PAGE 6
MONDAY, APRIL 8, 1985
Gottlieb Lauds
St. Andrews
Mideast Peace Possible
BY DAVE SNYDER
With all of the recent hand-
wringing about American
education, much of it justified,
let me show you a bright spot on
the college scene. Just a little
bit north of South Carolina, St.
Andrews Presbyterian College^
shines like a gem among the
cypresses.
The National Endowment for
the Humanities charges that
most students graduate “lack
ing even the most rudimentary
knowledge about the.. .founda
tions of their nation and their
civilization.” Yet, the extraor
dinary faculty at St. Andrews is
busy encouraging their
students to probe our civiliza
tion from a variety of fresh
angles. The faculty has design
ed a core curriculum, required
of all students, exploring the
Western world and culture and
the relationships among the
humanities, science and
technology.
One political science class
gains perspective on the First
Amendment as it reads The Na
tional Review, The new
Republic and Mother Jones.
They also study Robert’s Rules
of Order and, using the rules,
conduct a class meeting to
determine the content of most
of the final exam. A class in
medical ethics studies health
planning on “Fictitious
Island.” Given limited
resources, how would they, as
members of the legislature,
vote on the following program?
The program would establish a
universal health maintenance
system for everyone except toe
one percent of the population
that was incurably ill, lacking
in intelligence to follow a
medical regimen and requiring
expensive medical care.
Some of the students study
global issues such as nuclear
war and hunger. What should
be done, their professors ask a
visitor, when the students get
depressed learning about the
effects of nuclear blast and
fallout? The visitor suggests a
switch in focus to U.S.-Soviet
relations, which is what really
concerns Americans, and has
the impression that his sugges
tion will be incorporated in the
curriculum.
Every Thursday evening at
St. Andrews there’s a poetry
reading. A parade of poets and
writers from the English-
speaking world comes through
this liberal arts college of fewer
than 800 students. The first-rate
St. Andrews Review publishes
their works alongside those of
talented students and teachers.
One out of 10 St. Andrews
students is physically disabled.
These students are fully in
tegrated into college life, and
hundreds have graduated and
found rewarding careers. If I
were a high school senior. I’d
be pounding on the door of the
St. Andrews Director of Admis
sions.
After visiting St. Andrews
last fall, Sanford Gottlieb of
United Campuses to Prevent
Nuclear War (UCAM) left here
with very strong favorable im
pressions. He was impressed
particularly by the enthusiasm
expressed by students on peace
issues, and urged students to
form a UCAM chapter at St.
Andrews. But no progress has
been made on the formation of
St. Andrews UCAM.
The following is the text of
radio broadcast Gottlieb
recorded for “In The Public In
terest”, a syndicated radio pro
gram that distributed the
broadcast to more than 400
radio stations. Gottlieb says,
“If the broadcast has allowed
more time, I could have said a
good deal more about your
wonderful college.”
Mideast leaders have taken
significant steps recently
toward a genuine peace settle
ment, without the United Na
tions or the United States play
ing the role of coordinator. The
Arab-Israeli conflict has raged
for decades and any attempted
peace settlement will take
dozens of negotiations.
The first important recent
negotiations on this process
took place between Jordan’s
King Hussein and the Palestine
Liberation Organization’s
Yasser Arafat. Jordan lies
directly east of Israel and is
composed of 60 percent Palesti
nians and 40 percent Jorda
nians. Hussein recognizes that
the Palestinian majority in Jor
dan may soon assert their lost
territorial identity and attempt
to take over Jordan. Therefore,
Hussein’s agreements with
Arafat included allowing a con
federate Palestinia state in
Jordan on the West Bank.
Here is where Israel comes
in. The West Bank is occupied
by Israeli troops, and Israel’s
leader Shimon Peres is not like
ly to allow a pro-Soviet, Pales
tinian state on Israel’s im
mediate eastern border. That’s
why the Hussein-Arafat sugges
tion of allowing a Palestinian
state in the West Bank
stipulated that the area would
remain under the general con
trol of Hussein.
The fourth important player
in this process is Egypt’s leader
Hosni Mubarak. He played a
key role in mediating between
Hussein and Arafat, and has a
Gov. Martin Visits St. Andrews
Governor Martin will
highlight next Friday’s
campus-contmiunity celebra
tion. He wUl speak at the
library terrace at 3:00 p.m.
April 12, after festivities begin
ning at 2:00.
The celebration is intended to
honor the special relationship
between Laurinburg and St.
Andrews that has existed since
1956, when Laurinburg
residents demonstrated to the
North Carolina Synod of the
Presbyterian Church that they
had the commitment required
to maintain a healthy college
community.
Campus festivities that
weekend will include music
performed by St. Andrews
students, refreshments, and a
launching of paper boats (with
crew) built by St. Andrews art
students.
vested interest in a conflict
resolution between the Hussein-
Aidfat proposals and the
Israelis. Mubarak needs
economic assistance from the
U.S., and stands a better
chance to win the aid if the
Arab-Israeli heat is cooled
enough to allow Mubarak to
resume diplomatic relations
with Israel. Mubarak, then,
tried to speed up the process by
suggesting that U.S. officials
intervene in the negotiations,
but met with little success.
Reagan has not yet committed
any American delegation to
western Asia, ptobably
because his top “peace
makers” are busy shuttling
back and forth between Geneva
and Washington.
Hussein was not thrilled with
Mubarak’s ambitious proposal
either, as he feels hasty action
may backfire. B:2t Hussein and
Mubarak have resolved their
differences, and the stage re
mains set for serious negotia
tions among all four main
players.
The only remaining obstacle
to serious negotiating is varied
priorities among the players.
Peres of Israel is concentrating
on the Israeli withdraw from
Lebanon, and wants to improve
relations with Egypt. But
before Mubarak can channel
his efforts toward improved
relations with Israel, he must
show the Egyptians that the
Israelis are serious about im
proved relations by writhdraw-
ing completely from Lebanon
and treating West Bank
Palestinians better. Arafat is
keeping all options open, in
cluding relations with the
Syrians to help the PLO regain
its position in liberated
Lebanon. Hussein’s main con
cern is appeasing the Palesti
nians in his own country, but
he, along witli Mubarak, is also
supporting the neighboring Ira
qis in their war against Iran.
Negotiating peace without
the aid of an external
negotiator is a slow process
when so many conflicting in
terests and priorities exist
among so many players. The
first key to the peace process,
before resolving any political
differences, appears to be
resolving agenda conflicts.