ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, December 24, 1996 TAG: 9612240079
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A4 EDITION: METRO
BECAUSE WAR, not peace, is the constant in the Middle East, it isn't surprising, but it still is lamentable, that prospects for peace have narrowed sharply this year. The latest blow was Israel's absurd decision to offer new incentives for settlements in the occupied West Bank.
This is a terrible mistake. New settlements, because they undercut Palestinians' hopes of having their own state, could ring the death knell for the peace process initiated by Labor governments headed by Yitzhak Rabin (assassinated) and Shimon Peres (defeated in elections).
The settlements policy offers the strongest evidence so far that Israel's Likud government, headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, wants to repudiate even the goal of a negotiated peace with the Palestinians. It also suggests an urgent need for President Clinton and others to talk directly, and frankly, with Netanyahu, to apply what leverage they can to dissuade Israel from this disastrous course.
It is disastrous because both sides are caught in a cycle of overreactions, which can have no happy end. Netanyahu's opening of an archaeological tunnel in sensitive Jerusalem earlier this year was a provocation as intentional as it was needless; Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat overreacted by winking while Palestinian police fired on Israeli soldiers. Palestinian terrorists earlier this month staged a drive-by killing of an Israeli settler mother and her son on the West Bank; Netanyahu overreacted with the incentive policy, including tax breaks, for new settlements in the territories.
This vicious cycle is aggravated, and its momentum boosted, by each side's failure to repudiate extremist, fundamentalist elements who cling to old fantasies about land: the Palestinians' blood-drenched dream of restoration in Israel, the Israelis' blood-drenched dream of biblical restoration.
Meanwhile, the extremes reinforce each other, holding the peace process hostage because they can always create an incident to provoke or terrorize. Those on both sides who would hope and work for accommodation need to give each other more support against the enemies of peace.
The United States cannot, of course, dictate policy to Israel's duly elected government, nor should it try. But as chief patron of the peace process and chief supporter of Israel, America needs to revisit the Bush administration's policy of tying loan guarantees to Israeli settlement policies.
This is no time for arms-length exhortation. Clinton needs to remind Netanyahu, in person, and more vigorously than he has done so far with mild statements of disapproval, that Israel's only path to security and foreign investment remains a swap of land for peace.
There is still cause to hope for peace in the holy land. One day, surely, it will come. But the region's long, tortured history suggests hope must be supported by the actions of people of good will. When the peace process isn't moving forward, even in fits and starts, a reversion to violence and war is the likeliest prospect.
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