M-T
A New Era?
The Canadian Jewish News, Thursday, December 22, 1988-Page 7 V
U.S. opposes, Canada abstcmts in ballot
to recognize
GENEVA (JTA) -
The UN General Assembly vbledoverwheirningly last week to recognize the : state of Palestine proclaimed by Yasser Arafat in Algiers last month.
\{ also voted to upgrade the status of Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organization at the United Nations.
The vole on the^ombined resolution was 104-2, with 36 abstentions, including Canada. Only the United States and Israel were opposed.
It followed by hours of . announcement in Washington that the United States would hold a "substantive dialogue" with the PLO. The move was a stunning reversal of American policy, which since 1975 has ruled out any contact with the PLO.
But the United Slates
objected .strongly to the UN resolution^ stressing that its new willingness to „ speak to the PLO in no way implied recognition of a Palestinian state.
The PLO, until now a non-government observer at the world organization, has been raised to the level of a "Palestine observer delegation,'' which is midway between an independence movement and a non-member state.
The resolution also * 'affirmed the need of the Palestinian people to exercise their sovereignty over their territory occupied since 1967." '
On another ballot, the General Assembly voted 138-2, with two abstentions, for a resolution calling on the . UN secretary-general to help convene an international conference' under UN
auspices, with the participation of all parties to the Middle East conflict, including the PLO "on an equal tooting."
The resolution, in-, troduced by the Soviet Union, asks for Israel's withdrawal from the territories and the dismantling of' all Jewish settlements in the territories.
Both resolutions were assailed "by Ambassador Joseph Pet rone, the U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations in Geneva.
He maintained they "were unhelpful and inconsistent with the search for peace." Such one-sided resolutions will only make it more difficult to bring the concerned parties, together at the very time America is prepared to engage in substantive talks with the PLO.
the U.S. envoy argued. - ■ He added, "our decision to engage in a dialogue with the PLO should not be taken to imply acceptance or recognition by the U.S.A. of an independent PaFestin-ian state."
All of the Western European states, including pro-Palestinian Greece, abstained from vdting to recc^hize Palestine, as did many Latin American and some African countries. But the United States was alone among the Western nations in rejecting the resolutions, indicating that it remains isolated from its most important allies on the basic issues of the Middle East.
Only two countries abstained from voting on the resolution for an international conference and the dismantling of Jewish settlements: Canada and
Costa Rica.
: The voting marked the conclusion of the annual UN debate on Palestine, which had been moved this year from New York to Geneva to allow Arafat to be heard.
Arafat^s new language
' ■ : Bv: WOLF BLITZER
WASHINGTON^
Rita Hauser, the Ngw. York lawyer who was among a group of Tiye American Jew.s who recently met Jti Silockholm . with PLO Ctiair-man Yas^s-er Arafat, played a decisive role in encouraging him to finally utter the key words which resulted in U.S. recognition.
In an interview with this reporter, she said that she was on the phone several times from her New York apartment on Pec. 13 any 14 with PLO spokesman Bassem Abu Sharif, appealing to him to convince Arafat to express at a hews conference later in Geneva the required U.S. formulation recognizing Israel's right to exist.
She said that William Quandt, a iforriier National Security Council staffer on the Middle Ea.st during the. Carter administration, had also been deeply involved in drafting the specific news conference language demanded of Arafat. Quandt is a research scholar at the Brookings Institute, a private "think tank" in Washington;
Hauser said that the JSwedish government had informed Secretary of State George; Shultz the previous week that Arafat would meet the U.S. conditions during his address before the UN General Assembly; in Geneva. But Arafat's speech did not: include the specific language sought by _ Shultz.
During the following^ 24-hour period, Hauser^ said, she spoke on the phone with Abu Sharif several times. "For goodness sake," she recalled saying to him, "you have got to convince the chairman to say it exactly the way Shultz wahts."
She said that Abu Sharif had called her back in the middle of the night to ask
whether the U.S.Would in fact recognize the PLO if Arafat should make the required statement at the news conference. She assured Abu Sharif that . Shultz and President Reagan were serious and pub^ licly committed to it.
"Clearly,:' Hauser said, "Arafat and his people didn't believe that Shultz^ would agree to deal, with the PLO under almost any ,
circumstances. I had to explode a bit and tell them (the PLO) that the President had already made a public statement promising to deal with the PLO if the. conditions were met."
She said that Arafat:consulted With Farouk Khadoumi. the PLO's .senior foreign affair.s official , and other rnembers of the PLO's executive cohi-mittee before making the
final statements at the news conference — the siate-'ments accepted by Shultz. as having met the U.S. conditions. .
Clearly delighted. Hauser cxpres.sed satisfaction in what she described as her '•sinatl role" in achieving this U.S.-PLO breakthrough.
"Now," she said, "let's get on with the peace process."
JERUSALEM (JTA) -
Eight Palestinians were killed in clashes with Israeli security forces in the West Bank and Gaza Strip over the weekend. Scores were reported wounded.
Several Jewish settlers were, wounded in rock-throwing incidents, includ-' ing a]baby girl; who was hospitalized in .serious con-, dition.
: The underground uni fied command of the Palestinian uprising declared a 3-day general strike in the territoi;ies to protest the killings. Most of the dead are Arab youths in their early 20s, >
Despite the strike and violence, some 40,000 Arab school children inthe West Bank returned to classes Sunday. Schools iri Nablus, however, remained closed, as the Israel Defence Force clamped another burfew on thecity, whose population of over 100,000 makes it the largest Arab town in the West
Bank/; ■
Ciirfews also were imposed on the West Bank, town of Kalkilya,. the Al-Amari refugee camp near . Ramallah and most refugee camps in the Gaza Strip.
