EUGENE ROSTOW
EUGENE ROSTOW GUEST COLUMNIST The territories occupied by Israel in 1967 were made the pledge for peace. That is why Israel is still administering them. American opinion, particularly opinion...
...The United States and Egypt support Shamir's proposal in principle, and are now tied up in knots about who should hold such an election, who should vote in the election and the role, if any, of the PLO...
...To my mind, the election procedure now under discussion has already shown it is incapable of reaching the goal of resolutions 242 and 338—peace between Israel and the states of the region...
...The mission of such a delegation would be to negotiate with Israel the possibility of reaching agreement on a plan that would provide for a degree of local self-government in part of those territories, in accordance with the Camp David agreements, and prepare the ground for the possibility within five years of negotiating a permanent agreement of peace pursuant to Security Council resolutions 242 and 338...
...This round of trouble can be overcome by patience, measured force and diplomacy...
...recognition by the Arab states of Israel's right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries, free from threats or acts of force...
...Egypt kept none of these promises...
...Prime Minister Shamir has proposed a plan for electing residents of the area to constitute that delegation...
...It will be destroyed sooner or later, some Europeans say, as their own overseas colonies were destroyed...
...The reason for the package deal is obvious, but has been neglected by those whose responsibility it is to keep the public informed...
...Israel is occupying the administered areas pursuant to a legally binding decision of the Security Council of the United Nations—that is, by the unanimous vote of the great powers and of the rotating members of the Council...
...These murders alone make a mockery of the assurances on which the American talks with the PLO are based, and impose an intolerable moral burden on the United States...
...Israel gave up 90 percent of the occupied territories in the peace treaty with Egypt...
...Israel is not a colony, however, but a nation, forged in bitter struggles that have now lasted for a century or more...
...American opinion, particularly opinion among American Jews, is troubled by the intifada—the spectacle of young people throwing rocks against armed soldiers...
...The plan called for an economic union, special arrangements for Jerusalem and as much political cooperation as the traffic would bear...
...People of this persuasion see Israel as a European colony imposed by force in an Islamic area...
...This peace should rest on two principles—Israeli withdrawal from some but not necessarily all the territories occupied during the Six-Day War, and Eugene Rostov) is visiting professor of law and diplomacy at the National Defense University in Washington, D. C. He joined the Yale University faculty in New Haven, Conn., in 1938, and has been a member ever since (including a decade as dean of Yale Law School, 1955-1965), with periods of leave for public service...
...His publications include The Ideal in Law (Univ...
...I have often heard it said, especially in Europe, that the Balfour Declaration was a noble dream that has failed...
...It is no wonder that many well-meaning Americans ask why the Israelis can't simply yield to the demonstrators' demands and walk out of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip...
...Rostow was Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs from 1966 to 1969, and director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency from 1981 to 1983...
...That decision, embodied in Security Council resolutions 242 and 338, ratifies a package deal made in 1967 after the Six-Day War: Israel should remain in occupation of these territories until the states of the area make a just and lasting peace with Israel—as Egypt did ten years ago...
...The best diplomatic solution that has ever been proposed for the tangled problem of Palestine remains Israel's 1967 plan for a federation between Jordan and Israel, with the territories now in dispute divided between them...
...Dean Rusk, then secretary of state, said that when Nasser closed the Strait of Tiran in 1967, "he cut our throat from ear to ear...
...On the basis of the public record, I ROSTOW continued from previous page also suggest that the Administration should discontinue its policy of holding talks with the PLO...
...The struggles of 1989 are nothing compared with those of 1921, or 1929, or the 1930s or 1948...
...that is, they are defying the Security Council resolutions, and all that lies behind them...
...The reason is simple: The PLO continues to carry out terrorist activities in Israel and the occupied territories, and has murdered more than 100 Palestinian Arabs suspected of willingness to cooperate with the Israeli authorities in developing an election plan...
...of Chicago Press, 1978), The Sovereign Prerogative: The Supreme Court and the Quest for Law (Greenwood, 1974) and Law, Power and the Pursuit of Peace (Book Demand, 1966...
...Instead we should encourage Israel, as the occupying power, to institute a program of troop redeployment and Arab autonomy at the level of local government within parts of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip...
...So it was agreed that if Egypt used force to close the Strait of Tiran to Israeli shipping, Israel could use force in self-defense...
...In 1957, after the Suez crisis of 1956, the United States acted as mediator between Egypt and Israel in obtaining Israeli withdrawal from the Sinai in exchange for Nasser's promise to do several things: to allow Israeli use of the Suez Canal and the Strait of Tiran, to stop guerrilla raids against Israel from its territory, and to make peace...
...We will gladly take our share of the refugees," they add...
...The intifada can cause pain, but it cannot bring an Arab victory unless Israel and its supporters in the West lose their nerve...
...Israel, the United States and Egypt are trying to find a way to pick a delegation representing the people who live in the territories...
...This is a goal both the United States and Israel oppose, and about which Jordan, Egypt and Syria are reserved, to say the least...
...At the moment, the demonstrators of the intifada are asking Israel to withdraw from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip without peace...
...Under Rusk's leadership, the territories occupied by Israel in 1967 were made the pledge for peace...
...In the West, certain sectors of opinion show signs of panic...
...That is why Israel is still administering the territories...
...But for the moment, there is no substitute for patience and fortitude on the part of Israel and her supporters...
...The Israeli occupation cannot and should not end until the states of the area agree on peace...
...Objectively, however, the situation of Israel is much better than it has been during many earlier phases of that war...
...Without Egypt, the Arab states cannot wage a real war against Israel, even if Iraq should join the fray...
...Since the interest of the United States is peace in accordance with resolutions 242 and 338,1 suggest that unless there is a radical change in the Arab position, the best way forward, in consultation with Israel and Egypt, would be to abandon Shamir's plan for the time being...
...How can we take responsibility for the talks about Shamir's election plan when the Arabs who want to follow our advice are being systematically murdered by the PLO...
...At most, it could produce a tiny, unstable and vulnerable third state in the territory of the British Mandate for Palestine...
...The plan was on the table officially for many years, and I am confident that something like it would be acceptable to Israel still...
...And we should concentrate on persuading Jordan, Egypt and other Arab states to play an active role in planning the future of these areas within the framework of the Security Council's resolutions and the political realities in the Middle East...
...The intifada, disturbing as it is, is a sign of Arab weakness, not of strength...
...There is a simple answer to the question, but I have yet to hear it explained in the media or in official speeches...
...There is depression and anxiety both in Israel and in other countries about the conditions produced by the latest phase of the Arabs' prolonged war, first against the existence of the Jewish community in Palestine and later against the existence of Israel...
...For the moment at least, Jordan has withdrawn from participation in the negotiations about these territories...
...Remember that it was put forward by Abba Eban as foreign minister, and backed by a cabinet that included Menachem Begin...
Vol. 15 • February 1990 • No. 1
