The Ottawa Citizen from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada • 13

Opinions PAGE A13 Tuesday, April 25, 1995 Editor: Bob Reade, 596-3677 Fax, 596-8458 The Ottawa Citizen F.Y.I. Original treaty has been so altered by accord dead both sides that it's barely recognizable Meanwhile, the radical Islamic leaders call for total Arab domination of Palestine and the continuation of the armed struggle against Israel. They advocate ousting Jewish settlers by the use of terror, seek to make Jerusalem the Palestinian capital and reject any form of democratic government. Their aspirations carry a patriotic, religiously flavored euphoria that can translate into a willingness to die for the cause. Moreover, Hamas controls the education system in Gaza from kindergarten through high school, as well as the religious schools, mosques and the Islamic universities in Gaza and Jerusalem.

The Islamists' social services amount to Gaza's welfare state, providing for the people even as Arafat pampers his security services and bureaucrats. In the West Bank, Hamas could probably gain 30 to 40 per cent of the vote for a self-government administration. This is a prospect that chills Arafat enough that he, like the Israeli government, would like to postpone elections as long as possible. Like it or not, however, Hamas and the intifada generation represent extremist but popular aspirations of the Palestinian people. For Israel to salvage something out of the Oslo mess, it should not entirely abandon Arafat, but should help him broaden his base of support to include the intifada generation and the non-terrorist sections of Hamas.

After the current wave of suicide bombings, no Israeli electorate will ever accept Hamas as part of a Palestinian negotiating team. But that does not mean that Hamas cannot be indirectly linked to a modified Oslo process. The intifada generation and Hamas itself a product of the uprising are popular enough in the West Bank and Gaza that members of anti-Arafat groups will have to be incorporated into the administration of any Palestinian state. If he wants to survive politically, Arafat will have to appoint individual members of Hamas to various posts in his administration. The West Bank cannot be run by the Palestinian police, about 15,000 men, and Arafat's security services.

That would only strengthen the perception among Palestinians that Arafat is a "colonial stooge" or "Rabin's Tel Aviv agent," which Hamas already accuses him of being. But to strengthen his position, Arafat must reach this conclusion himself sooner rather than later. Amos Perlmutter is professor of political science at American University and editor of The Journal of Strategic Studies. This article is adapted from the May-June '95 issue of Foreign Affairs. By Amos Perlmutter Foreign Affairs Magazine The Declaration of Principles signed by Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization at the White House on Sept.

13, 1993, is for all intents and purposes dead. The repeated atrocities by Palestinian suicide bombers, including the grisly death of 20 Israeli soldiers in Beit Lid and the murder of 22 civilians in downtown Tel Aviv, serve only as dramatic illustrations of just how ineffectual the so-called Oslo accord has become. The whole Oslo process is unravelling, jolted by a wave of fundamentalist terrorism that deepens the prevailing pessimism among even dovish Israelis. The original treaty not to mention the high hopes behind it has been so altered by both the PLO and Israel as to have become barely recognizable. Yasser Arafat, once the symbol of Palestinian nationalism, has become tarnished goods.

The Israeli public is deeply suspicious of the aims of the Palestinian nationalist movement The only person who still seriously believes in the peace accord is its adoptive father, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres. Polls demonstrate the growing strength of Israel's hawkish Likud party, which promises a harsh anti-terror campaign and rejects territorial compromise. Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu's fortunes are rising not because a Likud government would be better for Israel but because the nation's trust in Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin has seriously deteriorated. Ultimately, the demise of the peace accord threatens to topple the Rabin government and render Arafat obsolete. Should Likud win the next Israeli election in 1996, the likely new defence minister, Ariel Sharon, would handle a radical Palestinian revolt in the most brutal way.

The Middle East peace process may stagger on, but never yield its desired fruit. In past months, Oslo's flaws have had many roots, including weak and inconsistent PLO leadership, conflicting strategies and faulty negotiating techniques. Arafat has isolated himself in his office in Gaza City and has scarcely set foot in Jericho since his arrival in the self-rule zones. He long ago lost the support of Palestinian intellectuals in the territories. Worse, a generation of radical Palestinian nationalists and Muslim fundamentalists has emerged in the occupied territories to violently oppose Oslo, demanding the destruction of Israel' proper and an end to land-for-peace diplomacy.

