TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/060490/0604006.000

Text File | 1992-08-28 | 5.5 KB | 115 lines

                                                                                WORLD, Page 61

MIDDLE EAST

When Madmen Call the Shots


As Shamir stalls and a massacre reignites the intifadeh,
progress toward peace is more urgent than ever

By JON D. HULL/JERUSALEM -- With reporting by Dean Fischer/Cairo


    It shouldn't take a madman to remind the world that Israel
and the Palestinians are stumbling toward disaster. Yet a
deranged 21-year-old Israeli did just that last week, when he
emptied three magazines from a Galil assault rifle into a crowd
of unarmed Arab workers near Tel Aviv, killing seven and
wounding eleven. The Israeli army promptly imposed curfews on
most of the West Bank and all of the Gaza Strip and called for
calm. But outraged Palestinians responded with strikes and
stones, demanding revenge. By nightfall, another seven Arabs
had been killed and at least 700 wounded in one of the bloodiest
days of the 29-month-old uprising.

    When the worst rioting in more than two years later erupted
among Israeli Arabs, many feared that the intifadeh was
spreading into Israel proper. As reinforcements poured into the
territories, President George Bush pointedly urged Israel to
exercise "maximum restraint." Secretary of State James Baker
said the U.S. might discuss the deployment of U.N. observers,
a measure debated at a special U.N. session in Geneva last
week, underscoring American displeasure with Israel's refusal
to engage in a peace dialogue. The army's massive crackdown
eventually cooled the widespread rioting in the territories,
after three days of violence left 15 dead, including an Israeli
murdered in Jerusalem, and at least 800 wounded. But the sudden
escalation proved that the uprising lives, despite both Israeli
force and Arab infighting, making a mockery of a prediction
three weeks ago by Major General Yitzhak Mordechai, commander
in the West Bank, that the Palestinians were "in retreat."

    The carnage also showed that the entire region is growing
dangerously impatient with the political stalemate. The shock
wave spread to Jordan, where a Palestinian attacked a busload
of tourists, wounding ten, and four Palestinians died after
thousands took to the streets in the worst rioting since April
1989, threatening King Hussein's grip on the troubled kingdom.
In Egypt, President Hosni Mubarak warned that settlement of
Soviet Jews in the disputed territories threatened "to put the
whole region on the verge of a new bloody confrontation."

    Despite the explosive atmosphere, Prime Minister Yitzhak
Shamir continued his leisurely efforts to form a narrow
right-wing coalition after the collapse of the national unity
government two months ago. Shamir's prospects may depend on the
cooperation of a far-right party headed by Rehavam Ze'evi, who
is demanding the sensitive post of Police Minister as the price
for his support. Ze'evi informed the Knesset last week, "Arabs
only understand when they are clubbed on the head." Palestinian
leader Faisal Husseini, one of 46 Palestinians who launched a
hunger strike to protest last week's killings, was no more
encouraging in his assessment of the situation. "This is our
last attempt to defend our program of nonviolence," said
Husseini. "If it fails, the consequences will be terrible."

    There is, of course, nothing nonviolent about rocks and fire
bombs. If Palestinians resort to arms, they will only invite
harsher reprisals. But Israel faces a far more serious threat.
After 23 years as an occupying force and more than two years
of attempting to suppress the uprising, the nation is fast
succumbing to an insidious form of moral decay. Arabs are
dehumanized, soldiers are brutalized; both the electorate and
the government are alarmingly divided over the fundamental
issues facing the country. U.S.-Israeli relations have
deteriorated. Choosing inaction by default, Israel is ultimately
acting against its own self-interests. "We have run out of
time," warned the Hebrew daily Hadashot.

    Though last week's massacre may have shocked Israelis, it
has failed to induce political sobriety and courage. Those
qualities will also probably be lacking at this week's
emergency Arab summit in Baghdad, where leaders are expected
to debate a more confrontational approach to Israel and endorse
the Palestine Liberation Organization's proposal to put U.N.
observers into the territories.

    This growing frustration among Arab leaders could radicalize
the conflict. In the year and a half since the U.S. agreed to
talk with the P.L.O., Arafat has largely avoided extremist
rhetoric and action, despite his own hard-line flank, which
argues that moderation has conspicuously failed to budge
Israel. Arafat is also increasingly being influenced by the
militant Saddam Hussein. King Hussein too is seeking shelter
under Saddam's umbrella, in part because of right-wing Israeli
demands for a Palestinian state in Jordan. At least two
prominent Israeli generals privately warn that if the situation
worsens, it could lead to war.

    That is why last week's brutal slayings were not only
shocking but frightening as well. Though the massacre may have
been random, it cannot be isolated. Israeli Foreign Minister
Moshe Arens angrily insisted that "there is no connection at
all" between the crazy acts of a lone gunman and the policies
of the government. But he misses the point. As long as
political leaders refuse to sit down and talk, the madmen on
both sides are left calling -- and firing -- the shots.