Military

DATE=04/29/02

TYPE=INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT

TITLE=HANNA FREIJ, visiting Assistant Professor of International Relations at Mount Union College

NUMBER=3-155

BYLINE=TOM CROSBY

DATELINE=WASHINGTON

INTERNET=

/// Editors: This interview is available in Dalet under SOD/English News Now Interviews in the folder for today or yesterday ///

HOST: Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israel have accepted a U-S plan, which would end the Israeli siege of Mr. Arafat's West Bank headquarters and give him some freedom of movement in the West Bank. U-S and British soldiers would monitor six Palestinian prisoners wanted by Israel. Hanna Freij (HAN-uh FRAYJ) is a visiting assistant professor of International Relations at Mount Union College in Alliance, Ohio. He is also Palestinian by birth. Mr. Freij tells V-O-A News Now's Tom Crosby, this agreement is a particularly good deal for the United States in its mediation effort.

MR. FREIJ: I think there are several elements to this story and this development. To start with, I think it's an attempt by the United States to show its Arab allies that it is concerned about the Middle East and it is re-engaging itself in the interpretations, on one level; and, Number Two, to show that it is concerned about Mr. Arafat and his well-being, after the European negotiator, Javier Solana, said that Mr. Arafat's condition is not very good. And in that sense, I think the United States looks at Mr. Arafat as a principal who can be dealt with, and he will be held accountable if the cease-fire and the attacks are not stopped. So I think there are two elements.

The third element, I think it is a way to jump-start the process to arrive at a cease-fire so that peace negotiations can be resumed. And this way it would meet the initial step, I think, for the Saudi plan.

MR. CROSBY: Does it take away, though, a rallying point for many in the Arab world?

MR. FREIJ: I think what it would do is, as much as the rallying point, it would defuse the situation a little bit and bring back some dignity to the elected office of the president of the Palestinian people. And that's important, I think. It would help at least show the United States as inching towards being somewhat of a fair negotiator.

MR. CROSBY: But the question that always arises, though, is that so often the United States has called on Mr. Arafat to end the violence, to do what he can to end the violence, but the people are left wondering, can he? Does he have that moral authority anymore?

MR. FREIJ: I think there are two problems right now with the Palestinian leadership. Number One, Arafat has been extremely weakened by the U.S. demands on him and the Israeli demands, coupled with the dilemmas that Israel has destroyed the Palestinian infrastructure, both in terms of supporting the Palestinian people and the administrative aspects that would carry out the security coordination and so on and forth.

Number Two, I think the Palestinian people are way ahead of Mr. Arafat, in that they are no longer going to accept this phased process of going back to the negotiating table and talking about Tenet and Mitchell and all of those things. They want to see the light at the end of the tunnel. They are not willing to continue to drag the process out and for them to continue living in the Bantustans and besieged areas that they live in, especially after what Israel has done in its recent incursion that destroyed Palestinian lives and property.

MR. CROSBY: But when you talk about the light at the end of the tunnel, they first entered that tunnel in the 1940's and they're still there.

MR. FREIJ: Exactly. And there was hope that the Oslo Accord would bring freedom and so on and so forth. Well, the Oslo Accord, eight years after, when the second Intifada started, the al-Aqsa Intifada, has achieved nothing for the Palestinian people except a lower standard of living, more imprisonment, more humiliation, and more discord. And, frankly, I think the Palestinian people are unhappy with not just the Oslo track but the influx of these negotiators from Tunisia, who they have seen having achieved nothing. Arafat, however, has scored some points with the Palestinian people recently by staying in his compound, even though under Israeli imprisonment. But he has gained some leverage points a little bit.

MR. CROSBY: Didn't he have a bit of leverage when he appeared to be besieged?

MR. FREIJ: Yes, but not as much as the fact that he has shown his tenacity and his survival. I think he has gotten some assets and some support from the Palestinian people as their symbol. And remember, he is the only elected Arab head of state in the whole Arab world -- if we want to call him a head of state.

HOST: Palestinian-born Hanna Freij, a visiting Assistant Professor of International Relations at Mount Union College in Alliance, Ohio. He spoke with VOA News Now's Tom Crosby.

VNN/TC/