October 1990, Page 12, 13

Words To Remember

Chartering Through the Gulf Crisis

"I hardly think that it's the largest buildup in history. But I would say rather, if I could brag a little bit about the ability of the armed forces today. . . I would say it's probably the largest build-up that has occurred within the time frame. . . I think that's the correct characterization." -Commander of Desert Shield Operation General Norman Schwarzkopf, Aug. 31, 1990

"You said that you would not strike, and you struck. And now you are turning to Saudi Arabia, saying 'I will not strike.' They will not believe you. Do you think they will wait until disaster strikes them too?. . . You cannot put me in a bind like this. You cannot commit such a crime and then ask me for the impossible. Don't embarrass me. Just as you have your interests, I have interests. I am trying to protect Arab honor." -Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak responding to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, Aug. 8, 1990

"The defense of Saudi Arabia is such a vital American interest that we should pursue it unilaterally. The expulsion of the Iraqis from Kuwait is a general interest which I think the international community can achieve by sustained pressure. The toppling of Saddam Hussein can only be achieved by force. That force could only be pursued by the United States. I believe we would be alone, and therefore, it is not worth it." -Former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, Aug. 26, 1990

"We have made it clear that we understand why the United States has moved its forces into the Gulf, that it was done at the request of Saudi Arabia, and that it is in conjunction with the U.N. charter. We don't have a problem with that. . . We've come such a long way from Dr. Strangelove." -Soviet Attache David Chivaidze, Sept. 2, 1990

"In military terms, the Iraqi invasion is little more than a particularly vicious mugging of a rich little old lady who has been openly stalked and taunted by the neighborhood bully for months while everyone else looked the other way." -The Washington Post, Aug. 5, 1990

"So [the Americans] want to destroy Iraq, and they want to kill our people. We have invited those people as guests, put them within complexes, compounds. . . living with our families near there. They are serving a noble cause; if they prevent the American genocide against us, then they are serving a noble cause." -Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz, Aug. 26, 1990

"The events [in the Gulf] do not have to disturb the spiritual and physical peace of a single Jew, because they are a preparation and preface for the actual coming of the Messiah." -Lubavitcher Rabbi Menachem Mendel Scheerson, Aug. 20, 1990

"We have done everything within our power to seek the release of all foreigners on Iraqi and Kuwaiti soil. As far as Jordan is concerned, we have 420,000 Jordanians in Kuwait. As far as hostages are concerned, you could say that they too are in the war zone. I know it's appalling to see pictures of children involved in a conflict situation, but all our children, millions of Arab children, are also tied up in what could be a devastating war." -Crown Prince Hassan of Jordan, Aug. 26, 1990

"This is a very non-Arab behavior, I assure you. If you have traveled in the Arab world, you would realize how much Arabs are generous, are hospitable, are caring, particularly when it comes to women and children. . . I can unreservedly call this non-Arab behavior." -Egyptian Ambassador to the U.S. Abdel Raouf El Reedy, Aug. 31, 1990

"I think that there is every reason to think that the Arab community is as solid as the general world community on insisting that Saddam Hussein disgorge his ill-gotten gains. And I don't detect any flagging in that insistence on the part of any Arab states who are supporting this effort. . . The Arabs are and ought to be out in front on this. First of all, the conflict is taking place in Arab territory, and it is an Arab nation, and the confrontation is really Arab in nature." -National Security Advisor General Brent Scowcroft, Sept. 1, 1990

"I don't think anybody would in any way be sad if the people of Iraq decided to choose other leaders and to get rid of Saddam Hussein. We have to be careful, though. We tend in this country to make one person the object of all of our animosities and frustrations. There are other Saddam Husseins in Iraq, and the fact that he leaves will not cure all the problems." -Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sam Nunn (D-GA), Aug. 31, 1990

"But Saddam is not Saladin. . . We are like a people drowning, trying to grab any straw. Saddam is our straw." -Palestinian Musa Mohammed Hussein, Aug. 12, 1990

