A Durable Peace (72 page)

Conference participants, who included the late Senator Henry Jackson and then-presidential candidate George Bush, offered
revelations of the direct involvement of the Soviet Union and its European satellites in international terror—revelations
at which, wrote a
Wall Street Journal
correspondent covering the event, “a considerable number in the press corps covering the conference were much annoyed.”
⁶¹
After the fall of Soviet Communism, I had several conversations with officials of the former East bloc who expressed amazement
at the naivete of Westerners on the subject.

The recommendations of the Jonathan Institute’s second conference in 1985 included the imposition of military and economic
sanctions against states that sponsor terrorism. I edited the proceedings into a book,
Terrorism: How the West Can Win.
Perhaps because
Time
magazine published a lengthy excerpt from the book (which President Reagan had read) shortly after the American raid on Libya,
some in the Arab world concluded that I was to blame for the attack. The Kuwaiti newspaper
Al-Rai Al-Am
branded me “the enemy’s most dangerous agent abroad.” Ironically, the paper was later shut down when Saddam and the PLO took
over Kuwait.

^*
Not quite everyone. In March 1999, Nabil Shaath of the Palestinian National Authority revealed that Yossi
Beilin, a senior member of the Labor party leadership, had reached an agreement with Arafat’s deputy Abu-Maazen, under which
Israel would hand over 95 percent of Gaza and the West Bank, thereby effectively returning Israel to the pre-1967 boundaries.

^*
The West has continued to contribute generously to support the Palestinian Arab refugees: The United States
in 1990–91 had pledged $62 million, Sweden $22 million, Japan $17 million, Italy $12 million, and Britain $11 million. The
figures for the Arab states, including the fabulously wealthy ones, are abysmal in comparison: Saudi Arabia’s $1 million,
Kuwait’s $1 million, and Jordan’s $365,000 are the only contributions worth mentioning. The contributions from the other eighteen
Arab governments are each under five digits—less than the donation made by the Swedish Save the Children fund.
¹¹

^*
Adopted in 1964 and revised in 1968.

^*
Broadcast on Saut Falastin Radio, Egypt.