The escalation of vio-lenceand the death toll, the highest in several weeks, coincided \yith the
first talks between the United States and the Pelestine Liberation Or-•ganization.
They occurred Friday in the ancient city of Carthage, south of Tunis, and were conducted between the U.S. ambassador to Tunisia, Robert PelletreaiJ Jr., and four PLO representatives. According to foreign media reports, the PLO delegation yvas headed by Yasser .Abed Rabbo, a member of th6 organization's executive committee.
According to Israeli military sources, thie violence in the territories was touched off by Arab extremists opposed to Arafat's dliplomatic in-itiative^
But Arab sources said it was the Israelis who responded to Arafat's peace offer by taking harsher measures to suppress the intifada, the Palestinian uprising, which entered its second year nine days ago.
; Pelletreau . was desigy nated by Secretary of Stale George Shultz to be the U.S. contact man with the PLO. Shultz auihorized the . talks last week in a sudden revei;sal of a 13-year ban on such contacts. He did this after Arafat,
in an address to' the UN. General Assembly in Geneva and at a news conference there, ostensibly
. met U.S. conditions for dialogue. (See . separate
.sloiy..)-'.
The feeling here is that the supporters of Arafat, iip less than the rejec-tionist, want to make clear that the intifada is continuing, regardless of any political momenturh.
According to a report by Moshe Arad, Israel's ambassador to Washington, the U.S. government has informed Israel that the PLO does not regard attacks on military targets or the uprising in ^^e territories to be terrorist
'.;^acts.
Arafat's position on terrorism was explained to Arad by Richard Murphy, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern and South Asian a^rs. The United States apparently made no objection to the-;^L6 interpretatipri.
Rioting began in Nablus early Friday, apparently unrelated to what ;was transpiring in Tunis pr in Washington. ■ ^ , Ttvvas touched off by the funeral of a 15-year-olci Arab youngster, who died of wounds sliffered three weeks, ago in a skirmish with the IDF.
Western European lead-'ers expressed gratification over the American decisipn to open a "substantive dialogue" with the Palestine Liberation Organization.
French President Francois Mitterrand, speaking at the opening of the Franco-African Conference in Casablanca, Morpcco. called the, U.S. decision "real progress."
"Delighted" declared Belgian Foreign Minister Leo Tindemans,
Dutch Foreign Minister ^ Hans van den Broek called Arafat's remarks in Geneva and the swift American response a "gratifying development.""
Sweden played a decisive role in behind-the-scenes efforts to persuade Arafat to meet U.S.con-dition.s for opening dialogue with the Palestine Liberation Organization, Swedish officials hepe revealed.
The efforts intensified after the,United States said that Arafat did not go far enough to satisfy American demands in his speech to the " UN, General Assembly .session in Geneva.
After Arafat held a news conference; the Americans decided that he had complied with their demands for an explicit recognition of Is-hiel and unequivocal renunciation of terrorism. ■
But it apparently took adroit diplomacy on the part of the Swedes to bring the detente about.
Swedish Foreigri Minister Sten Anderssen .said he!and his aides met five tiines with Arafat.and were in coininual contact with the U.S; state department.
Anderssen said theSwed-ish taskvvas to work out a cpmpromi.se statement that would sati.sfy .the . Americans. .
He said Arafat theoretically met American conditions in his General As.sembly speech. But his remarks were not sharp or cohesive enough, and the fact it was delivered in Arabic added to the problem.
. By contrast, Arafat spoke in English at his news conference last Wednesday. Anderssen and other top Swedish diplomats worked closely with the PLO leadership and the ftatc department in the hours before that session.
They worked out Arafat's ripening declaration, in which he clearly condemned terrorism, based his peace proposals on UN Resolutions 242 and .338 and asserted Israel's right to exist within recognized boundaries.
The PLO chief referred to Israel by name, aflirm-ing "the right of all parties concerned in the Middle Eastconflict to exist in peace and security, and, as Ihavementioned, including the State of
Palestine, Israel and other neighbors."
Still, observers here found nothing particularly different between Arafat's two presentations. Anderssen explained that what was new was Arafat's use of English and the clearcut, concise language of his remarks, which allowed the Americans to accept them.
Ander.ssen also disclosed that Sweden helped arrange two meetings in Stockholm. One, widely publicized, was held on Nov. 23 between Arafat and a delegation of five American Jews (CJN Dec. 15).
A similar meeting that took place there two weeks earlier was kept secret.
The Swedish foreign minister defined his country's role as a;"postman" who "akso wrote .some of the mail;" He .stressed that "I.srael knows that I am a true friend and. as such, I. am entitled to iny views and t() my activities;."
arrests
TEL AVIV (JTA) -
Security forces have broken up an Arab .sabotage gang In the Tel Aviv area.
It was headed by an I.S-raeli Ar^b from Umm el-Fahm village, identified as Shahinjibrin. Three other members were West Bank Arabs employed as vyaiters at a seaside restaurant In Tel Aviv,
They and affiliated gangs were hnked to Al Fatah, the terrorist arm of Yasser Arafat's mainstream Palestine Liberation Organization, officials here said.
In addition, police arrested a Jew who is accused of supplying the gang with weapons. He was identified as Ell Maslkha, from Aviel vIL jage, near Hadera.
According to the Tel
Ayi\ police, eight telephone junction boxes were sabotaged during November, cutting off telephone service for thousands of subscribers,
The interrogation of suspects led to the apprehension, of other .saboteurs suspected of arson and spreading oil on heavily trayelled highways to cause accidents.
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