ON THE ROAD TO PEACE

...It is necessary to wait for the hatred and bitterness, accumulated in 26 years of bloody struggles, to fade away...

...If anything bound us together, it was an unspoken sense that we were more concerned with becoming Yalies than with immersing ourselves in Judaism...

...Consequently, the only way in which such an initiative could succeed would be to set the peace-versus-territory barter as its ultimate long-term goal, to be carried out by stages only after prescribed interim agreements have been implemented...

...A " d o nothing" policy, coupled with Arab threats to revive the oil weapon and Sadat's ostensible moderation, would further alienate Americans from Israel's cause...

...The very existence of Israel is an affront to Arab rights...

...At Yale, you see, where pluralism is regularly applauded but then skillfully co-opted, there is no one more conspicuous than a Lubavitch fundamentalist riding shotgun on a mitzvah mobile...

...At any rate, we were Jews from different places and, presumably, different backgrounds: I Mark Singer, a 1972 graduate of Yale, is on the staff of THE NEW YORKER...

...When asked what the contents of such a treaty would be, he said it would be a "non-belligerency pact...

...Next Time We Shall Come As T o u r i s t s . The Israeli public overwhelmingly supported the disengagement and withdrawal, despite the L i k u d ' s vociferous opposition...

...Consently, the most likely result would either a stalemate—as Mr...

...If, by sheer magic, Israel could get peace—the real thing—in return for withdrawal, overwhelming support would be assured...

...Some who say no do so because they have encountered the Lubavitch previously and now wish to avoid being reminded of which of the holy precepts they have recently violated...

...Indeed, it can be contended that the Rhodes Accord of 1949 was signed in an atmosphere far more cordial than today's, and surely more optimistic...

...Why should they give up their longcherished aim of annihilating Israel at a time when they are economically and politically stronger than ever before...

...in fact, the first Arab victory in hundreds of years...

...Foreigners may debate this proposition...

...Kissinger's shuttle diplomacy efforts...

...photos of the Ma'alot carnage and the Savoy Hotel outrage obliterated the memory of the handshakes at km...

...From Hope to Deadlock And then, fear of war gradually replaced talk of peace...

...the Arab rulers would avoid having to make immediate total peace with the Jewish State...

...Later, President Sadat took special pains to point out the true nature of the disengagement a c c o r d . In an interview with a Lebanese journal, he said, "When we confirmed the disengagement agreement I did not sign it with Israel but with America...

...A Jew at Yale To begin, a vignette: It is a Sunday afternoon in the early spring of 1975 in New Haven, Connecticut, and music is wafting — actually erupting — from the carillon housed within Harkness Tower, the neo-Gothic spire that marks the center of the Yale campus...

...The Middle East News Agency, Cairo, May 6, 1974...

...Demilitarization in the populous areas of the West Bank is much more difficult to control and inspect than in the vast emptiness of Sinai...

...The Arab world, as all experts had long insisted, is a "shame socie t y " in which pride plays a crucial role, a role unknown in the modern West, which is instead — so say the experts — a "guilt society...

...In the days immediately following the Yom Kippur War it became almost holy writ, and it greatly influenced Israeli public opinion...

...an such a policy achieve someg more than calling the Arab bluff improving Israel's public relais...

...Used by the parties to the dispute in different senses, their meaning depends — in Humpty Dumpty fashion — more on the user than on the dictionary definition...

...Indeed, there are many ominous statements that suggest exactly the opposite...

...The rebuilding of the Canal Zone cities and the opening of the Suez Canal are indicative of C a i r o 's desire for a continuing nonwar...

...Except for a minority motivated by religious belief, most Israelis see the fate of the territories as a security and defense issue...

...On the answer to these questions hinges Israel's response to future political moves...

...Israelis are being expected to give up strategic territory while being treated as untouchables...

...c. Go to Geneva and offer the Arabs a complete trade-off: peace for territories, to be Whether or not Sadat can be described as a moderate vis-a-vis Washington and the Western World, his attitude towards Israel remains as intransigent as ever...

