Strange Way to Seek Peace

Israel builds yet another settlement on Arab land

Even for a parliament that is notoriously rowdy and undisciplined, one session of the Israeli Knesset last week was unusual. Agriculture Minister Ariel Sharon, who is known as his country's "settlement czar," gleefully baited and ridiculed opposition members who attacked the Cabinet's decision to establish a new Jewish settlement at Elon Moreh on the occupied West Bank. Not only will the settlement be located, in part, on privately owned Arab land, opposition M.P.s argued, but it will also be within a mile of the populous Arab town of Nablus. Sharon blithely dismissed opponents of Elon Moreh as a "fifth column" bent on sabotaging the dreams of Zionism. When Labor Party members protested that accusation, Sharon snapped: "While you're heckling me here, we lay another meter of pipeline, another kilometer of road, and build another house." Infuriated, Labor Member Adial Amorai screamed again and again at Sharon: "You're infantile!"

The debate reflected the emotion unleashed within Israel by the Cabinet's 8-5 decision on Elon Moreh, and especially by its timing. The action was announced only a few days before talks between Egypt and Israel on autonomy for the West Bank and Gaza Strip were scheduled to begin in Alexandria. U.S. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance described the new settlement as a "hindrance to the peace process" and warned that the timing of the decision was "particularly inappropriate."

The Cabinet move came at a time when tensions between Jews and Arabs on the West Bank have been on the rise. In the past two months there have been a number of clashes between Palestinians and the settlers, in which several Arabs have been killed or injured. Israeli troops have been more active in cracking down on the Arabs than on the settlers. Bir Zeit University, one of three Arab institutions of higher learning on the West Bank, has been closed since May. When residents of Nablus staged a general strike to protest Elon Moreh, soldiers forced shopkeepers to reopen their stores. The old Israeli practice of demolishing the homes of suspected terrorists has been revived.

Many Israelis seem to agree with the West Bank Arabs that the Elon Moreh decision was particularly unfortunate. The independent Tel Aviv daily Ha 'aretz observed that "it is difficult to imagine an act more injurious to Israel than the location, timing and circumstances of the establishment of the Elon Moreh settlement." Members of an organization called Peace Now, which was formed last year to encourage the government to make concessions to Egypt during the peace negotiations, rolled boulders onto a newly built road leading to the settlement.

Labor Party Chairman Shimon Peres last week attacked Premier Menachem Begin's proposal that autonomy should apply only to the Arab people of the West Bank and Gaza but not to the land in which they live. Warned Peres: "Even if the autonomy plan succeeds and there is no frontier within Eretz Yisrael [the biblical land of Israel, including the West Bank], this will lead inevitably to the moral corruption of the nation." Columnist Meir Merhav, writing in the Jerusalem Post, lamented the repression of the West Bankers, concluding: "We are rapidly descending, rung by rung, the ladder of evil. The subjugation of another people is evil." But Begin answered that Israel's right to settle in Judea and Samaria, as he calls the West Bank, is a "vital security need to prevent the murder of our children."

The dispute over Elon Moreh inevitably affected the negotiations in Alexandria last week. Egyptian Premier Mustafa Khalil, who led his country's delegation, branded the creation of the new settlement "detrimental to the peace effort." The Cairo newspaper al Akhbar, which frequently reflects government opinion, called on the U.S. to "cut Mr. Begin down to size and cut off the snake's head before it spits out its venom." In response, the leader of the six-man Israeli delegation, Interior Minister Yosef Burg, complained to his hosts that "talk about snakes and venom can be poisonous to our endeavors."

Elon Moreh was only one reason why the talks got off to a shaky start. The Egyptians were annoyed with Begin for having warned that if the Palestinians ever succeeded in setting up a state on the West Bank, the Israelis would disband it within 24 hours. They were also annoyed with Defense Minister Ezer Weizman, who is generally regarded as the Egyptians' favorite Israeli, for his threat that Israel would recapture the Sinai if the peace treaty broke down. Finally, the Egyptians were a bit upset that the Israeli government had chosen to send only its Interior Minister to head its delegation, while the Egyptians had sent their Premier. The choice of Burg, the Egyptians later decided, was Jerusalem's way of emphasizing the fact that it regards the West Bank and Gaza as part of Israel.

Before leaving Jerusalem, the Israeli delegation faced still another problem: it had been booked into Alexandria's unsuitably named Palestine Hotel, which happens to be the city's most modern inn. After a quick discussion, the Israelis decided it would be more politic to stay at the old San Stefano Hotel. Winston Churchill stopped there during World War II, and Richard Burton once ran up a memorable bill at the bar while he wooed Elizabeth Taylor during the filming of Cleopatra. The only trouble was that the San Stefano had neither air conditioning nor much protection against mosquitoes and flies. As they left for home a day later, some delegation members were heard to remark that the next time they would stay at the Palestine, and the name be damned. That struck some observers as the most significant progress of the session.

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