2 — THE BULLETIN — Thursday. October 14. 1982
s
urges recognition of
LONDON — By a narrow majority, thiie British Labor party voted at its conference in Blackpool recently for recognition of the Palestine Liberation Organization as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinians.
Of two strongly worded resolutions passed by the conference, one committed the Labor party, against the recomnaendation of its National Executive Committee, to work for establishment of a democratic secular State as a long-term solution to the Middle East conflict.
Denis Healey, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, summing up an often acrinionious debate on behalf of the NEC, reminded the conference delegates that he wished equal concern had been shown with regard to the Syrian massacre in Hama, or the Iraq-Iran conflict, or even the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in many countries.
Nevertheless, in commending the Palestinians* case which, he felt, iisraelis would find as an analogy of their own history, Healey asked the conference to accept the NEC's findings.
These are: The international community should now devote its efforts towards guaranteeing the security of brad and the establishment of a Palestinian State, and that the PLO be formally invited to accept these objectives and to partici^te in negotiations to secure them.
In addition, the NEC condemns the Israeli Government for its "complicity in the action**(in Beirut) and its "failure to intervene.**
Healey reminded the conference that in seeking a "reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians,** right was not all on one side. The defect of the other two resolutions, he said, was that they did not concede Israel's right to exist.
The voting figures were: 3,318,000 in favor, 3308,000 against; and 3,538,000infavor,3,263,000against. As neither of these votes were carried by a two-thirds majority, it is doubtful whether they will be included in future Labor manifestos.
Sam Jacobs of PoaleZionahdIan Mikardo, MP, spoke in the debate and reminded the conference of the
opposition of the Israel Labor party to the bombing of Beirut,
Jacobs said afterwards that pro-Israel activists in the Labor party w^re "deeply disappointed. We expected policy to go towards an invitation to a PLO speaker and a West Bank State. We hadn't expected it to go as far as a democratic secular State,** JCNS.
JCNS Photo
PRIOR to departing West Behiit, Israeli soldiers empty a heavOy provisioned PLO ammunitibn store, one of many discovered in the Lebanese capital. _.
Jdnianiaii monanm conflnues'b^
ByTONYLERMAN JCNS analysis
The massacre of Palestinians in Beirut and the assassination of Bashir Gemayel have upset Ameri-"can plans to give new impetus to the Middle East peace process. But such is the importance of the United States in the region that President Reagan*s peace plan, and especially the crucial role assigned to Jordan in the proposals, will be forced back into the centre of the Middle East stage.
Before the Arab League summit at Fez, King Hussein, together with other Arab leaders, cautiously welcomed President Reagan*s plan. Shortly after Fez, on BBC, tele-vision*s Panorama, King Hussein went much further. He openly welcomed the new American initiative and laid great stress on the
BOLIVIA THWARTS BARBIE EXTRAOITIDN
LA PAZ, Bolivia — Chancellor Augustin Saavedra has allowed a West German extradition request for the notorious Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie, known as The butcher of Lyons,* to pass to the jurisdiction of the civilian judiciary, thus almost surely guaranteeing a series of legal maneuvers by Barbie's lawyers which will enable the former gestapo commander to avoid being prosecuted for his war-time activities.
By declining to intervene at a ministerial level, Saavedra has virtually assured the same fate for Germany's extradition request as that encountered by a French claim 10 years ago. JTA.
CLANDESTINE SIMCHAT TORAH
SSSJ Photo
SOVIET JEWISH CHILDREN hokUng ouidlcs, apples and Israeli flags>in an *nMfllclal* SiradMt Tomb cdebra^ USSR, despite constantly incicasiiig
KGB praMire on their ftmBies. The photo was obtained by Boston Action for Soviet Jewry and the Student Straggle for Soviet Jeinry.-
proposal for self-government of the Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza in association with Jorda^n.
The King said: "I believe that what will finally emerge is some form of plan for a federation that Jordanians and Palestinians will have either to accept or reject."
The decisions of the Fez summit made no mention of a federation. Rather, they reiterated the decision of the 1974 Rabat Arab summit, which made the Palestine Liberation Organization "the sole legitimate representative of. the Palestinian people," and called for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.
The 1974 decision tied King Hussein's hands. He could no longer speak on behalf of West Bank Palestinians who were citizens of Jordan before 1967. Moreover, the Rabat resolution does not exclude the more than a million Palestinians who liye in the rest of the Hashemite Kingdom. Nomially circumspect on these matters. King Hussein spoke out in the aftermath of Fez because the moderate climate created there, and the emphasis the summit placed on a political solution, allowed him to keep in step with other Arab states.
The King obviously saw the new Rea^n proposals as a departure from the Camp David accords," which the Jordanians have consistently rejected. Since 1978 King Hussein has pursued a series of alternatives to Camp David — an amendment to United Nations Security Council Resolution 242, the encouragement of an European Economic Community peace initiative based on the June 1980 Venice Declaration, and support for the Saudi plan put to the abortive Fez summit in 1981. None of these plans worked.
