January/February 1997, pgs. 68-71

California Chronicle

World Affairs Council Holds Sixth Program on Middle East Peace

by Pat and Samir Twair

“The Middle East Peace Puzzle” was the title of an ambitious six-hour Nov. 25 program featuring two panel discussions and two keynote speakers, co-sponsored by the World Affairs Council of Orange County, the Arab American Republican Club, and Jewish organizations of Orange County. More than 500 people turned out for the event at the Disneyland Hotel, Anaheim.

This was a follow-up to a June 11 program on the Israel-Palestine dispute sponsored by the World Affairs Council of Orange County and the Arab American Republican Club. Because of suicide bombings last spring in Israel, Jewish groups had bowed out of that program, which featured Dr. Naseer Aruri of the University of Massachusetts, a former member of the Palestine National Council, executive editor Richard Curtiss of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, and former Palestinian peace delegation spokesperson Hanan Ashrawi by satellite because she was unable to attend at the last moment. The November program was to have featured keynoters Dr. Nabil Shaath of the Palestinian National Authority and Israeli Knesset member Yael Dayan. A commitment to sign economic papers in Cairo caused Shaath to cancel a few days before the event.

The overall impression from panels and speeches is that the Israelis and their proponents asked for patience and the Palestinians spoke with despair, which seems justified by subsequent news reports on Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s official visits to settlements and announcements of more land confiscations.

Dr. Leonard Hausman’s assessment of the “Economic Dimensions of Peace” seemed overly optimistic and was in marked contrast to the bleak views of co-panelist Dr. Kamal Nassar, professor of political science at Illinois State University. Hausman, who is director of the Middle East Policy Center at Harvard University’s School of Government, spoke of many plans being drawn up for the region by committees at Harvard.

Hausman stressed, however, that without peace there can be no prosperity and without prosperity there can be no peace. He said the new Likud regime is slowly having to learn the validity of this. Siemens, he said, had debated investing $1 billion in a new factory in England or Israel, but after the Rabin assassination, it chose the United Kingdom as a more stable environment. While commenting that giant corporations such as Proctor and Gamble or Hewlett Packard are waiting to see where to invest, it was clear Hausman had Israelnot the West Bank or Gazain mind as the site for any such ventures.

His rosy view of the region seemed particularly unrealistic when he said real progress would take place in the next few weeks. Netanyahu, he said, has learned that if he continues the policies he has followed since May 29, peace with Egypt and Jordan will grow cold and reverse.

If Hausman had on rose-colored glasses, Nassar wore black lenses as he said Israel expects open markets with Arab countries but it will not reciprocate. “The Palestinians had hoped Oslo would alleviate, not increase, their poverty and unemployment,” he said. Before Oslo, per capita income was $13,000 for the Israelis, $2,800 for the West Bankers and $2,400 for the Gazans. After Oslo, he said the Israeli economy mushroomed and per capita income soared to $16,000, while Palestinian incomes dropped below $1,800. In Israel, unemployment is about 7 percent, while in Gaza and the West Bank it exceeds 45 percent.

Another economic disparity comes from Israel’s water policies, with Palestinians permitted 15 gallons per day and Jewish settlers granted 60 gallons. “Palestinians are charged three times the rate for water,” he stressed, “but according to the differences in incomes, it really is 15 times greater than the rate Israelis pay.”

Hausman agreed the Palestinians need access to markets in Israel, the Gulf, Europe and the U.S. He also chided France’s Prime Minister Jacques Chirac for not opening French markets to Palestinian produce.

In response to a query whether it was economically feasible for Israel to import water from Turkey and whether it would be detrimental to Syria and Turkey, Hausman said it is cheaper than desalinization, and said it was a mistake on Israel’s part not to permit the opening of the Gaza airport so Palestinians can begin exporting their produce. “Palestinian prosperity is in Israel’s interest,” he said. “You can’t make poor people rich by giving them welfare.”

