Middle East Message

Get involved, get involved. This is the message that King Fahd of Saudi Arabia has just delivered to President Reagan in Washington, and that President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt is expected to echo during a state visit next month, and that King Hussein of Jordan will likely endorse in person before long. What these Arab leaders of moderate persuasion want is for the United States to take the lead in trying to edge Israel and the Arab states that are its declared enemies closer to an agreement over questions of national boundaries and Palestinian rights. Further, they ask that this be done quickly, and with a commitment to results.

The United States is ready again to become a participant in any revived Middle East peace process, but not quite on the terms that Arab leaders have in mind. If the public record is a reliable guide, the Arab sense of what the United States should be doing is the same today as it has been in the past. This is that the U.S. role should be to pressure Israel to withdraw from all land that it occupied as a result of the 1967 war, and to accept the establishment of a Palestinian state on the West Bank. After that, or so it is hinted--there has never been any explicit statement saying so--the Arabs might agree to acknowledge the legality of Israel and its right to live in peace.

U.S. policy, restated to Fahd, is that the necessary condition for renewed American involvement in the peace process is that an Arab “interlocutor” prepared to negotiate directly with Israel must first come forward. As a practical matter, that means King Hussein, who has again been talking with Yasser Arafat, chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, about a common approach. What Hussein insists on is a freely given proxy from the PLO, or at least the Arafat wing of the fragmented organization, to negotiate on its behalf. More, he wants visible support from other Arab states--Egypt, Saudi Arabia, perhaps Iraq--to counterbalance the threat to his survival that would come from Syria and other anti-peace radicals should he act.

Israel could not reject a negotiating initiative from Hussein, even though acceptance almost certainly would explode the present coalition government and force what in effect would be a national referendum on the future of the West Bank. For now, though, Israeli politicians can regard that contingency with some equanimity. Until Arab leaders shift from urging prior U.S. involvement in peace efforts to involving themselves, negotiations and progress both will remain dreams. King Fahd has presented his message, President Reagan his response, and the status quo stands undisturbed.