Israelis will not accept a divided Jerusalem as their capital, nor will the Palestinians accept anything less than the FOREIGN POLICY establishment of East Jerusalem as their capital and Palestinian not Jordanian control over the city's Islamic shrines. Both sides continue to thrust Jerusalem onto the agenda, which could make the holy city the straw that breaks the camel's back. Faisal al-Husseini, one of the West Bank leaders of Arafat's al-Fatah movement, is clandestinely establishing a Palestinian foreign office and other departments in Jerusalem. The city's mayor, however, is Ehud Olmert, an opportunistic young Likud leader determined to turn East Jerusalem into an Arab ghetto amid Jewish Jerusalemites. For his part, Arafat time and again speaks of Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine, while Rabin repeatedly assures Israelis that Jerusalem will remain Israel's eternal, indivisible capital.

In essence, to arrive at a peace plan, Rabin negotiated with the weakest of all parties among politically active Palestinians: Arafat's PLO. This approach may have appealed to a former general such as Rabin, but it was exactly wrong politically. Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, as public opinion polls have demonstrated, reject the Oslo pact. About 70 per cent of the Palestinians either do not trust or totally reject the Oslo process. The floundering Arafat is completely dependent on several security services and spends most of his resources from donor countries shoring up his regime at the expense of the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.

In contrast to the weak and discredited PLO, Islamic radicalism and the intifada have created a powerful Palestinian-Arab movement that currently represents Palestinian nationalism on the ground. Now that hopes for an independent Palestinian state have been rekindled, the hard-liners are unwilling to accept even an Israeli return to its 1967 borders. Both' the intifada radicals and Hamas, as well as their ruthless terrorist wings, continue to speak of Jerusalem as their capital and pamphleteer on the ouster of Jews from historic Palestine. At the point in history where the Palestinians finally might have fulfilled their dream of statehood, an aggressive movement, fuelled by small but fanatical militant cells, has emerged to challenge the fading Arafat and his PLO. In effect, Rabin anointed Arafat as the Palestinian people's leader at exactly the point when he was failing to be that leader.

In February, the PLO Executive Committee resolved to continue implementing Oslo, despite strong outside opposition. HmUi.J!lM.h I Dialling to help The Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association, which is North American in scope, annually presents VITA Awards to individuals who have used their phones to save a life or promote public safety. Friday's F.Y.I, dealt with Bell Mobility's Cellular Samaritan awards. Bell forwards annual winners' names as VITA nominees, if the Cellular Samaritan agrees. Following are the 1994 VITA award winners: Grand Award, given to the person or organization judged to have made the greatest contribution to safety through use of a cellular phone, went to ALLTEL" Mobile Communications, Inc.

Its Albany, office played a vital role in helping that city survive and recover from its devastating flood in 1994. ALLTEL-loaned more than 350 cellular phones to relief organizations and donated in excess of $40,000 in airtime charges. CHmestopper Award, given for using a cellular phone to stop or report a crime, wejit to Mark Rosenman and his wife, Mary Lee Stein, of Washington, D.C. They used their cellular phone to alert police about the suspicious activities of. a man they believed about to attempt an armed robbery.

The District of Columbia Metropolitan Police credited the couple's call with enabling them not only to arrest the man, but to crack the case on five of six other armed robberies in the area committed by him. Highway Hero, awarded for using a cellular phone to report a collision, a hit-and-run, or other traffic-related emergency, went to Jeff and Linda Okray of Sacramento, Calif. The use of their cellular phone saved the life of Bobby Duke Ail-American I and star rookie for Hurley basketball team, the Sacramento Kings. The accident occurred in an isolated area, but because the Okrays were able to use their cellular phone to summon emergency services immediately, Hurley's life was saved. Lifesaver Award, for doing what the award says, went to Sherry Snowden of Fort Myers, Fla.

While attending an exhibit at a riverside park in downtown Fort Myers, Snowdon, a Grade 6 guidance counsellor, was approached by a man running from the pier shouting frantically that three boys were drowning in the river. She used her cellular phone to dial 911 and emergency personnel arrived almost immediately to rescue the boys. Snowden later learned that one of the boys attends the school where she works. Good Samaritan Award, for going to extraordinary lengths to provide assistance, went to Orlando Walker of Atlanta, Ga. Using the cellular phone in his truck, Walker came to the aid of a couple on their way to the hospital to deliver their baby.