Stating he foresees a state of Palestine by the year 2000, Hausman touched upon the Jerusalem problem. “Arabs hated to use the word Israel and for years called it the Zionist entity. Now all Arabs call Israel Israel,” Hausman said. “It’s time for every Jew to make progress as the Palestinians did and to say the word ‘Palestine.’” As for Jerusalem, he said the city could be jointly operated.

“Political Obstacles to Peace” was the title of the second panel, featuring Prof. Bajis Dodin, associate dean of the Graduate School of Management, University of California, Riverside, and Ido Aharoni, Israeli consul for media and communications, Los Angeles.

Even when booed by the audience after he claimed Jerusalem is mentioned only once in the Qur’an, Aharoni, the Israeli diplomat, seemed impervious, actually deaf, to criticisms he was not telling the truth. Nor did he try to back his claims.

Dodin, who was born in Hebron, used that city to explain obstacles to peace that Israel has imposed. Under the protection of the Israeli army, the 450 Jewish settlers in downtown Hebron are terrorizing the 120,000 Palestinians in that city. At will, Israelis shut the vegetable markets, the bus stations and everything else when settler-initiated disturbances erupt.

Aharoni replied that security, not the 450 settlers, are the problem in Hebron. He said without an Israeli presence, Hebron could become one “big safe house for terrorists.” Furthermore, he said, “many Jewish families have lived there for ages.”

“Oftentimes,” Dodin responded, “religious attachment is invoked to justify inhumane treatment of citizens. The Jews have no religious ties to Haifa or Jaffa. I’m willing to trade my Hebron for the same amount of acreage in Haifa or Jaffa. You can’t say might makes right and then use the religious excuse when nothing else works.”

In answer to Dodin’s charges that Israel is creating an apartheid state by putting Palestinians in Bantustans while it expands settlements and confiscates Palestinian land, Aharoni said “Settlements are well-rooted in Zionist history. We have 150,000 citizens in the territories and 17 percent of them are under 18. We agreed not to build settlements, but the problem is one of natural growth, Kids are born, people marry and they need new houses.”

A member of the audience spoke out: “What about the poor Palestinian living behind barbed wire, who’s also having kids, but isn’t allowed a building permit or, if he adds a room, his house is demolished?”

Another question dealt with Jerusalem: why not make it the Brussels of the Middle East, with responsibilities shared?

Dodin concurred with the idea, stating, “King Hussein is a champion of extending the law of return to all Arab inhabitants of Jerusalemespecially since Israel extends the right of return to every Jew on Earth.”

Aharoni reiterated the need for patience. Jerusalem could be decided in some distant future.

Speaking from the Palestinian perspective at the dinner was Dr. Muhammad Hallaj, a member of the Palestinian parliament in exile. He pointed out that the Oslo document was not a Palestinian-Israeli peace accord, but an agreement to reach an agreement. He said the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is not a simple misunderstanding: “It was triggered by enormous injustices and grievances that have made us enemies for compelling reasons.”

Mutual recognition broke a logjam, he noted, but it was an asymmetrical situation in which the Palestinians recognized Israel’s right to exist as a country and the Israelis said the Palestinians have a right to speak for the Palestinian people.

“The Palestinians are the skeleton in Israel’s closet,” Hallaj said. “The denial of the Palestinian problem was Israel’s blind spot and caused the conflict.” Whereas Rabin and Peres’ Labor Party had represented a new mindset that prosperity depended on peace with the Palestinians and Israel’s ability to get along with its neighbors, the Likud attitude is that power depends on military might.

As she took the podium, Yael Dayan disparaged her introduction as the daughter of an Israeli general and the wife of another general and said she is a mother whose daughter aspires to be a microbiologist and whose son has no plans for a military career.

In reference to Hallaj’s talk she said, “Oslo was a breakthrough. What’s the point of blaming each other? It’s up to us to look at each otherKing Hussein did, Assad won’t.