...Such a policy would mean that the Israel Government would have to refrain from laying down any territorial imperatives and foresake its almost Pavlovian 3 idea of gradual withdrawals and headway tord peace could be linked to a total scheme in the :hange of territories . . . in return f o r . . . a viable d durable peace...

...Egypt would not be accused of having allowed an Israeli wedge to be driven between her and the other Arab confrontation states...

...One only has to mention the words "Jerusalem" and "Palestinians" to visualize the pitfalls ahead...

...Nor is it at all certain that Egypt would even agree to demilitarize Sinai...

...to Israelis, exposed in their own living rooms and cars to a The traditional Arab rejection of Israel never had any relation to Israel's territory or pol icy...

...The significance of present Egyptian attitudes—heralded by the world press as marvelously flexible—has led many Israelis to reassess the Arab " h o n o r " theory...

...The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many different things...

...I shall let the next generation decide for itself whether it is possible not only to coexist with the Jewish State but also to cooperate with it...

...President Sadat is consistently frank about this aspect — even in his statements to Western journalists...

...Thus, for example, the statement issued by the Arab Socialist Union — Egypt's only political party — after the opening of the Geneva Conference, says that "the struggle between Egypt and the Arab world on the one side, and Zionism on the other side, is a struggle between two different civilizations and therefore a struggle for generations...

...One might, of course, dismiss Arab propaganda describing Israel as " a cancerous growth within the Arab b o d y " as sheer rhetoric...

...In January 1974, a state of genuinely heightened optimism prevailed...

...Egyptian leaders and intellectuals have drawn upon pan-Arab ideology for inspiration...

...ON THE ROAD TO PEACE AMNION RUBINSTEIN The Question Above the complexities of the Middle East and the details of the latest round of negotiations, above apportioning blame for the failure of Dr...

...It remains to be seen whether this currently impossible magic can be made real by the painstaking efforts of political bargaining...

...euphoria gave way to a sense of quiet despair, confirmed by the failure of Dr...

...The stunning Arab advances in the initial stage of the war and the respectable performance of the Egyptian and Syrian armies were supposed to have redeemed the famous Arab honor, and thereby removed a central psychological stumbling block from the road to peace...

...The Arab-Israeli Conflict: Risks and Opportunities, Ed...

...I like to think of much of my experience as a paradigm...

...Others say no not because they've heard the Lubavitch spiel before, but, rather, because to be seen t a l k i n g with a pair of properly b e a r d e d , frock-coated Chassidim means to have one's Jewishness confronted, acted upon...

...This indeed is official Egyptian policy: full Israeli withdrawal coupled with satisfaction of the vague and yet undefined "legitimate rights of the Palestinians" in return for mere promises...

...The Arabs would be rid of the gnawing suspicion that interim arrangements are designed to establish a new territorial status quo...

...on November 11, 1973, Israel and Egypt signed the cease fire accord...

...In this respect, the adjective "moderate" is apt...

...Even at the height of animosity between the United States and the People's Republic of China, the closest possible analogy in our time, there were direct contacts between the consuls of the two nations at Warsaw...

...Thus, to cite one case out of many, he says to Eric Rouleau of Le Monde, on January 22, 1975: "It is too early to talk of diplomatic relations and open borders...

...Thus, for instance, an Israeli military presence along the Jordan River, linking north and south Israel, could conceivably be accepted by the Arabs if compensated by a road linking the West Bank with the Gaza Strip, which would give the Palestinians free and open access to the Mediterranean...

...A Yale undergraduate I 'm not sure what the Lubavitch have found at Yale, but I suspect they've come to realize that whatever palpable Jewish "community" exists is a rela...

...It simply wasn't an issue that preoccupied me then...

...I once proposed that parts of Sinai be returned to Egypt in return for components of peace...

...In the March Kissinger talks, Cairo refused to accept any proposal which would involve direct contact or cooperation with Israelis, such as the creation of mutual inspection teams for a demilitarized zone or the sale to Israel of oil from the Abu Rhodeis oil fields once these are returned to Egypt...

...In retrospect, I see that I was probably a prime candidate for the Hillel course titled "Judaism for Friendly Skeptics," but the timing didn't seem right...

...This thesis, derived partly from simplistic sociological dichotomies, partly from ordinary day-to-day experience, was — and still is — widely expounded by Middle East experts...

