4The Daily Tar HeelThursday, January 9, 1992
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By Anna Griffin
Assistant State and National Editor
The highly publicized Middle East
peace talks between Israel and the Arab
states have failed to yield concrete re
sults, despite several months of delib
eration. "Nothing is being accomplished,"
said James Noyse, a research fellow at
the Hoover Institute in Stanford, Cali
fornia. "Every time it looks like we're
on the road to peace, somebody gets
aggressive."
The most recent example of mis
placed aggression was Israel's deporta
tion last week of 12 Arabs accused of
arousing anti-Israel violence in the West
Bank and Gaza Strip. The action re
sulted in the postponement of Tuesday's
session of talks when the Arab delega
tion failed to show up in what observers
described as a sign of protest.
Tuesday's session in Washington,
D.C., would have begun the third meet
ing between the Israelis and the Arab
states.
The U.S. State Department refused
to comment on the postponement ex
cept to confirm the Arabs' tardiness.
"The Arab delegates just haven't
shown up yet," said U.S. State Depart
ment spokeswoman Jan Mortimer. "We
really are in no position to say why they
are not here or when they will arrive."
The U.N. Security Council voted
unanimously Monday to condemn the
Israeli expulsion. The United States,
abandoning a traditional pro-Israel
stance, played a major role in drafting
the condemnation resolution.
The first round of the peace confer
ence began Oct. 30 after months of
deliberation about where and when rep
resentatives from Israel and three Arab
states Jordan, Syria, Lebanon
would meet. The talks have been unpro
ductive and consistently tense, espe
cially with the inclusion of Palestinians
in the Jordanian delegation.
Both sides hope to reach a solution
regarding the occupied territories, par
ticularly the West Bank andGaza Strip.
Although Israel claimed the territories
in 1 967 after winning the Six Day War,
the area still has a large Palestinian
population. In recent yearS Israel has
been accused of persecuting the Pales
tinians, and both sides haveparticipated
in incidents of violence.
Most observers bel ieve the U.N. reso-
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lution will convince the Arab delegates
to arrive in Washington sometime be
fore the end of the week.
"The resolution was a vote of confi
dence for (the Arab delegates)," Noyse
said. "The U.N. did the right thing
They told the Israelis they can't play the
bully and still have U.S. support."
Both sides' failure to reach a con
crete agreement during the first two
talks should be blamed on individual
agendas, said Joe Stork, editor of the
Middle East Report. Neither side seems
willing to compromise, he said.
"Each state has its own prooiems.
Stork said. "They all want their condi
tions met. That has been the problem in
the Middle East for years."
Some experts question the Israeli
pcwemment's dedication to the talks.
The government of IsraeliPrime Minis
ter Yitzhak snamir is more interesicu m
maintaining control of the occupied ter
ritories. Stork said.
"The Israeli government is more con
tent with the status quo," Stork said.
The dedication of each side to fur
thering its own agenda continues to
present anobstacle tor tne united states.
Stork said. The United States must play
a greater role in the talks, Stork said.
"If the U.S. is just going to sit oacK,
. nothine much is eoine to happen,"
Stork said. 'The primary lever the U.S.
can pull is economic. All of the nations
involved are suffering right now.
But Stork Questioned the Bush
administration's dedication to a lasting
peace, noting that the president could
lose support from Jewish voters it tne
United States is seen to be "abandon
ing" Israel.
"Bush is fearful ot overcommitting
himself to the Palestinians," Stork said.
'(The Bush administration) is content
to set up what I call the theater of
negotiations because it makes them iook
good without being seen as too pro-peace."
Although government officials ad
mitted that the existence of the talks was
an accomplishment in itself, Mortimer
denied the claim that Bush's interest in
the conference is purely political.
Depending on the timing of the Arab
delegation's arrival, the talks are ex
pected to resume sometime early next
week.
Bush collapse
blamed on flu
The Associated Press
The world held its breath Wednes
day when President Bush collapsed
during dinner with Japanese Prime Min
ister Kiichi Miyazawa. But fears sub
sided quickly when doctors announced
that a stomach virus, fatigue and jet lag
had caused the president's brief faint
ing spell.
'It happens to be something that is
going around right now," said Dr.
Marvin Schuster, a digestive disease
expert at Johns Hopkins University
School of Medicine in Baltimore.
"I don't think he's going to be keep
ing too many appointments (today). It
usually lasts 24 hours, and people can
feel so weak that they can't raise their
head from the pillow."
Bush's illness was most likely caused
by a virus he picked up earlier this
week, rather than by food poisoning or
by travelers' diarrhea, said Schuster and
other specialists who were asked to
comment on news reports of Bush's
condition.
It was almost certainly unrelated to
Bush's problems last year with a heart
rhythm disturbance and a thyroid con
dition called Graves' disease, doctors
said.
The rhythm disorder, or atrial fibril
lation, can cause fainting, but the doc
tors that were at Bush's side would have
been able to detect this problem almost
immediately after the presidentslumped
over, doctors said.
Dr. Donald Ebersold of the Depart
ment of Family Medicine at the Univer
sity of Cincinnati said the demands of
the four-nation trip through Asja and
Australia probably contributed to the
severity of Bush's illness.
"Here's somebody that keeps going
when you and I might stop and take
some fluids. But he had to keep going,"
Ebersold said.
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