“Of course, Oslo was an interim agreement. Both sides agreed to a timetable by stageswe evacuated Gaza and the West Bank, the Palestinians had free elections. By agreement, we deferred our problems.” (Dayan’s statement ignored the fact that Israel has only partially evacuated Gaza and has in fact withdrawn from only six West Bank towns while continuing to occupy the rest of the West Bank.)

Dayan seemed equally unrealistic and optimistic when it came to the West Bank settlements. “Rest assured, the final decision won’t see the West Bank under Israeli sovereignty,” she predicted. “The Jews will have to move beyond the borders and we’re sitting with the Palestinians on border changes.”

When asked if Israel accepts the concept of land for peace, she replied: “Yes, yes and yes. All governments have accepted [U.N. Resolutions] 242 and 338. I personally don’t like the term land for peace because we’re giving back land that is not ours. We’re not giving Palestinians land, we are giving recognition.”

Another member of the audience said it was heartwarming to hear her words, but what about Netanyahu’s record of intransigence?

“When Mr. Netanyahu was elected, he was committed fully to Oslo whether he likes it or not,” she replied. “His problem is violent opposition [in his party to Oslo]. However, when he upholds Oslo, we [the Labor party] will give him the approval he needs.” Netanyahu’s opponents are committed to Oslo, she stated, and they count more than the extreme right-wingers who will object.

Jerusalem Debated at Ventura County World Affairs Council

Just nine days before the Orange County World Affairs Council’s marathon meeting on the Middle East, the Ventura County World Affairs Council hosted a discussion entitled “The Future of Jerusalem” at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks. Speakers were Dr. Rashid Khalidi, director of the University of Chicago’s Center for International Studies, the Rev. Mary Jensen, pastor of the Church of Hope in Santa Clarita, and Ido Aharoni, Israeli consul for media and communications in Los Angeles.

In an introduction that harked back to Israeli rhetoric of 30 years ago, Aharoni said “historically we [Jews] felt we weren’t wanted, we were rejected. In many ways, we sent signals we wanted to be part of the region.” He said the Israeli signals never changed, but the Arabs only took a new approach when they realized they couldn’t destroy Israel militarily.

He said Israel shares control over Jerusalem’s religious sites and that, politically, there is no need to open Jerusalem. “For 14 centuries, Muslims never made Jerusalem the capital of their nations, they say Jerusalem is the third holiest site of Islam.” Yet, he argued, before 1967, Jews in Israel couldn’t enter East Jerusalem to worship at the Western Wall.

Countered Rev. Jensen: “Despite Israeli laws and claims that Jerusalem is the exclusive property of Jewsothers regard East Jerusalem as being under military occupation. The peace process stipulated the status of Jerusalem would be negotiated later. But with Israeli land confiscations and house demolitions and restrictions on building permits, the Israeli regime is rushing to create new facts on the ground before negotiations begin.”

Aharoni, who introduced himself as a fifth-generation Israeli, brushed aside the question of building Jewish settlements in violation of the Oslo agreements, saying this is the result of “natural growth, just as the people of Thousand Oaks would want to expand for their growing community.”

Rev. Jensen retorted: “I’m sorry, but the go-ahead to expand Jewish settlements is not similar to Thousand Oaks. Land those settlements are built on belonged to the Arabs for a long time. If someone came into your house and said he planned to stay in it, you’d be unhappy and want him to leave.”

Khalidi protested that Jerusalem has been cut off to two million Palestinians who cannot travel from Gaza to the West Bank to pray there or go there for hospital care or to school. “Jerusalem should not be open just to tourists and Israelis,” he said.

Aharoni contended that Jerusalem is closed to West Bank and Gaza Palestinians for security reasons. “No one would want these people in,”he said. “Why is Jerusalem so important to Palestinians? Why is it any different to them than Ramallah?”

