SEP 17 '93 06:05PM 2123505146

P.4

IN0413 henry

DEPT. in

of Arafat's torturous journey, which
had finally brought him acceptance
as a world leader on a level with the
other protagonists. President Clin-
ton's dignified chairmanship of the ceremo-
ny and the Russian foreign minister's mini-
mal role also testified to the unchallenged
global leadership that is now America's. <--

[15]

Only the most churlish or fanatical would
refuse to join the almost palpable hope ex-
pressed at that historic ceremony. On the
other hand, statesmen who base their poli-
cy on the expectation of recurrent miracles
usually suffer shipwreck. In the years
ahead, the idyll on the White House lawn
can only be fulfilled if all the parties con-
cerned apply its spirit to resolving the nag-
ging questions which remain. For example,
what exactly was being recognized by each
party? Was it premature (however un-
avoidable) to invest Arafat with the aura of
a head of state three years after his support
of Iraq in the Gulf War, and on the basis of
"granting" Israel a status that is the auto-
matic prerogative of nearly every other na-
tion? Was the euphoria in which we all

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["SEP 17 '93 06:05PM 2123505146", "P.5", "[L.C.]", "IN0413 henry", "DEPT. in", "PAGE-4", "shared a spur to the process? Or will it\nprove an obstacle if it leads to disillusion-\nment after the inevitable deadlocks appear?<--", "[21]", "Whether the agreement leads to greater\nflexibility or greater tension will depend\ncrucially on the United States. Until now,\nevery Arab-Israeli agreement has been bro-\nkered by the United States, and many of the\nformulae leading to solutions were de-\nsigned in Washington. Yet in the phase that\nis now beginning America must not assume\nresponsibility for breaking all the dead-\nlocks, lest it give each party an incentive to\nshift the difficult choices to us. After the\nsigning ceremony, one of the PLO negotia-\ntors said to me that the PLO had learned\nthat American pressure on Israel for specif-\nic concessions usually backfired and that a\nsettlement could be sold best to the Pales-\ntinians if it was freely negotiated. <--", "[17]", "On this occasion, the United States al-\nlowed just that-staying on the sidelines at\ncrucial junctures and even allowing itself to\nremain uninformed. Even now, America is\nnot needed on a daily basis, hard as this", (((MORE))"]

["SEP 17 '93 06:10PM 2123505146", "P.1", "IN0413 henry", "DEPT. in", "may be for some of our more missionary\nexperts to accept. But what America should\ndo-and is the only country in a position to\naccomplish-is to use the confidence of\nboth sides to create the conceptual frame-\nwork for progress. America alone has the\nability to reconcile the clashing notions of\nsovereignty, and perhaps even to create ar-\neas of mixed sovereignty where the popula-\ntions are particularly intermingled. It\nshould hold the line against outside inter-\nvention, making clear to traditional friends,\nespecially to Israel, that the peace process\nstrengthens America's commitment to their\nfuture, and making clear to traditional ad-\nversaries that continued moderation is the\nonly road to progress. <--", "[22]", "#The ceremony at the White House\nwas made possible, paradoxically, by\nexhaustion: material exhaustion on\nthe part of the PLO; psychological\nexhaustion on the part of Israel. This\nis why all the truly contentious issues\nhave been set aside-borders, settle-\nments, refugees, and Jerusalem.\nEven the mutual recognition on", (((MORE)))))"]

SEP 17 '93 06:11PM 2123505146

P.2

IN0413 henry

DEPT. in

which the agreement is based is am-
biguous. Israel has recognized the
PLO but seems to believe that it has
not recognized a Palestinian state
and that it can choose the representa-
tives with whom it is prepared to
deal. This is surely an illusion. I have
in the past expressed grave reserva-
tions about the consequences of cre-
ating a Palestinian state. But after
Arafat has been received at the
White House on an equal footing
with Rabin and elections are held in
the occupied territories, a Palestinian state
is inevitable sooner or later. And its leaders
will emerge from the elections.<-

At the same time, Arafat, with the best
will in the world, will be unable to endow
his recognition with the nearly mystical sig-
nificance given to it by many Israelis. Any
political leader depends on his constituen-
cy. And in the past, the PLO has been an
umbrella organization including terrorists,
rejectionists, and radicals, many of whom
have condemned the agreement and are
unlikely to ever be converted to views con-

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[25]

["IN0413 henry", "DEPT. in", "trary to those of a lifetime. Even granting\nArafat's unreserved commitment to peace,\nthe pressures he faces will make him an\nincreasingly complicated partner. If he pur-\nsues a PLO or radical consensus, he will be\nforced to be ambiguous; if he goes beyond\nhis constituency, he may be removed or\nbecome irrelevant.<-", "[18]", "When the Palestinians recognized Israel,\ndid they mean that they have become genu-\ninely reconciled to its existence? Or was it\nwith the same attitude that France re-\nnounced Alsace-Lorraine to Germany in\n1871, as a stage in a continuing struggle? I\nasked this question of a PLO representative\nafter the signing. He answered: \"I consider\nmyself as coming from Jaffa. My children,\nwho have never lived in Palestine, will also\ntell you they are from Jaffa.\" At the same\ntime, he was voluble—and I believe sin-\ncere—in protesting his yearning for peace. <—", "[13]", "The follow-on negotiations must strive to\nremove this ambivalence. They must make\nclear that there is a point beyond which\nIsrael should not be asked to make conces-", (((MORE))))", "[Lc]", "SEP 17 '93 06:13PM 2123505146", "P.1"]