Leonard and Dorothy Clark's car had become disabled from a minor accident. For an hour, Leonard Clark had stood on the highway in the rain trying unsuccessfully to flag down a passing car. Walker stopped, called 911 on his cellular phone, and an ambulance arrived five minutes later taking the Clarks to the hospital. In the meantime, Walker had the Clarks' car towed and fixed. Gee thanks, fellas Outlaw Biker magazine honored Barbara Bush as First Lady of the Century, with the following citation: Babs' old man kicked butt in the White House, now her son leads the Lone Star state.

They say behind every great man is a great woman; she's behind two. They don't make classy broads like this any more. F.Y.I, is compiled by Julius Majerczyk from Citizen news services, publications, statistics, bulletin boards, and other "found" material. Readers are encouraged to submit items by mail, by fax at 596-8458, by calling 596-3790, or by calling Touchline at 721-1990, selecting code 8655 and recording your comments. Canada's weapons sales to Turkey only tip of iceberg The export of weapons to a government such as Turkey's is the 20th century equivalent of supplying chains, manacles, whips, cages and cargo ships to slave traders in the last century.

da's supposedly strict policy on military exports. Government guidelines state that the Department of Foreign Affairs will "closely control," though not necessarily prohibit, military exports to countries that are "involved in or under imminent threat of hostilities," that "have a persistent record of serious violations of the human rights of their citizens, unless it can be demonstrated that there is no reasonable risk that the goods might be used against the civilian population." Canada's military exports to Turkey prove that these guidelines are a farce. Consideration for the defence of human rights is apparently overshadowed by the profit motive. The HiTec Profile Book, published by the International Marketing Bureau of the Department of Foreign Affairs, states: "Turkey's defence products market provides many opportunities for Canadian companies prepared to investigate technology transfer, joint ventures and other co-operation" (1993). The Canadian government not only allows military exports to human rights violators such as Turkey, it actively promotes them.

According to the International Trade Business Plan for 19951996, published by By Richard Sanders Special to the Citizen Many Canadians were shocked to learn of our government's eager, though perhaps failed, attempt to sell CF-5 warplanes to Turkey. It is less well known, however, that our government has already permitted the sale of a huge assortment of military equipment to this violent regime. During the past four years, the Department of Foreign Affairs has approved military export permits to Turkey totalling $26 million. Our exports have included equipment in categories such as small- and large-calibre weapons, computer systems for targeting and firing weapons, military vehicles, toxicological agents and tear gas, aircraft and helicopters and a plethora of electronic equipment for military use (Export of Military Goods from Canada, Annual reports, 1990 to 1994). This is disturbing because the Turkish government has been waging a near-genoci-dal war against the Kurdish population for decades.

During the past 10 years as many as tens of thousands have been killed, two thousand Kurdish villages have been demolished and some three million Kurds have been displaced. There are currently about 15,000 political prisoners, including intellectuals, politicians, unionists, teachers and journalists languishing in Turkish jails, where ill-treatment and torture of prisoners is commonplace. The deadly traffic in weapons systems to Turkey exemplifies the weakness of Cana- much luck. The region I was assigned to report on stretched from Mis-sissauga to just beyond Niagara Falls. It unceremoniously dumped the Tories.

They ended up with the first of two consecutive minority government. Still, never one to leave a job half-done, 1 ministered the Ontario Quebec CHANTAL HEBERT Tories until voters finally gave them a real break from power in 1985. I went to Meech Lake on a spring day of 1987 as one goes to a picnic. I had been posted on Parliament Hill on a temporary basis. My time was almost up and 1 had yet to set eyes on what was then cabinet's preferred retreat.

"8 MM. I ranked seventh among the world's leading arms exporters and 11th in military expenditures (World Military Expenditures and Arms Transfers, published by the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency). Between 1990 and 1993, Canada ranked eighth in military exports to the Third World (Conventional Arms Transfers to the Third World, Congressional Research Service Report to Congress). These facts, coupled with the Canadian rhetoric on peace, make the Canadian government one of the world's leading hypocrites.

