Professor discusses Mideast conflict

  ANNA AVIK Steven Spiegel, political science professor at
UCLA, spoke Wednesday in Royce Hall.

By Benjamin Parke
Daily Bruin Contributor

Downplaying the chances for war in the Middle East, a UCLA
political science professor who has advised President Clinton and
other leaders on policy for the region addressed more than 100
people at a teach-in Wednesday.

Stating that “the Mideast is not quite normal,”
Professor Steven Spiegel cautioned that matters are never as good
as they look in good times ““ nor as bad as they look in bad
times.

“Things are not as close to war today as they may
appear,” Spiegel said at the event in Royce Hall, which was
sponsored by the Hillel Council and Jewish Student Union at
UCLA.

Spiegel, who has many political contacts with people involved in
the situation, told the audience that he had been on the phone with
an Israeli official shortly before the teach-in began. He explained
his outlook on recent events, giving his analysis of the complex
politics within ““ and between ““ the Israelis,
Palestinians, Americans and “key Arab states.”

The current crisis began after right-wing Likud Party leader
Ariel Sharon visited a site, known as the Temple Mount by Jews and
Haram al-Sharif by Muslims, containing the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The site is holy to both religions.

Sharon was accompanied by a 1,000 person security detail ““
many dressed in riot gear ““ but Spiegel said the
leader’s visit had been cleared by both Israeli and
Palestinian security.

Although Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak should have had the
courage to say no to the visit, Spiegel said, Palestinians made a
“terrible mistake” by not not reacting to it
calmly.

Doing so would have pushed the peace process forward, he said,
because Israeli opponents to the process would have been undercut.
The Palestinians would have effectively demonstrated that
“any Jew could go up there,” easing public fears about
the viability of coexistence.

Spiegel added that Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat could have
prevented the violence on the part of Palestinians, saying that the
leader was “ready to roll” by closing schools and using
clerics for his purposes.

“Sharon helped him out,” Spiegel said.

The professor added that he believed Arafat had been ready for
confrontation ever since this summer’s Camp David summit, in
which President Clinton, Arafat and Barak met this summer ““
producing no agreement.

Arafat, said Spiegel, passed up a “generous offer”
by Ehud Barak at the summit. As an example, the professor mentioned
an Israeli offer of a portion of natural gas deposits in the
Mediterranean Sea, as well as billions of dollars in aid offered by
the United States and other countries.

But Spiegel said Israel has taken missteps too, never
understanding the impact of Jewish settlers in the West Bank, whom
he referred to as “unguided missiles.” Also, the
rubber-coated bullets Israelis used, he said, were not appropriate
for use on children.

“I think there’s no question that both sides made
mistakes,” said Spiegel.

He said the recent violence should not prevent the Israelis and
the Palestinians from returning to the peace process despite anger
that has been stirred on both sides.

“You don’t make peace with people you trust,”
Spiegel said. “If you trusted them you wouldn’t have to
make peace with them.”

Ghaith Mahmood, president of the Muslim Students Association at
UCLA, was one of the people in the audience from whom Spiegel
fielded questions.

After the teach-in, Mahmood said he believed that talk at the
negotiating table is meaningless if it is accompanied by continuing
injustice.

He said Palestinians are forced to live with second-class
schools, second-class homes and second-class land.

“That aspect is not being talked about,” said
Mahmood who questioned Spiegel at the teach-in. “You can only
get peace when two people on equal terms come and meet.”

The MSA was planning a teach-in of its own next week, he said,
to coincide with ones by Muslim student groups at other
campuses.

Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller, director of the Yitzhak Rabin Hillel
Center for Jewish Life near campus, said both sides need to
understand that it is in their interest to keep religion at
bay.

“Justice as a legal and religious category always has to
be balanced by mercy ““ always has to yield to the interest of
life ““ and that is why religion is not an effective tool for
reaching compromise,” said Seidler-Feller.

Eli Gordon, a third-year business and economics student who is
an Orthodox Jew, said there is radicalism on both sides of the
political spectrum.

Although he said radicalism is “severely
disconcerting” when let loose for an extended period of time,
there will always be radicals.

He said the important thing is the peace process.

“There’s too much radicalism out there and not
enough understanding,” Gordon said.