Meeting in Orange County, Arab Group Says It is Optimistic About Peace Talks

GARDEN GROVE —  Optimism about the Mideast peace conference that begins in Madrid this week, and calls for U.S. officials to put pressure on Israel, marked a weekend banquet in Orange County of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.

An overflow crowd of 700 gave standing ovations to Queen Noor, the American-born wife of Jordan’s King Hussein, and to former U.S. Atty. Gen. Ramsey Clark and national Arab-American leaders Saturday night at the Hyatt Regency in Garden Grove as the dignitaries expressed hopes that the conference will succeed.

“Surprising things happen in life,” said Clark in a passage that drew an ovation. “Keep the faith. It won’t be long. Right does make right and the cause of the Palestinian people will prevail.”

Clark--this year’s recipient of a humanitarian award memorializing Alex Odeh, the committee’s Southern California regional director who was assassinated in 1985--sharply questioned why Israel was being allowed by the American government to restrict the Palestinians’ choice of representatives to the peace conference.

Queen Noor, speaking mainly of Arabs and mentioning the word Palestine only once, said: “We hope the Madrid Conference will prove to be an historic turning point that will lead to stability and security in our region and a new era of mutually constructive cooperation between the Arab world and the West.”

She told the audience, which was composed overwhelmingly of Americans of Arab descent: “You have a key role to play in challenging Israel’s claims that it is both a true democracy and the region’s only democracy. Your help also is vital for the success of current efforts to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict.”

The Madrid conference, set to convene today under U.S. and Soviet sponsorship, will bring together participants in the lengthy Arab-Israeli conflict. For the first time, a Palestinian delegation will participate in such talks, which are aimed at reaching a lasting peace in the region.

The master of ceremonies, Edmonde A. Haddad, former president of the Los Angeles World Affairs Council, struck the keynote of the evening when he told diners that this week would mark “a truly momentous occasion, the formal opening of peace talks that we hope will . . . create peace with justice in the Middle East.”

While he said many have “a cautious attitude” at the outset, Haddad expressed “hope the chances of peace will grow” as the meetings proceed.

Don Bustany, president of the American-Arab committee’s Los Angeles chapter, said in a newsletter distributed to guests that “a majority of mainstream Americans (have their) hearts in the right place . . . (but) have yet to be persuaded” of the need for establishment of an independent Palestinian state.

“We need their added weight leaning on the White House and the Congress to make it happen,” Bustany said. “By now, everybody knows about writing and phoning our senators, representatives and the President. . . . So let’s move on to public demonstrations.”

Albert Mokhiber, the committee’s national president, said he is cautiously optimistic about the conference because the American government has joined in supporting the concept of the Israelis giving up land in territories they have occupied in exchange for peace.

Since the Israelis are presently opposed to “giving up an inch of land,” Mokhiber said, it will be necessary for the United States to undertake “a carrot and stick approach” toward them in the months ahead.

The committee was founded by former U.S. Sen. James Abourezk of South Dakota.