...Arab Honor Given these circumstances, it may well be argued that the "peace treaty" offered by President Sadat to Israel is, to all intents and purposes, a new armistice agreement...

...The thesis was reinforced by bits and pieces of supporting " e v i d e n c e . " Thus, President Sadat spoke in the wake of the Egyptian crossing of the Canal of peaceful coexistence with Israel...

...Through the Looking Glass...

...However (as I argued the time), the meeting was not only •gently needed by Egypt in order to ive its besieged Third Army but was so in line with consistent Nasserite ilicy...

...That policy insisted that direct ice-to-face negotiations between Islel and Egypt could take place only irough military channels and within le Mixed Armistice Commission esiblished by the Rhodes Agreement of 949...

...What should we make of President Sadat's gestures of moderation, such as the opening of the Suez Canal...

...So unseemly...

...One must use simple, everyday terms, because the terms " p e a c e " and "peace treaty" have, in the ArabIsrael context, lost their common and ordinary meanings...

...If there were a way to ensure Arab non-belligerency leading eventually to rapprochement in "the next generat i o n , " many Israelis would accept such an arrangement...

...Can a token military victory eliminate or even erode a policy which has been part and parcel of Arab nationalism and culture for the last quarter of a century...

...The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master—that's all...

...In the history of international relations there is neither precedent for nor analogy with such a total boycott...

...That rejection has, instead, taken the form of a total refusal to face the very idea of a Jewish State...

...Nor have internal developments in the Arab world substantiated the view that it is preparing for a more benign attitude towards Israel...

...The km...

...All three alternatives involve risks and dangers...

...Pronouncements such as those recently made by Mr...

...In the latest round of negotiations Egypt rejected the principle that all territories evacuated by the Israelis be demilitarized, and insisted on moving its armies forward...

...It is not the purpose of this article to describe or lay down such possible substantive solutions but rather to point out that a scheduled, graduated approach is perhaps the only remaining escape route from a state of endless conflict...

...In what the Arabs call the Ramadan War, Egypt won a military victory — an initial and partial one, but nevertheless a victory...

...It was Israel which refused from te mid-fifties to attend this forum, isisting instead on direct political egotiations...

...A Plan for the Sinai—Something Less than Peace in Return for Something Less than Total Withdrawal," The New York Times Sunday Magazine, January 17, 1971...

...Milson adds: " T h e concept of Arab and Palestinian rights is understood in a way which totally negates Israel's right to exist...

...on January 17, 1974, Israel and Egypt signed a separation of forces agreement drawn up in face-toface negotiations between Israeli and Egyptian Generals in that famous U.N...

...Two things seem to be equally clear...

...Only the resuscitation of Arab honor would provide the Arabs — and particularly Egypt — the self-confidence to face the Israelis as men to men...

...Such a gradual process, according to a plan laid down by the parties, would have many advantages...

...However, he points out that honor is not an autonomous and independent concept but is closely tied up and allied with the fundamental issue of " r i g h t s . " There is no honor unless it serves the rights of the family, the tribe or the nation...

...The present was sent through U.N...

...Two members of New H a v e n 's L u b a v i t c h Chassidic settlement emerge from the truck — otherwise known as the "mitzvah mobile" — and station themselves on opposite sides of the street...

...Therefore, the one critical question remains: Has the Yom Kippur War brought about a change in attitude on the part of the Arab world in general, of Egypt in particular...

...The contention underlying their declarations is that there can be no compromise between national Arab ideology and Zionism...

...Israel faces an ArabSoviet-Third World alliance and must do everything possible, short of imperiling its fundamental security, in order to preserve the bond with the U.S...

...That proposal was made when Israel was at the height of its (partly imaginary) power and before Arab solidarity acquired its new post-1973 strength...

...According to President Sadat—acclaimed as the most moderate of Arab rulers—peace with Israel excludes diplomatic relations, open borders and, in effect, all the attributes of a state of peaceful coexistence between nations...

...That rejection has, instead, taken the form of a total refusal to face the very idea of a Jewish State — any Jewish State, in any form, shape or size — in what the Arabs regard as Arab land...

