Middle East: Back to Normal

Tensions are rising

The Israeli warplanes screamed north across the border. About eleven miles into Lebanon, they swooped to the first attack, firing rockets and dropping bombs. Their targets: three Palestinian guerrilla outposts. The raid, the first in more than a month, was reported by Lebanese authorities to have killed three people and wounded 20 others. More significantly, it indicated that Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, who was confident of his ability to form a new government after the close elections of June 30, was again ready to pursue a tough policy against Israel’s enemies. The situation, in short, had returned to normal.

The Israeli air strike was only one of several disturbing signs last week of the continuing tension in the Middle East. The Soviet Union and Syria conducted joint naval maneuvers, a blunt reminder to the Israelis that they could be borrowing trouble if, as Begin had warned, they tried to knock out the Syrian missile sites in Lebanon. U.S. Envoy Philip Habib returned to the Middle East to try again to settle the Syrian-Israeli dispute, but so far neither side seems ready to budge. Complained Begin, a bit sanctimoniously: “With all due respect to my dear friend Philip, he didn’t solve the problem.”

In the meantime, the Arabs were growing restless over the diplomatic stalemate. Jordan’s King Hussein, one of the best friends of the U.S. in the region, spoke bitterly about American policy to Anthony Lewis of the New York Times. Hussein was particularly angry with the U.S. for refusing to do more than rebuke Israel for its bombing of the Iraqi nuclear reactor last month, and for tolerating the Begin government’s policy on the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. Declared Hussein: “Israel is the U.S., and the U.S. is Israel. That is the reality.” The Israelis operate under “your American protection, your armaments, your material resources,” said Hussein. “How do you expect us to be tolerant?” A State Department official agreed that Hussein’s views reflected those of other Arab states. Said he: “Israel is seen as tremendously strong and aggressive.”

After months of moving slowly on the Middle East, the Reagan Administration is getting ready to launch a drive for a settlement of the Palestinian issue. The U.S. is encouraged that Begin will confer with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in Alexandria later this month, an indication that the two are still prepared to work together. This fall, following separate visits to Washington by Begin and Sadat, the Administration is expected to name a new special negotiator, perhaps Philip Habib, whose job will be to get the stalled Camp David peace process moving again. The Arabs are convinced that the U.S. will be obliged to pressure the Israelis if there is ever to be a solution for the Palestinians of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

But the only compromises that Begin has been willing to make lately are the ones that would enable him to retain power at home. Two weeks ago, his Likud coalition won 48 seats in the new Knesset, to Labor’s 47. But after almost a fortnight of intensive discussions with the small religious parties that hold the balance of power, Begin appeared to have talked the three—the National Religious Party (with six votes), the Agudat Israel (with four) and TAMI (with three)—into joining a Likud government. That would give Begin and his colleagues a bare-bones majority of 61 seats in the 120-member Israeli parliament.

The National Religious Party’s leader, Yosef Burg, 72, an old hand at kingmaking, demanded three or four Cabinet posts for his six Knesset members as the price of their support. Among other things, the Agudat Israel party wants Begin to revise the legal definition of a Jew in order to exclude those who were converted to Judaism by non-Orthodox rabbis. In effect, this would deny them automatic citizenship if they immigrated to Israel.

But such a change could offend Jews in the U.S. and elsewhere who belong to Reform or Conservative congregations. Indeed, the proposal drew a quick rebuke from Rabbi Alexander Schindler, president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, who declared that the change could cause “a serious rupture of the unity of the Jewish people.”

One Likud member harshly criticized the religious parties for attempting political “blackmail.” Insisted a Liberal Member of Likud: “I’m not going to vote for any legislation that tries to turn the clock back to the Middle Ages.” But Begin is apparently convinced that he can work his way around such problems and form a government that is balanced, if need be, on one vote.