Scholar talks Mideast peace

Though the Middle East peace process has been thrust into the media spotlight, its inner workings may in fact still be a mystery, according to David Luchins, a senior advisor to Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.) and professor of Political Science at Touro College. In a speech entitled "Shifting Sands: The United States, Israel and the Palestinians," Luchins told approximately 20 Penn students Tuesday night that "things aren't, in world's politics, always what they appear to be." Citing the pro-Israeli stance taken by the U.S. government as a major contributor to Israel's sustenance, Luchins described American aid to Israel as "the largest voluntary transfer of wealth on the planet." Luchins added, though, that the same closeness of U.S.-Israeli relations contributed to the Soviet Union's anti-Israeli sentiments. During the Cold War, anti-Communist sentiments grew not only in the U.S. but in Israel. "Israel was a metaphor for democracy," Luchins explained. "The mainstream Palestinian movement was largely a Soviet effort." According to Luchins, this is the reason that since the fall of the Soviet Union -- and particularly in the past three years -- the peace process between Palestinians and Israelis has gained momentum. Although Luchins offered little comment on the future of the peace process, he indicated that it would be a lengthy, difficult process. Later in the speech, Luchins discussed new troubles in Jerusalem saying, "I've spent the past couple of days marinated in this Jerusalem issue." The issue revolves around a bill passed by Congress in 1995 designed to move the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The U.S. has been traditionally reluctant to move its embassy from Tel Aviv, respecting a United Nations resolution declaring Jerusalem an international city under the terms of the 1948 partition plan, and not Israel's capital. While embassy locations are determined by the executive branch and are rarely located outside of a nation's self-determined capital, Congress tied a stipulation preventing the president from spending more than half of the U.S.'s annual defense allocation if the embassy was not relocated by May 1, 1999. The problem arose when it was recently found that the embassy was still fixed in Tel Aviv. Luchins was involved in formulating a decision. To solve the problem, it was decided that the embassy seal would be affixed to a cluster of hotel rooms located in Jerusalem that were already occupied by the U.S. embassy. A College junior and audience member who wished to remain anonymous, said of Luchins' speech, "It's definitely a great insider's look at international politics." College junior Alan Dorfman helped bring Luchins to Penn after hearing him speak while on a trip to Israel, funded by the Jerusalem Fellowships program. Jerusalem Fellowships sponsored the talk, along with the Sigma Iota Rho and Pi Sigma Alpha honor societies, the Hillel Israel Committee, the International Relations Program and the Jewish Heritage Program.