...second, at the same time, Egypt's leaders would like to avert war...

...We have more of everything...

...There is hardly any evidence supporting hopes for a more amicable Arab "next generation...

...Long Live Peace...

...The Arab boycott of Israel is total and it relates to everything Israeli...

...The absolute rejection of Israel is an experience unique in history and, despite scholarly attempts to the contrary, cannot be classified under any known categories of national conflict...

...As supplicants for political and moral support, the Palestinians enjoy a special status in the Arab world...

...officers without any publicity, as a Dersonal gesture of good will...

...101 — an event which many believed was the first milestone on the road to peace...

...It would improve Israel's ge and consequently increase erican support for Israel—in pubopinion, on Capitol Hill, among lion makers...

...In retrospect, it seems that even the km...

...The meeting at the famous tent was cordial and the sight of gh-ranking officers fraternizing with ich other was naturally a heartarming event...

...The burden of proof lies on those who maintain that the Arabs are so Amnon Rubinstein, a former dean of Tel Aviv Law School, is a well-known Israeli columnist...

...Whether or not Sadat can rightly be described as a moderate vis-a-vis Washington and the Western World, his attitude towards Israel remains as intransigent as ever...

...I do remember once counting the Jews living in the entryway of my dormitory— there were eleven out of twenty-six — but the figure didn't strike me as being significantly high...

...On buildings left behind, Israeli soldiers scrawled their farewell graffiti to the Egyptians: Welcome Home...

...Such a solution has some advantages: it would enable the Geneva Conference to meet in a seemingly relaxed atmosphere, but it is doubtful whether it would achieve anything more than "gaining t i m e , " after which Israel would find itself back in square one...

...First and above all, there is the inescapable conclusion that " p e a c e " in Arab terminology implies something totally different from its conventional meaning...

...They hope instead to force Israel to relinquish the administered territories — and especially Sinai — by exerting political pressure...

...The first—the "do nothing and stay p u t " option—might weaken and erode the American commitment to Israel and would surely intensify Israel's international isolation...

...Arab solidarity does not allow any Arab state to relinquish an interest which has been recognized as an Arab right...

...Statistics dictate that every third or fourth passerby should answer, " Y e s , " but hardly that many do...

...Having grown up in a city in the Midwest where Jews make up less than one percent of the population, I hardly expected that in New Haven, only seventy-five miles from New York City in body and spirit, I would be made to feel self-conscious about my Jewishness...

...came from Oklahoma, someone else was from Canada, another boy from Maine, others from Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and, of course, several from New York...

...Upon the conclusion of the ac:ord, General Yariv sent a present— in old bible in Arabic — to General Uamazy, his Egyptian counterpart...

...Professor Moshe Maoz, of the Hebrew University Middle East Department, has this to say about the post-War atmosphere in Egypt: "Books, plays, periodicals and movies with anti-Semitic themes have appeared in Egypt since the war...

...Avigdor Levy, Tel Aviv, 1975...

...Fahmy, Egypt's Foreign Minister, that Jewish immigration to Israel must be restricted could not conceivably have been made at that time...

...Public statements have been made denouncing Zionism as "racist and the enemy of humanity and civilization" and calling upon Arabs to espouse the extermination of Zionism as a universal humanistic duty...

...Moreover, some doubts have been cast on the very validity of the " h o n o r " theory...

...Kissinger calls a new "objective reality...

...The Prospects How, then, should one assess the prospects for a modus vivendi in the Middle East...

...continuous torrent of vitriolic propaganda emanating from Damascus and Cairo Radio, it is an elementary truth...

...How can we reconcile our need for optimism, for some ray of light in an otherwise dark arena, with our sense of realism and with what we read and hear in the Arab camp...

...Egypt itself is in bad economic shape and the danger of "Indianization," of Cairo becoming another Calcutta, is quite real...

...It would alter Israel's ;nsive posture and would transn it from a defendant reluctant to i up territories into a plaintiff delding peace...

...Rabin *s—or an Israeli readiness to be tent with something less than total ce—as Professor Hoffman suggests...

...Only a massive flow of capital investment, which depends in turn on stability, can prevent such a destiny...

