European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 17, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                The stars acid stripes Page 13 commentary now Bush must wage Campaign for peace Secretary of state James a. Baker Iii has got no Mideast conference and no Coonskin no peace process and no one to blame. He and president Bush have squandered american prestige and Power in vain attempts to squeeze Micro mini procedural concessions from the warring parties. To jump Start the bargaining process requires not Small Steps but a clap of Thunder from Bush. Bush should announce the convening of a Mideast peace conference in Washington at a Date soon and certain. And he has to spell out in unmistakable terms the consequences a realistic ones with Sharp Teeth a for failing to participate. Baker has been slyly executing a variant of  for several weeks. But it was grossly misdirected at either establish the essence of the approach was to gain the agreement of key Arab states to a regional gathering and then present prime minister Yitzhak Shamir with a virtual ultimatum either join air or face the Prospect of a Mideast peace Parley with an empty seat for Israel. A ,.v behind that ultimatum. Baker hinted to his interlocutors stood a second threat if Israel refused to attend a a a Friendly conference it might be confronted with an a  . Sponsored meeting. / syrians rejection of Baker s Compromise terms for the regional conference knocked that strategy off the rails administration officials Are suggesting that they will turn next to a Small bore strategy probably the old one of prompting talks Between Israel and a joint Jor Danian palestinian team to discuss the West Bank and Gaza strip. But like past efforts this will take Many months to play out a Only to stumble eventually Over tiny procedural hurdles the alternative is a Thunderclap proposal that Bush and soviet president Mikhail s. Gorbachev could package As follows 1. A Washington conference. The two leaders invite Israel Egypt Syria Lebanon and saudi Arabia and a joint Jorda Nian palestinian delegation. Without consultation the conveners decide on the palestinian members while offering Israel assurances that Jerusalem cannot even be discussed until All other matters Are resolved. No party is required to accept substantive preconditions such As land for peace. 2. Rules and procedures. These must be handed Down by the conveners without negotiations. All parties will meet for one or two Days. Alter that and for three months they will Divide into three parts Israel with the jordanian palestinian team on the occupied territories Syria and Israel on the Golan Heights and Lebanon with Israel. All parties will meet on. Regional arms control economic development and water sharing. Quot a a a a Quot Quot after a three month interval the Lull conference will reconvene solely to hear reports and comment before the three tiered talks Are resumed. 3. Consequences Lor no shows. Bush will have to Lav Bare the costs of not participating.  Arabia no . Arms. Or Security Blanket. For Syria no . Economic support bilaterally or multilane rally plus diplomatic isolation. For Jordan no . Aid. For the palestinians no further . Efforts in their behalf. For Israel no Aid for resettling soviet immigrants and Aid cuts if further jewish these measures Are draconian. They have to be. If the conference flops the United states can always go Back to Selling More arms and making occasional diplomatic forays and regional leaders to hating and killing. But Bush has the. Chance to rewrite this endless murderous tragedy if he would pursue peace As skill fury and boldly As he waged w a. / c the new Yolk times 019 91 William f. Buckley or Ore have you noticed the anomaly if there is a dumb thing to be done or said it will almost always be done or said in a College or University. This is a quite inflexible Law occasionally spotted by novelists such As Randall Jarrell and Mary Mccarthy but not widely disseminated. Most recent Campus talk has been about current pathologies in trendy curricula which Are mostly one More variation on the nihilism that is so irresistibly tempting to dead souls. But the weekend reminded us that the greatest student Harvest of this Loon Ness happens at commencement ceremonies As witness events last sunday at Vas Sar and Columbia. Now Vassar has had a difficult time Ever since it became coeducational and on one occasion i was myself required by student silliness to turn Down an invitation to give the commencement address. A but this time Vassar a 127th commencement became. Two commencements the second one organized by Black students who. In the account of new York times writer Lisa Foderaro. A Are hoping to establish their own  to which end they imported the Rev. Jesse Jackson As keynote speaker and up against the traditional Sophomore Quot Daisy Chain a in which Lovely Young sophomores of All races perform a Little dance around the maypole the separate commencement committee sponsored a Daisy Chain made up of Quot african violets. Now if you think this is because there is granitic resistance within Vassar to students of non White background. How do we account Tor the tact that the presi dents elect of the senior class and the student government Are  and the Junior class president elect is asian american and the president elect of the Sophomore class is hispanic i hardly sounds like Kkt time at Vassar. A but if Vasser seems bizarre you should not commencement this year at Columbia. There the times reported a they prayed in arabic pondered in chinese and Sang hebrew. Latin and Southern Baptist strains. The multilingual congregation was dressed in the uniform Blue gowns of Columbia University  but the Quot proud diversity was apparent in the dress of graduates and their families. One graduate wore a piece of african Kinte cloth on her graduation gown. Several students wore Yarmulke is another a Hijab the head covering of pious Muslim women a this commencement was organized by a rabbi who evidently had a Lew theatrical reservations about his Rainbow coalition ceremony because he began his invocation by saying Quot we have never sat together before. We Are not practice in this . I should think not. How Many of us can make koranic Calls in Good fluent arabic it is Odd that the general Call to ecumenical understanding is resulting on some College campuses in the most obdurate denominational eth no and religious centrism since the 16th Century. Now if this is going to happen presumably it is going to happen. What is not easy to understand is the general acquiescence in this phenomenon. Why is it necessary at commencement to stress one s background it it happens to be different irom that of the Lounders of the College i never disguised my Catholic background at school or College but did t feel it necessary to Sprinkle my classmates with holy water at Public ceremonies. Is a foreigner supposed to sing out his National Anthem when our people do Quot i he Star spangled Banner Quot How greatly one misses Randall Jarrell. Everything now happening is simply another manifestation of what he caught writing 40 years ago a if Benton Benton College was his fictitious College in a pictures from an institutions had had an administration building with pillars it could have carved Over the pillars Eye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you feel guilty. Quot just As Ordinary animal awareness Lias been replaced in Many by consciousness so consciousness had been replaced in most of the teachers of Benton by social consciousness. T hey were successful in teaching a most. Of. Their students to say in contrition about anything whatsoever it was i lord it was i. But they were not too successful in teaching them to consider this consciousness of guilt a Sununu Bodum one s final claim upon existence. A Many a Benton girl went Back to her Nice Home married her Rich husband and carried a Fox on her bosom for the rest of her life a and Short of becoming a social worker founding a Neo socialist party and then killing herself and leaving her insurance to the United nations. I do not know How she could have got rid of  and. These Are our it Uca cd elite my lather once said in exasperation to his 10 children Quot either you go to College or you get  a c of Imbt a i p Suff