Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, July 17, 1990 TAG: 9007170317
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
A sign of this comes in a recent New York Times/CBS News Poll, expanded on with interviews across the country. It found that most Americans still like Israel better than they do its Arab neighbors. But the majority who still favor sustained financial and military aid to Israel has dwindled, from 72 percent of those surveyed last year to 61 percent this year. And a growing minority of those polled (38 percent compared with 26 percent two years ago) answered yes when asked if the United States should be more sympathetic to the concerns of Palestinians in the occupied territories.
The situation in those territories, the West Bank and Gaza, constitutes the greatest threat to the U.S.-Israel relationship. Some Israeli leaders consider the lands part of the nation's biblical birthright. Inconveniently, when taken in the Six Day War of 1967, they were populated by Palestinians. For more than 20 years, Israel has been an occupying force, a colonial power. Americans who admire Israel for its courage and democratic ideals are troubled by its subjugation of another people.
As long as the terrorist group, the Palestine Liberation Organization, was these people's chief champion, it was easier for Americans to stay on the Israelis' side. But for the past couple of years Palestinian residents themselves, using rocks and bottles, have arrayed themselves against the occupiers. The result has been an increasing incidence of police and army brutality in the territories, and increased American sympathy for Palestinians.
The human-rights group Amnesty International reports that in 1989, "Over 260 unarmed Palestinian civilians, including children, were shot dead by Israeli forces, often in circumstances suggesting excessive use of force or deliberate killings. Others died in incidents where tear gas was possibly deliberately misused." Additionally, says the report, thousands of Palestinians were arrested and beaten while in the hands of Israeli forces.
Such actions not only brutalize the occupiers; they arouse qualms of conscience. There has been increasing protest within Israel itself about the conduct of the occupation. But the country's divided government has not found the will to negotiate straightforwardly with the Palestinians.
The Arabs have not shown signs of being peaceable either, and Israel continues to fear, rightly, for its security. Still, Israel today lives with paradox. The Hebrew Scriptures resonate with lamentations for a lost homeland and ring with cries for justice. The modern nation was founded as a homeland for displaced and persecuted Jews. Now Palestinians call out for justice, and the oppressed have become oppressive.
As long as this paradox remains unresolved, Israel will have no peace, and the foundations of its alliance with America will weaken. Both are dismaying prospects.
by CNB