What President Reagan deliberately offered was an echo of a
Carmon named West Bank administrator
JERUSALEM - Former West Bank civil administrator Menachem Milson said that he saw no prospect of a dialogue with the Palestinians on the West Bank in the. wake of the recent massacres. Milson resigned from his post following initial reluctance by the Begin government to conduct a full judicial inquiry of the massacres._
Defense Minister Ariel Sharon moved swiftly to replace Professor Milson by appointing Colonel Yigal Carmon as acting head of the civil administration. Colonel Carmon has been Arab affairs advisor to the Military Government on the West Bank since 1976, and played a leading part in promoting the Village Leagues as a counter-influence against the PLO. JCNS.
Jordanian plan for a federation between the two banks of the Jordan, following a referendum to be held in the West Bank and Gaza. This notion, repeated almost word for word on Panorama, was formally spelt out by King Hussein as long ago as 1972.
Clearly, King Hussein, a remarkable survivor in a precarious world, is picking his way through the mineifigld of threats and blandishments to create the conditions for the perpetuation of a Hashemite Jord-' anian state. He participates in the Arab consensus — indeed credits received from Arab states like Saudi Arabia and Iraq are vital to the Jordanian economy and in 1979 foreign grants were larger than domestic revenue; but he must be as disturbed as Israel about the prospect of an independent Palestinian state on the West Bank, given the potential for destablization among Palestinians on the East Bank.
The King has so far rejected all versions of the so-called "Jordanian option" which are divorced from a comprehensive Middle East peace and which envisage detaching Jordan from the collective Arab position. But he Has made it clear, through past clandestine meetings with Is-raeh politicians, and in his most recent comments indicating his willingness to eventually recognize and live in peace with Israel, that his adherence to Arab summit decisions is pragmatic and not inviolate.
King Hussein knows that Jordan holds the key to further progress towards peace in the region, but the bitter experiences of 1967 and 1970 have taught him the value-of caution. What makes the American proposals and ftic Fez summit decisions unique is that they come at a time when the Jordanian state is going through a period of unprecedented stability and strength.
The economy has an annual growth rate of over nine percent and there is little unemployment. Jordan's decision to give full support to Iraq in the Gulf war has paid off economically. Iranian military successes have threatened to upset King Hussein's calculations but Iraq's war needs have led to increased grants to Jordan and joint projects, such as desert highway improvements, which benefit Jordan's economic infrastructure. Remittances from workers abroad provide sufficient foreign exchange to tip the balance of payments into an overall surplus.
Despite some attempts to encourage popular'participation in the government. King Hussein rules as an absolute monarch, relying heavily on the armed forces and internal security services. Discontent is defused through welfare policies. The result is that domestic political opposition is practically neutralized.
In the Arab world, where Jordan was once considered a stooge of the West, King Hussein's position has improved dramatically during the last decade. Even relations with the PLO have improved in recent years. With the military eclipse of the PLO it seemed the right moment for the King to take a political step to (Continued on Page 9) See: JORDAN
POPULARITY STABLE
TEL AVIV — Premier Menachem Begin and Defense Minister Ariel Sharon have sustained relatively small declines in popularity since the West Beirut massacre despite intense criticism leveled against them in Israel, the latest public opinion poll shows.
WITHDRAWAL URGED
TEL AVIV — A group of anti-war reserve officers and soldiers calling themselves Yesh Gvul (There's a Limit) organization, have presented > petition signed by 1,000 persons requesting Premier Menachem Begin and Defense Minister Ariel Sharon to recall all Israeli isoldiers from Lebanon.
DEIRUT UNIFIED
TEL AVIV — Beuiitw^s formally unified recently with removal of last obstacles which have diytded the Lebanese capital along its **green line" enforced since the civil war started some seven years ago, it was reported here.
PLO ceases arms shipments to Italy
ROME — Italian police sources believe that recent Red Brigades arms raids on Air Force and Army depots indicate that arms supplies for Italian terrorists from abroad, particularly from Arab terrorist organizations, are drying up and. that Italian terrorists are having to find isuch supplies locally.
The fighting in Lebanon was seen as preventing the Palestine Liberation Organization from continuing to hand out arms, because they were needed by the PLO itself.
The days appear to have gone when emissaries of Italian terrorist groups travelled in private yachts to Lebanon to pick up large quantities of arms and ammunition as they did in the late 1970s, according to "repentant terrorists." JCNS. * * ♦ _ . ;■
European MPs urge Sharansky's release
STOCKHOLM — Pariiamentar-ians from II European countries meeting ip Stockholm recently called on Soviet leaders to release Anatoly Sharansky, the 34-year-old Moscow Jewish mathematician jailed for 13 years in July, 1978, and allow him to be reunited with his wife, Avital, in Israel.
The resolution also urged the foreign ministers of European governments to do their utmost to secure Sharansky's release.
Reports were heard that his wife in Israel, and his mother, Mrs. Ida Milgrom. 73, and brother. Leonid Sharansky, in Moscow, did not know where he was or the state of his deteriorating health.
Mrs. Milgrom had expected to be allowed to see her son in April and again in July, but prison authorities cancelled both meetings. JCNS.
PLO to open Finland office
VIENNA ^ The Palestine Lib-eration Organization will open an office in Helsinki in the near future. Prime Minister Kalevi Sorea of Finland said recently. In an interview, Sorsa stated that Finland views the PLO as the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. The Finnish leader was in Austria last month on an official visit during which he met with Chancellor Bruno Kreisky.