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By J. Zel Lurie
 DELRAY BEACH, Florida —Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is floundering, searching desperately for a solution to his dilemma.
If he agrees to freeze settlement construction, as Ariel Sharon agreed to seven years ago but did just the opposite, he will lose the support of some of the parties in his cabinet. He will lose power, a repeat of his government ten years ago.
If he continues to defy the American government, the end will be the same. His previous government, ten years ago. was overthrown because he refused to play ball with the United States.
The first rule of Israeli politics is maintain friendship with the United States.
Above all he has lost the support of American Jewish organizations and their congressional friends,
When President George H.W. Bush, George Bush’s father, implemented The American government’s opposition to settlements as obstacles to peace by deducting from the annual subsidy paid to the Israel government the amount spent on settlements, AIPAC and its congressional friends rose in wrath. The president was also holding up American guarantees of a large loan to Israel. I remember the cheers at an AIPAC conference when it was announced that Bush had okayed the loan guarantees.
Today American Jewish organizations with over 5,000 members are solidly opposed to settlements. So I was surprised to find in the New York Times of August 4 a full page advertisement by the Anti-Defamation League headed
Mr. President --
The Problem Isn’t Settlements,
ITS ARAB REJECTION
I have known Abe Foxman, who runs the ADL for forty years. He knows the score. He knows that of the four Arab states that surround Israel, two, Egypt and Jordan, have made peace with Israel and are cooperating with Israel in important security
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matters. The remaining two, Syria and Lebanon, have stated that they are ready to make peace as soon as Israel is ready to return the Golan to Syria as it returned the Sinai with its oil fields, settlements and large airports, to Egypt.
So why is Foxman trying to obfuscate Netanyahu’s dilemma. “Concentrating on settlements won’t lead to peace,” Foxman told Ha’aretz. He’s right in a way. Peace will still be a distant goal after Netanyahu agrees to a settlement freeze, But it is both a necessary first step and an indication that Israel is ready to make the necessary compromises to achieve peace.
Meanwhile, Ehud Barak, the Minister of Defense, who is the ruler of the West Bank, has issued a long list of settlements in various stages of construction. The ladies of Mahsom Watch, who tour the West Bank daily, have confirmed that the area is awash in building crews and construction machinery.
Even if the Americans allow buildings under construction to be finished, Netanyahu will still have to agree symbolically to a settlement freeze. The symbolism is important.
Symbolism is also important to Jibril Rajoub, one of Arafat’s corrupt cronies who headed one of Arafat’ security services. Rajoub was kicked out of Gaza by Hamas and his security service has been replaced by the American-trained Palestine Police.
At the first Fatah conference in twenty years and the first to be held in Palestine, Rajoub said last week that we must not give up the option of “armed struggle.” Arafat’s “armed struggle” has been replaced by what Tom Friedman called Fayyadism, named for Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, a former official of the International Monetary Fund.
“Fayyad,” Tom Friedman wrote last week “is unlike any Arab leader today. He is an ardent Palestinian nationalist but his whole strategy is to say: the more we build our state with quality institutions -- finance, police social services -- the sooner we will secure our right to independence. I see this as a challenge to “Arafatism” which focused on Palestinian rights first, state institutions later, if ever, and produced neither.”
According to the IMF the West Bank economy should grow by 7 percent this year. That should happen to all of us.
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