destiny inthe scientific spinoffs can be expected in developing and using the technology too but the great undeniably gripping ques Tion is whether we have fellow intelligent creatures somewhere out there. If that s Ever established it would certainly change a lot of attitudes and pos Sibly bring some Good advice on dealing with our problems. President Reagan joked with Mikhail Gorbachev that we drop our arguments and get together on Earth if we had to face a Martian inva Sion. It s so human to be xenophobic to imagine that the other must be danger Ous. And it s human to think intelligence elsewhere will have gone through the same stages of decoding nature that we have and could use it to communicate though perhaps not through the same physical evolution. For some reason we picture them As Bug eyed creatures with awkward shaped Heads but still two arms two legs recognizable. And it s essentially human to look for life to find out if we Are alone in the world though having to admit we re not unique could bring the kind of letdown Fukuyama seems to feel. In any Case it s Good to search and to think about our reasons for it. Intelli gence is far from exhausting its capabilities. C Nav a times
