Yorks speak tour

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tion is equally keen to see such retreats, but looks much more to a longer-term arrangement by which the Arab regimes can be tied in to a stable relationship with imperialism and with the Zionist state.

Nor are the Americans isolated from a body of support inside Israel. Begin's Likud coalition has only a wafer-thin majority in the Knesset, while the leader of the Israeli 'Labour' Party, Shimon Peres, has spoken out strongly for the US plan and it has won backing in the press.

Peres has declared himself willing to fight an election on the issue, and an opinion poll suggests that up to 50% of Israelis might be willing to give up likely to produce what is needed to contain the struggles of the Palestinians and the Arab working masses. To preserve a longterm peace, the Zionists and imperialists need not to annihilate the credibility of the bourgeois Arab and moderate PLO leaders by seeking to enforce a humiliating deal which will never be accepted by the masses: such an approach would leave Israel single-handed to police the Middle East.

They need instead to enlist the support of those leaders in persuading the Arab masses to accept the 'reality' of the Zionist state and its military superiority, and that an 'autonomous' Palestinian ministatelet is the best deal that; tion, but after roughing them up a bit, to 'make them an offer they can't refuse' With Egypt already committed to a treaty with Israel and the Saudi regime having floated its own plan (the Fahd plan) which recognises Israel, it seems that Jordan's King Hussein would like to swallow Reagan's bait. It remains to be seen whether Yassir Arafat's Fateh wing of the PLO will also be lured by the prospect of an escape from their post-Beirut impotence to accept the 'autonomy' concept. Syrian president Assad is apparently opposed to any such compromise which leaves Syrian deprived of the Golan Heights and vulnerable to further attation of Palestine, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, have opposed the Reagan scheme: But the 'moderate' spokesman left behind by the PLO in Beirut has said that if the plan really means a Zionist withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza, then 'the rest is secondary'.

the fence Arafat meanwhile has remained balanced carefully on the fence, refusing to accept or reject the plan - leaving the most vigorous rejection to come from Begin.

The Lebanese war showed beyond doubt the refusal of the Arab leaders to lend leaders into a sufficiently swift and favourable response he may yet persuade. - or possibly seek to bludgeon Begin into accepting - that his strategy is workable. Or he may win sufficient credibility among the Israeli electorate to enable Peres to make a real challenge on the issue.

Much hangs upon the current Arab summit meeting in the Moroccan capital, Fez - which is one reason why Reagan broke his holiday to rush out his plan. East which would effectively exclude the Soviet Union from any significant role.

Marginalise

As one US observer has pointed out, if a Palestinian state of some form has to be conceded, it is best that it be done on the initiative of the imperiausts in such a way as to marginalise the militants.

Which goes to prove that in the world of political 'reality' there is more than one way of skinning a cat. The Labour Committee on Palestine has received a big boost with the affiliation to it of the Bradford Labour Movement Campaign for Palestinian Solidarity and the Keighley Committee on Palestine anc With this support, the newly formed Yorkshire Region of the LCP has launched a speakers' tour of the area. Meetings will take place in Halifax, Leeds, Keighiey, and Bradford Thé LCP Yorkshire Region is also offering speakers and a bookstall to all labour movement meetings. In you are inter ested, contact Clir Barry Turner at 7 Westfield Cres, Undercliffe, Bradford BD2 4RH.

For details of or affiliations to the LCP nationally, contact 28 Carlton Mansions, Holmleigh Rd, London N16: