Page 6 - The Canadian Jewish News^ Wednesday, September 7, 1983
5743 In Review
IsraePs relations with U,S, greatly improve
The warm Lebanon c^^ ,;.
By
PATRICIA RUCKER
[Researched By CYNTHIA GASNER]
The war in Lebanon — and how to end it — dominated the concerns of Israel and her allies throughout the year.
In early September, Lebanon buried its president-elect, 34-year-old Bashir Gemayel, killed in a bomb attack on his Phalange party headquarters. (The Phalange is the dominant Maronite Christian political party in Lebanon.) In swift reaction, Israel moved into West Beirut.
The Israeli government's explanation that it had entered the Lebanese capital "to prevent the danger of violence, bloodshed and anarchy" came back to haunt it. As the Jewish year began, Phalangist massacres in the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Shatilla caused an overwhelming outcry internationally and within Israel — an outcry that died down when Prime Minister Menachem Begin agreed to — after first rejecting — an independent inquiry headed by Chief Justice Yitzhak Kahan.
Within a month, all Israeli forces had been withdrawn from East and West Beirut, replaced by a multinational force which included U.S. Marines and French troops.
As the inquiry set to woiii, attentioii sliifted baclt to the quest for peace. President Reagan's Mideast peace initiative, launched with much flourish Just before Rosh Hashanahy was countered by the Arab League memlier states at a meeting In Fez, Morocco. It called simultaneously for the establislmient of an independent Palestinian state on the West Bank with Jerusalem as its capital, and for a guaranteed "peace among all states in the region."
Israel denounced the Fez plan, and the American proposal made little headway with even the more moderate Arab states. An Arab League delegation headed by King Hassan of Morocco met President Reagan in October, but failed to agree to U.S. requests for Arab recognition of Israel and for negotiations without preconditions.
Lebanese president Amin Gemayel — brother of the assassinated Bashir — also came to Washington in October. He told the United States he would look to it for support — and told the United Nations that he did not want to sign a peace treaty with Israel.
taneous withdrawal of all forces — Syrian and PLO as well as Israeli — and events in the Middle East during the final days of the negotiations foreshadowed just how difficult the search for a workable peace treaty would be: ,
• PLO "moderate" Issam Sartawi, who had had several unofficial meetings with Israeli doves, was assassinated by an extremist Palestinian group.
• The Jordanian cabinet, after talks with Yasser Arafat, announced that it was abandoning its efforts to seek agreement with the PLO to negotiate for the Palestinian people, in effect killing the Reagan peace initiative.
• Terrorists in Beirut proved their ability to strike by car bombing the U.S. embassy, killing at least 60 people including the chief CIA officer in the region.
• Syria was fully rearmed by the USSR with weaponry that included sophisticated SAM-5 anti-aircraft missiles.
The high hopes with which the Israeli-Lebanese accord had been signed were dashed when Syrians president Hafez al-Assad refused even to consider negotiations with Lebanon over withdrawal of Syrian forces, and declared Philip Habib unwelcome on Syrian soil.
In June, Assad made a play for control of the PLO by bacldng anti-Arafat elements in Arafat^s own faction of the PLC, Al Fatah. Fierce fighthig between PLC factions erupted in Ihe Syrian-controlled Bekaa Valley, and Arafat was unceremoniously kicked out of Damascus.
But if Israel was frustrated in efforts to get out of Lebanon, she could at least rejoice in greatly improved relations with the United States. Ironically, the Kahan Commission report, which called for the resignation of Ariel Sharon as defence minister because he had ignored the potential for revenge killings during the Phalange sweep of the Palestinian camps, paved the way for Moshe Arens to replace Sharon.
Arens — as tough as Sharon but much less abrasive — had filled the post of ambassador to the U.S. during the Lebanese campaign, and was widely respected. Arens' appointment, combined with the cabinet decision to accept the findings of the Kahan commission, cleared the air and made it possible for the U.S. government to resume arms sales to Israel.
During the summer, factional infighting in
The new, shorter lines would be easier to defend and supply.
The close rapport between the U.S. and Israel did not falter even when Prime Minister Begin cancelled his visit to Washington at the last minute *%r personal reasons." Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir and Defence Minister Moshe Arens went instead, and withstood American pressure to delay the withdrawal.
In what appeared to be a U.S. move to conciliate the Arab League countries, Robert McFarlane took over from Philip Habib as special envoy to the Middle East, and Richard Murphy, a career "Arabist" replaced Nicholas Veliotes, a former charge d'affaires at the U.S. embassy in Israel, as assistant isecretary of state for Near Eastern and South Asian affairs.
But Syrian intransigence did not falter, and as the year ended, Israel was making firm plans for withdrawal and fortifying the new line.
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Druze militia, equipped with anti-aircraft gun, on an outlook outside Baklin village.
Reagan's peace initiative depended heavily on the participation of Jordan's King Hussein as a surrogate negotiator for the Palestinian people. But when Hussein visited Washington in December, he gave no firm indication that he could or would become involved in tgilks, _
Secretary of State George Shultz, a low-key, patient diplomat, went ahead undeterred with attempts to negotiate an Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon. For three months, U.S. special envoy Philip Habib shuttled between Jerusalerii and Beirut. When the negotiations appeared stalled, Shultz himself went to the Middle East in April, and on May 17 Israel and Lebanon signed an agreement providing for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon and security along Israel's northern border.
But the accord was conditional upon simul-
Lebanon increased. The formation of a National Salvation Front by Walid Jumblatt, a Syrian-backed Druze leader, former presi-dentSuleiman Franjieh, a Maronite Christian, and foriner prime minister Rashid Karami, a Sunni Moslem, threatened Amin Gemayel's fragile hold on his country — especially since Jumblatt demonstrated that his militia, based in the Israeli-occupied Shouf mountain region southeast_of Beirut could close Beirut airport at will. -
By the Jewish year's end, U.S. Marines and French soldiers had died in the heavy
fighting between Druze militia and the fledgling Lebanese Army, and the Shouf remained a battleground for Druze and Christian factions.
With casualties mounting — 517 by year's-end — Israel announced in July that it would pull back its forces unilaterally to a line just north of the Awali River in southern Lebanon.
Two women hold the sign reading "[Grenade]... do not dread us" at a Peace Now demonstration.
On the domestic front, the Lebanese war drew more opposition than any other war in Israel's history. For the first time, Israeli soldiers (83 by year's end) went to jail rather than serve in the front lines.
Peace Now, an Israel-based niiovement critical of the Begin government's policies towards the West Bank and Arab states, gained support, but lost a member tragically. Emil Grunzweig was killed in a bomb attack at a demonstration outside the Prime Minister's office during the drawn-out cabinet consideration of the Kahan report.
Months of tension l>etween Jews and Arabs on the West Bank exploded in violence in July. The murder of yeshiva student Aharon Gross in the Hebron marliet was followed by the burning of the central market by armed settlers. Calm was restored with strict curfews, but before the month was out, three Arabs were dead in a machine gun attack at the Islamic College in Hebron.
The violence came against a background of concern over law enforcement on the West Bank. In June, assistant attorney-general Judith Karp resigned as head of a committee responsible for investigating vigilantism by Jewish settlers when the report was shelved by the justice ministry. Settlers, on the other hand, complained of constant harassment by stone-throwers from the local Arab population. .
But it was indicative of the vastly improved relations l)etween the U.S. and Israel that in August, Secretary of State Shultz stressed that, while the U.S. opposes new settlements on the West Bank, the Jews who live there now have the right to remain.
Israel's relations with Latin America and Africa also improved as the year ended. Costa Rica and El Salvadormoved their embassies back to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, and Liberia's resumption of diplomatic relations with Israel was followed almost immediately by an official visit by Liberian president Samuel Doe. The Liberian embassy will also be in Jerusalem joining Zaire, which resumeo relations 16 months ago.
Libya's aid to Chadian rebels turned many nervous Black African states towards Israel,
in spite of their official policy of support for Arab countries.
■ *     ♦ *
The major domestic concern for the Israeli government was the economy. Early in the year, a strike by thenational airline, El Al, nearly forced its liquidation.
In December, workers in the public sector went on strike and settled for a 12% wage increase, but by March, doctors were striking for much greater increases. Their dispute lasted 118 days, climaxing with a 12-day hunger strike which paralyzed the nation's hospitals. They won a pay hike estimated at 60% and Treasury Minister Yoram Avidor, who had opposed their demands, warned that there would have to be severe budget cuts.
Just how severe became apparent at the end of the year, as the cabinet wrangled over cuts in every department, including education and defence. Meanwhile, the inflation rate averaged 140%, but the standard of living rose while exports fell and the deficit in the balance of payments soared.
The past year was a difficult one for Israel, but for no one was it more difficult than Israel's Prime Minister, Menachein Begin. The loss of his wife Aliza, in November, and his close friend and poUtical ally, Slmcha Erllch, in June, left him grieving, and he became even more depressed over the growing casualty toll in Lebanon.
Speculation over the state of Begin's health became intense when he canceleled his U.S. visit, but he celebrated his 70th birthday in July with no sign of retiring.
Then, suddenly, at the end of August, with his cabinet embroiled in bitter infighting and his coalition threatened over economic issues. Begin had enough. He announced his intention to resign, throwing Israeli politics into turmoil.
*   ' ♦. '
Others who made news in Israel this year included:
Rabbis Avraham Shapiro and Mordechai Eiiahu, who became Israel's Chief Ashkenazi and Sephardi Rabbis, respectively, in March.
Chaim Herzog, the Labor Alignment's candidate, was elected Israel's sixth President, also in March, defeating the Likud candidate. Supreme Court Justice Menachem Elon, with the aid of seven defections from the Likud.
In April, Major-General Moshe Levy succeeded General Rafael Eitan, ^ho finished his tour of duty as Israeli chief of staff under harsh criticism from the Kahan Commission. ^ •
Moshe Teitelbaum, rebbe of the anti-Zionist Satmar Chassidin, wais received by thousands of his followers as he visited. Jerusalem in June. One of his first public appearances was at the archeological excaya-tions at the City of David site, a source of controversy between the ultra-Orthodox community, which claims a medieval Jewish cemetery is being desecrated, and the scientific community which insists that there are no graves on the sitei
A tired Menachem Beghi