"This is not the Dukakis administration. We don't automatically assume that the U.N. system should be the first place to go to handle all our foreign policy problems." -Assistant Secretary of State John R. Bolton, Aug. 31, 1990

"Israel and its 'Amen' corner in the United States are the only ones beating the drums for war [against Iraq]." -Syndicated Columnist Patrick Buchanan, Aug. 19, 1990

"We must realize that if Mr. Hussein is permitted to remain in power in Iraq, he will present a constant and growing threat to the security of the region and, in particular, to Israel. For that reason, we cannot settle for anything less than his removal from power. . . Time is not on our side. Only a pre-emptive strike will save us from the nightmare of facing a regional nuclear war within the decade." -Senator Alfonse D'Amato (R-NY), Aug. 24, 1990

"Obviously, there would be a strong resistance in the Arab world to rewarding Saddam for his aggression against Kuwait. . . And it's doubtful that he's going to keep a piece of Kuwait, but I don't think that even the Kuwaitis would argue that if he withdraws they [would refuse to] discuss some outstanding issues-the question of final demarcation of borders, or the question of remaining debts." -Hisham Melhem, Washington Bureau Chief for Kuwait daily Al Qabas, Aug. 31, 1990

"If we allow [the Iraqis] to continue to occupy Kuwait, we send a signal to every barbarian on the planet that 'the civilized world will tolerate your seizing a country as long as you do it quickly.'" -House Minority Whip Newt Gingrich (R-GA), Aug. 2, 1990

On Aug. 12 Iraqi President Saddam Hussein proposed a withdrawal from Kuwait following a Syrian withdrawal from Kuwait following a Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon and an Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon, the Golan Heights and the Palestinian occupied territories. This linkage was dismissed by President George Bush as "irrelevant." Here is what others have to say on Israel and the Gulf crisis:

"For two years we looked to Egypt and the United States as a hope; we recognized Israel and renounced terrorism, only to have Shamir reject any negotiations with us and tell us this part of the world is still ruled by the sword. How could chairman Arafat go to the Palestinians out there and tell them we were sending our forces to fight alongside the United States in Saudi Arabia after all that has happened with the Americans in the last two years. . . What you are seeing is the action of people who have no other hope, no other alternative for ending the suffering they are enduring." -Palestinian professor Saeb Erakat, Aug. 17, 1990

"Saddam's popularity results from mindless U.S. policy that after many years has trivialized Arab nationalism while sustaining and strengthening the state of Israel. That gives Saddam his opening." -Syndicated Columnists Rowland Evans and Robert Novak, Aug. 13, 1990

"Israel's wrongdoings cannot be used as an argument to justify Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. Two wrongs do not make a right." -Thomas Cromwell, publisher of the Middle East Times, Aug. 20, 1990

"What is clear here is that Saddam is trying to involve Israel and draft the whole Arab world against Israel because he knows that the issue of Israel is the lowest common denominator in the Arab world." -Israeli radio commentator Aharon Barnea, Aug. 12, 1990

"Neither Iraq nor any other country could get away with this kind of belligerence if some of those local conflicts, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the Israeli-Arab state conflict. . . could be on their way to resolution." -Judith Kipper, The Brookings Institution, Aug. 9, 1990

"Saddam Hussein's proposal shows that any attempt to isolate the Arab-Israeli dispute from developments between Iraq and Kuwait and between the Arab world and the U.S. is artificial. . . If a similar proposal comes tomorrow from a Western source, Israel will not be able to evade it in similar fashion." -Israeli military analyst Ze'ev Schiff, Aug. 14, 1990

"If [Hussein's proposal] can bring about even the start of a solution to the Israeli-Arab conflict, I welcome it. . . As long as the Israeli-Arab problem is not settled, there will exist the risk of an Arab popular confrontation with certain powers that systematically back Israel." -King Hassan II of Morocco, Aug. 17, 1990