...Indeed, it seems that Israel can only stand to gain from taking such an initiative, accepting unambiguously the Security Council's Resolutions 242 and 338 and fully recognizing Palestinian self-determination on the basis of reciprocity...

...Early Hopes After the traumatic events of October 1973 a paradoxical wave of optimism swept Middle East observers...

...achieved in one stroke or by stages...

...K's mission, looms one crucial question: Can an Israeli withdrawal from territories captured in the Six-Day War bring about an Arab change of heart and a process such as "making u p" with Israel...

...But can one ignore the long and consistent record of behavior which corroborates the rhetoric...

...He is one of the leaders of the new political party "Shinui" (Change...

...As it has every Sunday afternoon for several months, an oversized white panel truck pulls u p o n the High Street sidewalk and parks beneath the tower, at the entrance gate to Branford College, one of Yale's twelve undergraduate residential communities...

...ment that there be no withdrawal 1 the Golan Heights, Sharm El kh or other parts of the adminisi territories...

...Are the Arabs ready to be reconciled, however gradually, to a Jewish State within its pre-Six-Day War boundaries...

...Israel's defensive strip along the Jordan River is the last section which could be militarily evacuated without compromising the security of the country's heartland...

...When the Israelis withdrew from the Canal Zone, television cameras recorded not an air of ignominious defeat but rather an atmosphere of festivity...

...For the next few hours, whenever a suitably Semiticappearing student walks by, the men approach and ask the inevitable question: " A r e you Jewish...

...i n c l i n e d . Israel, in its shrunken pre-1967 form, was, after all, subject to constant Arab menace — in word and deed—no less vicious and frightening than that which it faces today...

...on December 21, 1973, the Geneva Peace Conference — at which Israelis and Egyptians sat together (at least in the same room) —opened in the glare of television cameras...

...What remains, then, is the third alternative—an attempt by Israel to take the initiative and seek a breakthrough for a total settlement of the dispute on all fronts and all issues...

...It is pointed out that the heralded psychological change has been far less dramatic than the new reality, a reality whose central aspect is that the Arabs have acquired power undreamt of a short while ago...

...This course has recently been advoc a t e d by Theodore Draper in Commentary (April 1975), Eugene V. Rostow in New Republic (April 4, 1975), Stanley Hoffman in Foreign Affairs (Spring, 1975) and by Abba Eban in public speeches and interviews...

...What went wrong...

...However, from the Israeli point of view, the crucial fact is that Egypt refuses not only to make real peace but even to start moving towards it...

...Yet, of all possible ops, this seems to be the only feasible out and the most beneficial course ction from Israel's point of view, worst—if totally rejected by the bs—the Israeli initiative would cally change the state of Israel's lie relations and would place the ne for the deadlock squarely on the b side...

...Theoretically, there are three alternative solutions: a. Maintain the status quo and prepare for the worst — i.e., another war—from the best possible territorial vantage point...

...The interim solution can serve at best as a temporary palliative and, at the worst, would rob Israel of trump cards which it could otherwise use in Geneva in return for something more substantial...

...Had I at some time during my four years at Yale been stricken with a crisis of the spirit, chances are I would have gone to see William Sloane Coffin, the University Chaplain, before I would have dropped in on the Hillel rabbi...

...We have more Jews who are religious and more who don't observe at all...

...When I graduated in 1972, the mitzvah mobile still had not arrived, but it must have been around this time that the Lubavitcher Rebbe in Crown Heights realized that there was a mass of ripe, young, lapsed Jewish students at Yale and so, after a fashion, told his l i e u t e n a n t s , " G e t thee to New H a v e n ." ' Whatever you want to say about the Jews at Yale, there's more of it...

...Al-Beyrak, Beirut, January 9, 1975...

...He agrees that psychological factors play an extremely important role and that honor has a unique place in Arab society...

...And yet, it seems that a scheduled phased settlement is the only way out of what has become the world's most notorious impasse...

...This description is not shared by all observers, and many experts, such as Nadav Safran, have sensed a new political climate towards Israel among the Egyptian i n t e l l i g e n t s i a . Yet throughout the Arab world there is not one single unequivocal voice advocating present or future reconciliation with Israel...

