Palestinian Autonomy

This parody of last December's United Nations Security Council resolution on the Middle East was submitted by Nathan Dodell, a free-lance writer living in Rockville.THE SECURITY COUNCILRECOGNIZING that it adopted an unfair and one-sided resolution on the Middle East on Dec. 20, 1990,RECOGNIZING FURTHER its obligation to make amends for its lack of balance,HAVING REVIEWED the history of the last 43 years,TAKING NOTE of the fact that the United Nations Partition Resolution of 1947, which divided Palestine into a Palestinian Arab and a Jewish state, was frustrated by the Arab world, which did not permit the Arab state to come into being and sought to destroy the Jewish state,RECALLING that Jordan occupied the West Bank from 1948 until 1967 and did not allow the Palestinians to have a state, but instead purported to annex the West Bank, an act recognized only by Great Britain and Pakistan,REMEMBERING that Israel came into possession of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip only as the result of repelling Arab aggression in 1967,TAKING INTO CONSIDERATION the fact that, under Resolutions and 338, Israel's withdrawal from an unspecified portion of the occupied territories is to take place only as a result of negotiations among the states involved, and only to secure and recognized borders,TAKING INTO FURTHER CONSIDERATION the fact that Israeli civilians were the targets of Iraqi Scud missiles in the Persian Gulf war of 1991, and Israel, though provoked, did not counterattack,INTENSELY...

An editorial in Monday's editions incorrectly stated when Israel captured East Jerusalem. The correct date is 1967.The Sun regrets the errors.Secretary James A. Baker's sixth foray into Middle Easdiplomacy since the end of the Persian Gulf war has proved to be little short of remarkable. Launched at the time of the Moscow summit, during which Presidents Bush and Gorbachev issued a joint appeal for an October peace conference, Mr. Baker seems to have pushed all parties closer to negotiations than once seemed possible.

Talks between Israelis and a Jordan-Palestinian delegation, scheduled for Madrid tomorrow, hold hope of setting up a meaningful dialogue, perhaps a negotiation, conceivably leading to Palestinian autonomy on the West Bank and Gaza. What other negotiations prescribed by the Baker plan will materialize remain to be seen. Hope is not lost. Bilateral talks (which Israel sought) are the benefit for which the cloud of dust kicked up by the Madrid conference (which Arabs wanted) was the price.Any assessment of the Madrid speeches and rebuttals is more drama review than political analysis.

GAZA CITY, Israeli-Occupied Gaza Strip -- A leading Palestinian politician and a longtime friend of Palestine Liberation Organization chairman Yasser Arafat was assassinated yesterday in a sharp escalation of political violence in advance of self-rule here.Asad Saftawi, 58, the headmaster of a local school, was shot in the head and neck by two masked gunmen as he picked up his son from class just before noon, according to witnesses. The assailants first shot Mr. Saftawi from several yards away and then came closer, smashing his car window, to fire again.

Ten days before Israeli troops are scheduled to begin pulling out of Gaza and Jericho, the West Bank and Gaza are shambles if not battle zones. Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Chairman Yasser Arafat cannot even agree on whether the Dec. 13 date for starting the pull-out is sacred. They are scheduled to meet Dec. 12, which allows little time to sort out such disagreements.They can make their policy work only if they realize they are in it together. The Palestinian Hamas gunmen who kill Israeli settlers, and the extremist Israelis setting up armed zones in Gaza and disrupting the West Bank in hopes of derailing the settlement with the PLO, are secret allies.

Yasser Arafat's triumphal visit to Gaza and oath-taking in Jericho launched the autonomous but non-sovereign state of Palestine. His immediate departure to Paris for talks with Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin of Israel maintained the momentum toward incorporating the West Bank into the new entity.But the potential for internal conflict is all too apparent. Every sovereign Arab state is a strongman's stronghold, be he monarch or general, traditionalist or Marxist. Mr. Arafat shows every sign of expecting to be that strongman.

JERUSALEM -- Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin demanded yesterday that Yasser Arafat pledge in writing to uphold the Israeli-Palestinian peace accord after the chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization appeared to suggest that the pact was only temporary, little more than a tactical maneuver.Israel warned that if Mr. Arafat resists, it would not implement subsequent stages of Palestinian autonomy and might break off further talks with the PLO.Police Minister Moshe Shahal, speaking for the government, said Israel would suspend implementation of the agreement on self-government, which is just going into effect in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank town of Jericho, if Palestinian attacks upon Israelis do not end and if Mr. Arafat does not retract his belligerent statements.

TABA, Egypt -- Israeli authorities yesterday ordered the evacuation of about 20 Jewish students from a building in Jericho as negotiators prepared to resume talks here today on Israeli withdrawal from Jericho and the Gaza Strip.The yeshiva students were ordered out of a house built over an ancient synagogue that is likely to be included in the area turned over to Palestinians. Authorities said that the building was not connected to water or electricity and that the students could not stay.

If Hafez el Assad said yes because he thought Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir would say no, he may have been sadly mistaken. But the Syrian president probably made no such miscalculation. He does not normally outsmart himself.Wrestling with the question whether to comply with Secretary of State James A. Baker III's plan for Middle East negotiations, Mr. ,, Shamir is, on the surface, his old intransigent self. His political career is not, however, dedicated to saying no. It is dedicated to preserving for Israel all the land it now holds, and to winning eventual Arab acceptance by holding firm.

GAZA, Gaza Strip -- Yasser Arafat will base his Palestinian government in tiny Jericho, but the tumult of the crowded Gaza Strip will be home.Mr. Arafat was set to swear in the Palestinian National Authority formally in Jericho today and then fly to Paris. But he will return fTC to Gaza next weekend to take up residence, according to aide Nabil Shaath."Gaza is the reality. Jericho is the symbol," Mr. Shaath told Israel radio yesterday. "People don't live in symbols, they live with the people.