
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, September 14, 1993                   TAG: 9309140186
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: DAVID REED ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LEXINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

AMERICAN PENCHANT FOR VIOLENCE IMPEDES PEACE, CONFEREES SAY

Americans are captivated by violence and bored with the mechanics of peacemaking, and that tendency endangers the fragile Israel-PLO agreements signed Monday, Middle East scholars said.

"The way the American people view the Middle East encourages extremism and violence and penalizes the moderates," said John Voll, president of the Middle East Studies Association of North America.

Voll and the other participants in a conference on Middle East issues shelved a slide show Monday and turned on a television to watch the agreements being signed at a White House ceremony.

"It is certainly the greatest historical moment for people who work on Arab-Israeli issues," said David Mack, international affairs advisor at National War College and former U.S. ambassador to United Arab Emirates. "The accord goes much farther that any of us could have imagined," Mack said during the conference at Virginia Military Institute. "What it can mean will depend on how these accords are implemented."

President Clinton said the United States would assist in implementing the agreements. The Israeli-Palestine Liberation Organization accord provides for mutual recognition, PLO control over the Gaza and the West Bank, regions that Israeli forces seized during a six-day war in 1967.

But the agreements leave numerous issues unresolved, and stops well short of creating a Palestinian state, the overall goal for the PLO.

Voll said many people watching the ceremony will think the agreements will mark the end of terrorism in the region. "That's not going to happen, at least not for some time."

The American penchant for conflict encourages violence, Voll said.

For 30 years, Voll has talked about the Middle East at schools, churches and clubs across the country. "I have not in a decade had anybody ask me to talk about peace between Israel and Egypt, to tell them how that happened," Voll said.

"If you are an advocate for a particular cause in the Middle East and feel the need for global attention, you get that by dropping a bomb or shooting somebody."

So, Voll said, the true test of American support for Middle East peace may come after one of those terrorist acts.

by CNB