To bring Canada's actions in line with our reputation, the government should begin by prohibiting all military exports to Turkey and other countries that systematically use torture and extra-judicial executions of political opponents. To avoid the loss of jobs and profits that such a drastic change in our military export policy would cause, the government would have to live up to its promises made in the Red Book to promote the conversion of military industries to civilian alternatives. The export of weapons to a government such as Turkey's is the 20th century equivalent of supplying chains, manacles, whips, cages and cargo ships to slave traders in the last century. As we near the close of this millennium, Canada should be taking the lead in banning the sale of military equipment to all such human rights abusers. Richard Sanders is co-ordinator of the Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade and is a spokesperson for the Canadian Friends of Kurdistan.

As for the office of the minister of the Environment of the day, it happened to be a suite of offices. It also happened to be the type of suite that has a window over its main door. On that late May day, the window was wide open. And I ended up frozen in the hallway right under it as Bouchard's press secretary loudly dictated his resignation letter In journalism, much as in life generally, the destination matters a lot less than the twists and turns of the road along the way. While the former seems, at times, quite obvious, the latter can always make a difference.

And not knowing what may be just around the corner is what makes it worth going along for the ride. So far, it has been a fascinating voyage. Had I known this in 1975, 1 might just have started a day earlier than 1 did. Chantal Hubert is a parliamentary correspondent for La Presse. the Ministry of Supply and Services, Canada is targeting seven countries as "growth markets" for our military exports: China, Taiwan, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Korea and Turkey.

The document also lists "priority countries" for Canada's military exports including: Malaysia, Thailand, Egypt and the U.S. (Canada's Export Strategy, Defence Products, Sector 11, P. 4 1995). By selling military equipment to governments such as Turkey's, whose terror tactics are well-documented by many internation? al human rights groups, the Canadian government is displaying its willingness to aid and abet crimes against humanity and crimes against peace. Meanwhile, the Canadian government has a reputation as one of the world's greatest peacemakers.

Unfortunately, Canada is actually among the world's top countries profiting from war. Although our government talks a lot about peace, vast profits are reaped from military exports to violent regimes. About half of the 45 governments in Africa, Asia and Latin American that receive Canadian military equipment are either at war or use extreme forms of repression such as torture and political killings. In 1991, Canada office on a deserted Parliament Hill but its idea of fireworks had little to do with mine. I was instructed to check on Tory minister Lucien Bouchard as he seemed in a foul mood.

Earlier that weekend, he had fired off a strange telegram to the Parti Quebecois. On that day, he was expected to be somewhere around the national capital. Not knowing the man very well, or even the location of his office on the Hill, there was no doubt in my mind that 1 was on a goose chase. Still, in the hope of getting home as fast as possible, I did look up Bouchard's office and set off to check first-hand for any signs of life in the Centre Block. Now, anybody who has had the misfortune to work on the Hill on a day off knows nothing comes closer to a ghost town.

There just is not a soul around. It's the uncertainty of life and politics that makes the journey worthwhile I Twenty years ago today, I spent my first full day in a newsroom. It was a Radio-Canada outfit in Toronto and 1 was expected to write the early morning radio newscasts that day and throughout the summer. I really should have started the day before but I had declined to come in on some flimsy excuse, probably a late university exam. The truth was I did not want to ruin my 21st birthday by going in for my very first day of really serious work.

(The real truth was 1 was scared to death.) I owe a Tory for my reprieve in the business and my first few minutes of air time. At the end of that summer, just as I was bound to go back to school, then premier Bill Davis called an election and my contract was extended. Even in those early days, though, I was not meant to bring the Conservatives With nothing better to do, it was suggested I hop on the press bus and tag along with two other reporters for the first ministers' meeting planned for the day. As no solid news was expected, 1 was left to chat with some Queen's Park friends. It was one of them who let it drop sometime that afternoon that the assembled premiers were on the edge of an historical constitutional breakthrough.

Radio-Canada let me report it on its early evening newscast with such misgivings that 1 would have felt more confident revealing the settlement of Martians around the Gatineau lake. On Victoria Day 1990, he Devoir, my employer at the time, had to call me at home to inform me that, in its book as opposed to Radio-Canada's, the Queen's birthday was not a day off. Not only did the paper want me in my i if li ill.