“This,” stated Khalidi, “shows the kind of insensitivity the conqueror exhibits to the conquered. This is a matter of identity. The Palestinians believe Jerusalem is the center of their national aspirations. We wouldn’t have the insensitivity to ask the Jews why Jerusalem is so important to them.”

Rev. Jensen concurred, stating that to Palestinian Christians the importance of Jerusalem has to do with one’s heritage, identity and beliefs. She also took exception to the Israeli envoy’s comment that because Palestinians who lived in Jerusalem in June 1967 were given the option of Israeli citizenship, but rejected it, they therefore are regarded as alien residents, not citizens. “The notion that if Palestinians took Israeli citizenship everything would be fine is like saying one’s national history and identity are of no consequence.”

Several Mexican-American students expressed sympathy with the Palestinians who have been displaced from their land. One asked why both peoples can’t unite as citizens and share governance equally.

Khalidi responded: “The American Southwest is vast. The West Bank and Gaza are very tiny. The Palestinians earlier believed the solution was for both to share a single secular democratic state. The Israelis felt differently. Now the Palestinians want a separate state. The majority of Palestinians still have faith in the peace processpossibly because there are few alternatives. But,” he cautioned, “if continuous pressure is put on people with no hope of release, they will explode. The Palestinians rightfully suffer from a huge sense of injustice. I don’t know how long they can put up with the buildup of wrongdoing. There could be a catastrophic breakdown.”

“It’s a terrible thing to take away hope from anyone,”Rev. Jensen concluded. “Young Palestinians don’t see a future. There are few Christians left in the Holy Land. This is a big worry, but we must be supportive and speak out.”

The audience of about 300 people audibly groaned at some of Aharoni’s explanations, particularly at his “natural growth” reason for Israel to violate agreements to stop expanding settlements. Obvious discrepancies in his narrative also damaged his credibility. The “fifth-generation” Israeli commented that his grandfather came from Yemen, with no concept of Zionism, but only a desire to move to Jerusalem, the holy place. Then during the question-and-answer period, he said the same grandfather was expelled from Yemen because he was a Jew.

Cautious Capucci in Southland

Hundreds of Christians gathered at events honoring Melkite Catholic Archbishop of Jerusalem in Exile Helarian Capucci on his first visit to California. At a particularly heartwarming dinner in the Glendale home of Dr. Nabil and Raghida Khouri and again at an Oct. 27 service in St. Ann’s Melkite Church in North Hollywood, Archbishop Capucci urged Arab Americans to take an active role in the United States and to speak in one united voice.

The gentle cleric carefully avoided any mention of Middle East politics. In 1974, while serving as the Melkite archbishop in Jerusalem, the Israelis accused him of assisting Palestinian freedom fighters. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison. In 1978, when his weight had dropped to 110 pounds and he was near death while on a hunger strike, he was released to the Vatican on condition that he never discuss the Palestinian issue.

His sermon at St. Ann’s focused on the corruption, low moral values and hunger that have spread throughout the world. Citing the thousands of children who die each day from famine and starvation, he called for a new world where brotherhood and social justice occur, where international laws and United Nations resolutions are respected and justice and equality prevail.

“Our understanding of Arab nationalism is for all of us to live in harmony,” he declared. “I am calling upon all of you to stand in one united bloc to serve this country because it welcomed you. In this way, your countries back home can be proud of you for being ambassadors, of serving as a bridge between the U.S. and your homelands.”

Theologian Compares Christian Zionists, Palestinian Christians

Dr. Rosemary Radford Reuther pulls no punches when she talks about the Middle East, and when she gets threatening calls she writes about them in her articles. Reuther, a visiting professor at the Claremont School of Theology, discussed Christian Zionists and Palestinian Liberation Theology at a meeting of the Middle East Fellowship of Southern California.

