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The Superpowers Are the Key
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16809 |
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CURRENT ISSUES
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9 / 1989 |
2,422 Words |
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Frank E. Vandiver
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Nothing about the Israeli-Palestinian problem is easy. Local crises magnify maddeningly into issues of global war. And it will probably be superpower attitudes that finally determine whether there will be a Palestinian state. From widely different beginnings, U.S. and Soviet positions have slowly converged.
Both sides now profess belief in Israel's right to peaceful existence, in Palestinian self-determination, in a Middle Eastern settlement based on UN Security Council resolutions 242 (calling for Israeli abandonment of land taken in the 1967 war in return for peaceful Arab recognition) and 348 (calling on all parties to settle differences by negotiation), and in the possibility of a future international conference to settle the "final status of peace arrangements."
Difficult questions plague superpower views on how things can proceed among Israel, the Arab states, and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). And the superpowers are not entirely free to use their power in the Middle East. Soviet policy must acknowledge the views of such allies as Syria, Libya, and the PLO. U.S. policy must reflect the U.S. "special relationship" with Israel.
As the major friend that Israel has left in the international community, the United States has often stood against UN resolutions condemning Israel for supposed infractions of international standards of state conduct. And only generous help from the United States keeps the Israeli economy going and sustains its strong military force.
Congress frequently appropriates more money for aid to Israel than the president asks for and directs the administration to convert loans to grants. Total U.S. government aid to Israel, military and economic, now stands at about $3 billion per year, or about $1,000 for every Jewish resident. Moreover, about half of this aid comes as grants, not loans. And these figures do not include private contributions by U.S. citizens, which amount to almost another billion dollars per year.
The Soviet-Arab Relationship
The Soviet Union was initially indifferent to the Arab-Israeli situation. It voted for the UN resolution creating Israel in 1948 and supplied arms to the new Jewish state during the first Arab-Israeli war and the 1950s. But early PLO attempts to establish a Soviet relationship were rebuffed, causing the PLO to look to China for arms. As late as 1966, the Soviets turned down a request for a PLO office in Moscow, condemning then PLO chief Ahmad Shukeiry as "an extremist" and characterizing the PLO as "the most backward element of the Arab nationalist movement."
Soviet-PLO relations improved following Yasser Arafat's assumption of PLO leadership in 1969, but Moscow continued to support UN Security Council Resolution 242 at a time when the PLO and most Arabs opposed this concept.
Only since 1974 has the Soviet Union favored establishment of an independent Palestinian state on the West Bank and Gaza. Prior to this time, Soviet policy toward the Palestinians was primarily one of concern for the rights of refugees to return to their homes in Israel and Arab states to reclaim occupied
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