Editorials
Tuesday, June 25, 1996
Arab summit's effect on
Mideast peace
THE election of the conservative Benjamin Netanyahu as prime minister of Israel has evoked a predictable response from Arab leaders. Meeting in Cairo in the first Arab summit in six years, they called for the establishment of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital and the return of the Golan Heights to Syria. The leaders also warned that Arab-Israeli trade would be affected if Israel abandoned the formula of land for peace.
The Arabs were under no illusion that the new Israeli government would quickly accede to those terms. Netanyahu, who had campaigned on a hard-line platform ruling out precisely those concessions, called the demands voiced in Cairo "incompatible with peace negotiations," and said they "must be removed."
However, the verbal sparring should not be taken to mean that the peace process has broken down. The Arab leaders merely reiterated long-standing goals, providing a measure of moral support for the Palestinians after the conservative victory in the Israeli election. The Arabs had been rooting for the Labor Party's Shimon Peres.
The leaders reminded Netanyahu that these objectives are still being sought despite his election. But if the Arabs haven't caved in before the new right-wing government of Israel, neither can Netanyahu be expected to renounce his platform and abruptly give away what he promised to protect.
Now that both sides have given lip service to their publicly espoused goals, they may be more disposed to get down to business. In an interview with Newsweek magazine, Netanyahu said he would agree to meeting PLO leader Yasser Arafat if he deemed it "important for Israel's security and interests." He added that negotiations toward a final settlement with the Palestinian Authority would continue, "providing it keeps its obligations," including blocking militant attacks against Israel.
He also said he would seek peace with Syria, although it could not be based on withdrawal from the Golan Heights.
An Arafat spokesman said he had received a letter from President Clinton assuring him of Washington's continuing commitment to negotiations. The U.S. must remain engaged in the peace process. The process has gone too far to be reversed, but it could be stalled by intransigence. That is when Washington's influence would be needed.
Netanyahu will not go as far as the defeated Peres in making concessions to the Arabs, but nothing has been said to indicate that he will be unwilling to negotiate - with the proviso that Israel's security must be protected.
Other editorials in brief:
Three strikes and out
DISCRETION in sentencing that was denied judges with California's 1994 "three strikes and you're out" law has been returned. That state's Supreme Court ruled that requiring life prison terms for certain third-time felons deprived judges of their traditional power to dispense justice, ignoring prior convictions when justified. Judges can be judges again.
University lecturers
IN the University of Hawaii system, lecturers are the proletariat of the teaching corps. They are part-time teachers with low pay, few benefits and no job security. More than 300 work at the Manoa campus and hundreds more are scattered throughout the system.
Lecturers deserve a better deal, but they aren't likely to get very far unless the full-time faculty supports them. And those people have shown little interest in the past in anything other than their own welfare.
Published by Liberty Newspapers Limited Partnership
Rupert E. Phillips, CEO
John M. Flanagan, Editor & Publisher
David Shapiro, Managing Editor
Diane Yukihiro Chang, Senior Editor & Editorial Page Editor
Frank Bridgewater & Michael Rovner, Assistant Managing Editors
A.A. Smyser, Contributing Editor