"We will have to do something that gains credibility with the Arab man on the street and gives the pro-Western regimes room to maneuver. When the dust settles on this, the Palestinian-Israeli issue will still be there unresolved. So far, Bush has incurred no debt whatsoever to Israel. He has not talked to Shamir, and there has been no talk of the strategic relationship. Israel seems irrelevant to this crisis. On the other hand, Bush will be somewhat indebted to some of the Arabs." -Former National Security Advisor William B. Quandt, Aug. 14, 1990

"Many Palestinians and other Arabs think that America is acting like a neo-colonialist imperial power, trying to dictate what Arabs should do. And of course there is always the double standard that we see: The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait must be resisted by all; the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza is accepted by all." -Palestinian journalist Daoud Kuttab, Aug. 17, 1990

"People are shocked that the Palestinians sided with Iraq. . . But this is what we were predicting all along. Unless you give the Palestinians a stake in a reality, a state of their own, they will sympathize with the most radical states and will pose a fifth column." -Michael Lerner, editor of the Jewish magazine Tikkun, Aug. 23, 1990

"The Iraqi threat could serve as an historic opportunity for Israel to become part of a strategic alliance with Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Syria against the megalomaniac President Saddam Hussein of Iraq. A prerequisite for such a policy would be for Israel to gain credibility in the pragmatic Arab world by imaginative moves toward settling its disputes with Syria and the Palestinians, while reassuring King Hussein of Jordan of its support." -Hebrew University professor Moshe Ma'oz, Aug. 9, 1990

"Had there been peace talks under way in Cairo, Israel couldn't have been cast as a villian by Saddam Hussein." -Israeli Peace Now Spokesman Amnon Goldblum, Aug. 21, 1990

"The Gulf conflict not only deprives [the Palestinians of] the possibility of support from a united Arab front, it also diverts international attention from the need to find a just, peaceful solution to the Palestinian question. It will supply all anti-peace forces in the region with a cover for their policies of war." -Palestinian newspaper Al Fajr, Aug. 6, 1990

"A rough symmetry fairly inclines moderate Arabs to expect American cooperation in ending the Israeli occupation of the West Bank in order to balance off their cooperation in ending Iraqi occupation of Kuwait. Here one needs to get past debating points. . . The implication, however, is not that West Bank occupation is legitimate and should be extended but that it should be ended in its own way. . . It is too early to hail Saddam as an accidental Arab-Israeli peacemaker, but it is not too soon to think hard about how to turn the crisis he created to enduring Arab-Israeli advantage." -Stephen S. Rosenfeld, Deputy Editor of The Washington Post, Aug. 17, 1990

"Part of their due bill is going to be the desire of those Arab states we're working with to do something on the Palestinian question." -Former National Security Advisor Robert Hunter, Aug. 24, 1990

"I am angered as to why an illegal Iraqi occupation of Kuwait has aroused far more American force and passion than the brutalities and callousness of Israel's 23-year-old occupation of Arab land." -Columbia University Professor Edward W. Said, Aug. 15, 1990

"With Mr. Hussein's troops in Kuwait and his chemical weapons threatening Israel, there will be no movement toward ending, or even ameliorating, the occupation of the West Bank. In that respect, the PLO is already among the big losers in the Iraq invasion of Kuwait." -Harvard Law School Professor Alan Dershowitz, Aug. 14, 1990

"The fact is that if we allowed one Arab country to occupy other Arab countries, what excuse do we have with the Israelis to tell them to let go of the West Bank?" -Former Egyptian Ambassador to the Arab League Tahsin Bashir, Aug. 12, 1990

"In the final analysis, Saddam Hussein has altered the political landscape in the Middle East in more ways than one. Israeli leaders who hope to capitalize on Hussein's aggression may find the old roads to Washington filled with new detour signs, and unless Jerusalem learns to read those signs, they could become permanent obstacles-obstacles that, incidentally, may be even more dangerous than the risks of a land-for-peace settlement." -The Washington Jewish Week, Aug. 16, 1990