...Everything depends on Israel's behavior after the conclusion of a peace treaty...

...Given patience, t i m e , good will and—above all —Arab recognition that the Arabs cannot regain territory without learning to live with Israel, many problems shed their apparent insolubility...

...Israel's Options How should Israel react to this new combination of Arab might and alleged moderation...

...Make Love, Not War...

...The Arab refusal to make up n Israel will in all likelihood persist the immediate future...

...In other words, the idea of gradual withdrawals and headway towards peace could be linked to a total scheme culminating in the exchange of territories—with minor alterations, which are generally agreed upon—in return for the establishment of a viable and durable peace between Israel and its neighbors...

...Egypt has, after all, paid a heavy price for a conflict from which it is geographically and emotionally more removed than the other Arab confrontation states...

...First, there is no Arab readiness to offer real peace in return for territory...

...Moreover, applied to the West Bank, such a phased solution would have to be something different from a frontal Israeli withdrawal as applicable to Sinai...

...It is highly doubtful whether Egypt would today agree to any solution which would exclude the Palestinians and the other Arab-Israeli fronts...

...2 s i p a AT YALE ' Whenever I hear about some wonderful, grand Yale football game that was played in the I890's, I think of where my family was in the I890's — in a ghetto in Bialystock...

...b. Resume the failed Kissinger talks in order to try to achieve an interim agreement with Egypt...

...government and the American people...

...A new war would endanger the fruit of that single, and probably u n r e p e a t a b l e , feat...

...tent at km...

...The preamble to that Accord was, in fact, more positive with regard to a future peace than even the most forthcoming statement by the most moderate Arab leader of the present period...

...Any bright hopes pinned on the ' 101 turning point" were dashed soon ifter...

...101 tent was, in ssence, a glorified Mixed Armistice Commission, the only difference eing that generals replaced the colmels of yesteryear...

...Such a policy—advocated by Herut and the other elements of the extreme Israeli right—seems totally unrealistic...

...The second alternative—the resumption of the Kissinger t a l k s— could produce, at best, an interim s o l u t i o n in which Egypt would undertake, in return for another Israeli withdrawal, to refrain from starting a war during a limited period of time...

...Menahem Milson, a senior lecturer in the Hebrew University Arab Culture Department, describes this theory as a half-truth...

...It would further mean that each step in this scheduled settlement would be carried out only upon the satisfactory completion of the preceding one...

...101 ambience and the Geneva ceremony were highly overrated events...

...Needless to say, there are almost insurmountable obstacles in the way of such a phased solution...

...Such unnecessary :ments have removed much of the len of responsibility for the ongo:onflict from the Arabs, and have ed it, at least ostensibly, at least •ally, on Israel's shoulders, uch a policy, too, has its pitfalls, ing once accepted the principle of ;ral withdrawal, Israel might be sed by way of the well-known mi tactics to give up its demand for I peace...

...Since they are recognized as the weak and deprived brothers, they are treated in the interArab arena as if they were family members who have been robbed by strangers and seek the help of their stronger r e l a t i v e s . " (Ma'ariv, Tel Aviv, May, 1975...

...It was returned publicly, accompanied by a humiliating snub...

...Withdrawal from most of the territories in return for a mere "peace treaty"—in effect, another armistice agreement—would justifiably be rejected by the great majority of Israelis, and is therefore impractical...

...When I arrived at Yale as a freshman in the fall of 1968, there was no mitzvah mobile, or, for that matter, any other brand of Jewish proselytizers to make my life complicated...

...The traditional Arab rejection of Israel never had any relation to Israel's territory or policy...

...Such a policy, if successful, would win the support of the great majority of Israelis...

...Yet it is precisely the next generation and future moves on the part of the Arabs which worry Israelis...

...Has the Arab " v i c t o r y " in October 1973 — a victory at least in the political and economic sense — produced a crack in the wall of total rejection...

...What can Israel do in the face of what Dr...

...To Israelis it would mean that any withdrawals would, on the one hand, be tied to security and demilitarization arrangements which would minimize the dangers to its defense and, on the other hand, would signify movement towards eventual peace and co-existence...