The 90`s

Newt World Order In Line With Likud

Note: Written by Howard Barbanel, Published Week of December 2nd - December 8th, 1994

Welcome to the Newt World Order, the Republican agenda as defined by House speaker apparent Newt Gingrich leading the House and Bob Dole heading the Senate.

Among the many changes in the offing are those in foreign policy.  Jesse helms takes over the Foreign Relations mantle in the Senate, and he's got some very definite views that cheers the hearts of Likud supporters.  Helms has stated categorically that U.S. troops on the Golan Heights are a bad idea. Charging that the "whole peace process [with Syria] is a fraud," the North Carolina Republican asserts that "Syria doesn't want peace, they want the Golan Heights," and that through the lifting of pariah status from the U.S. aid like that given to Egypt and Israel. Helms says the Syrians "want access to the pocketbooks of American taxpayers," and says "no way" to placing American soldiers in harm's way.

Helms isn't alone.  Sen. Al D'Amato has flatly said that any peace agreement between Israel and Syria necessitating U.S. troops to ensure it is "not a good deal" and the U.S. should have no part of it.  (Peace with Jordan requires no such guarantees.)

Even Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan has said that "friends of Israel should be disappointed by any peace agreement that would require highly armed American troops to enforce the peace."  He does not believe that either the current or future Congress would grant a request for U.S. troops it it were made.

A new study conducted by some dozen former top generals, admirals and Defense Department officials asserts that "no missions for a U.S. Golan troop deployment would justify the costs and risks."  The study, sponsored by the Washington-based Center for Security Policy, posits that the net effect of U.S. troops on the Golan "could be negative for Israel's security and regional stabilty." It also says that consequences could "include the loss of U.S. lives and possibly a credibility-damaging retreat for U.S. forces under terrorist fire."

The study also asserts that "such deployment [of U.S. troops] would increase the danger of direct U.S. involvement in a future Middle East war and undermine Israel's standing with the U.S. public as a self-reliant ally."

An exit poll conducted by a major polling organization on Election Day for the Middle East Quarterly on found that of 1,000 Americans surveyed, 64 percent opposed and only 18 percent were in favor of placing the U.S. troops on the Golan.  Seventy percent were in favor of requiring congressional approval before the administration could deploy American troops on the Golan.

Things won't be getting much easier for Yasir Arafat and the PLO, either.  Rep. Benjamin Gilman (R-Rockland) is the incoming chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee.  Gilman has launched an investigation of Arafat's billions of dollars in financial assets, which include PLO ownership of airlines and duty-free shops and factories in Nicaragua, Africa and Eastern Europe.  Additionally, billions are supposedly squirreled away in Swiss vaults.

The U.S. has pledged $1.2 billion to Arafat over the next several years.  The new Congress will cast a wary eye at Arafat's inability to accurately account for how the funds are spent and will look to have Arafat liquidate his existing holdings before asking the U.S. taxpayer to subsidize his operations.

Arafat has yet to rescind the PLO covenant calling for Israel's destruction.  He keeps on making inflammatory statements about liberating all of Palestine, of making Jerusalem his capital; he can't even command the loyalty of his own appointed council.  Arafat's popularity is at rock botom.

Recent rioting in Gaza and rampant terrorism (where Hamas acts as Fatah's surrogates) have finally stiffened the resolve of Yitzchak Rabin.  The prime minister has announced he won't agree to Palestinian elections or Israeli troop withdrawals in the territories unless Arafat lives up to his word to repeal the PLO charter.  Keep your back straight, Yitzchak.

"Mene, Mene, Tekel Upharsin" read the handwriting on the wall in Belshazzar's palace in ancient Babylon.  The prophet Daniel told Belshazzar the writing foretold his demise and that of his kingdom. And so it was.

Hopefully, Rabin can read the handwriting on today's wall.  Israel Gallup polls show that 77 percent of Israelis are opposed to resuming negotiations with the PLO; a Ma'arvi poll shows the Likud winning if elections were held today; and there are the results of the American midterm elections.  All these signs spell a simple message: Go slow and take heed, for hasty agreements and suicidal concessions are not popular anywhere now but in the offices of far-left politicians and politically correct media pundits.