Christian Zionists, she said, take a millennial approach to the end of the world. They believe that it will take place after Jews return to the Middle East, build their temple and convert to Christianity for the second coming of the Messiah. Palestinian Christians, she said, have been dismayed by the attitude of the Zionist Christians who ignore Palestinian Christian and Muslim claims to the land. What’s more, she said, the Christian Zionists rejoice whenever wars break out in the Middle Eastassuming the violence is bringing closer their prophesied “End Times.” These millennialists believe God gave all the land of historical Palestine to the Jews. The concept of redemption calls for Jews to return to the landushering in Armageddon in which the “bad guys” (Arabs and Communists) are killed, the Jews convert to Christianity, and the new and old Christians ascend to Heaven in “The Rapture” while the world comes to a cataclysmic end.

Reuther says Christian Palestinians believe God has not chosen one people over others. The root Christian vision of the Palestinians, she says, is of a God of all nations, an inclusive God who loves all people equally. Christian Zionists, on the other hand, assert that anybody who doesn’t approve of Israel is going straight to hell.

Complicating the issue, even non-millennialist Western Christians have tried to atone for past injustices to the Jews by writing a blank check for the policies of the militant state of Israel, Reuther says. And the Jewish establishment has taken advantage of this by labeling any criticism of the state of Israel an act of anti-Semitism.

“This has been very effective in silencing Christian leaders, especially those who would speak out for the Palestinians,” she continued.

A question posed to the theologian was why Christian Zionists don’t realize they are being exploited by the Israeli government, since no Israeli Jews have converted to Christianity.

“I’d say it’s a mutual exploitation,” she responded. “The Israeli establishment realized from the beginning that the Christian Zionists would be on the side of Jewish expansion, but the Israelis despise them and regard them as stupid.”

In elaborating on the plan of assassinated Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Dr. Reuther likened it to apartheid. “Rabin sold this plan to the West by calling the heavily guarded ghettoes self-governing enclaves. Palestinians would be separated in their puppet enclaves from the Jews, unable to travel to Jerusalem and subject to military closures at any time. Palestinians would be forced out of East Jerusalem and pushed into the enclaves of Ramallah and Bethlehem.”

Peres’ plan, she said, was to establish free-trade zones around Israel’s borders so Israeli entrepreneurs would continue to get cheap Palestinian labor.

“The Likud simply said the Palestinians shouldn’t have any land,” Reuther stated.

The difference between Labor and Likud, she said, is that Labor confiscated land and built settlements, while maintaining it was not doing so, while Likud just announced outright its plans to grab more Arab land.

The three major responsibilities of the West, she stressed, are to refuse to keep silent or be intimidated by threats, to critique Christian Zionist theology, and to work for a just solution that will allow both peoples to share the land.

“You must have the courage of your convictions,” she urged, “keep abreast of what’s happening in the Middle East, and make it known to the American people, who tend to be the most uninformed of any nation on Earth.

“Whenever I get a threat, I put it out in the open. Ninety percent of those threats are a sham, but people, even ministers and priests, are afraid.”

She drew an example of the Jewish liberation theologian Marc Ellis, who lost his job when Maryknoll closed, and has been unable to get another teaching job. “It’s very clear as he goes around the country that he’s being blocked,” she said.

“Repentance for the Holocaust doesn’t mean we must keep silent over a new injustice,” she concluded. “We must critique injustice no matter who is doing it to whom.”

New Saudi Consul Welcomed

Saudi Arabia’s new consul general, Mohammed A. al-Saloum, arrived in Los Angeles just in time for the celebration of the 63rd national day of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The new consul general, who succeeds Ambassador Hassan T. Nazer in the post, holds a master’s degree from the University of San Francisco. Prior to his Los Angeles assignment he was director of the political affairs department in the Saudi Embassy in Italy. From 1984 to 1995, he was attached to the office of the minister of foreign affairs in Riyadh and participated in the 41st United Nations session in 1986 and the 48th U.N. session in 1993. In 1990, he also was elected secretary of the executive committee in the Foreign Ministry. He and his wife, Noura al-Ammar, are the parents of Nahlah, Mohammad and Nawaf.