The Right Message at the Right Time : Christopher’s simple point: Let’s get serious

The message that Secretary of State Warren Christopher has been delivering in Middle Eastern capitals over the last few days was bluntly paraphrased in a conversation with reporters aboard Christopher’s plane by a publicly unidentified but readily guessable “high official.”

The message is that if Arabs and Israelis are serious about resuming their peace talks soon, the Clinton Administration is ready to devote time and effort to facilitating the progress of those talks. But if Arabs and Israelis are not serious, Washington is ready to divert its energies to dealing with other international problems that clamor for American attention. “It’s a big world, with lots of things to do,” the official said. The Arab-Israeli talks have a high priority, but that priority will be downgraded very quickly if the United States determines that it’s pushing against a closed door.

This, we think, is exactly the note to strike at this time. Israel and the Arab states participating in the talks seem ready to slip back to the bargaining table. But the Palestinians, unhappy that Israel has agreed to the immediate return of only one-fourth of the 400 Muslim militants it expelled to Lebanon, insist their delegation will stay away until all the expellees are returned, something that may not happen until the end of this year.

The Palestinians are convinced that they hold the moral high ground on this issue, because a U.N. Security Council resolution last December called on Israel to take back all the deported men. It’s the Palestinians’ political position that is weak.

The fact is there’s not a lot of sympathy, least of all on the part of Arab governments, with the deported radicals and what they stand for. The immediate political goal of the expellees is the elimination of Israel, but beyond that they are part of the gathering movement that would like nothing better than to overthrow all secular Arab regimes and replace them with Tehran-style theocracies. That prospect chills both the Arab world’s ruling elites and most, but by no means all, of those over whom they hold sway.

Arab participants in the peace talks, including the PLO-approved Palestinian delegation, know that the Muslim fundamentalists would be the big gainers--in fact, the only gainers--if negotiations fail.

Christopher no doubt is emphasizing that point, even as he seeks to drive home the thought that if the Arabs and Israelis really want peace, they had better start talking about it in earnest, and very soon, because Washington has no intention of hanging around indefinitely while the propaganda games go on. It’s the right message, at the right time, and it ought to be heeded.