EUROPEAN/AMERICAN RELATIONS: WHO LEADS?
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no to peace, and so on. So at least the Saudis have moved forward by
saying, "Yes, on the condition that we go back to the
'67
borders." The
Saudis are in the position, at the moment, of having to make up their
minds whether to help America or not. They did not allow the Ameri–
can bases in Saudi Arabia to be used in the campaign against al Qaeda.
They allowed the command and control position to be used, but planes
could not take off from the Saudi base, which is why they had to take
off from San Diego, the carriers, and Qatar. Now the United States is
building up alternative sources to Saudi Arabia and it seems to me that
something is going to be asked of the Saudis in return.
If
the Saudis are
going to play that sort of a game and not allow Americans to use their
bases, the Americans will be perfectly reasonable in saying "Alright, you
make your own peace with Iraq. You come to whatever terms you come
to." I would think that the American policy for Saudi Arabia will have
to change unless the Saudis are going to be more accommodating; they
don't even share information, which is more or less international now. I
forget how many countries there are in some arrangement whereby pas–
senger lists are shared among governments so that you can tell who's on
which flight. It's very important to know which Saudis are flying where,
because fifteen of those nineteen highjackers were Saudi, but the Saudis
don't share that information.
Edith Kurzweil:
I want to go back to David's first point of how people
are not aware of history in the making by recalling one specific incident.
I happened to land at the Rome airport two hours before the Pope was
shot. Having lived in Italy for many years before then, I soon realized,
and I wrote in
Partisan Review,
that more than one person was involved
and that this had been a plot. I also noticed, just impressionistically, that
suddenly Italy had many people from Arab countries there, and that Ali
Agca, the guy who shot the Pope, had been at the mosque in Perugia
that had just been built. This indicated to me that there was an interna–
tional organization . But it took about two years for the authorities to
seriously investigate. Over the years, we got proof that each time there
is a terrorist attack, there are demonstrations by Palestinians and their
friends all over the world . But only now do we go after these terrorists.
As we know, it's very difficult to pin them down. What do you think can
be done about this-which is certainly helping to divide the Israelis? I
have one other question: if, in fact, we could manage to put through Mr.
O'Brien's plan, what will the Palestinians do, having to live in the West
Bank and in Gaza, without any work? What is in the future, in case it
comes to fruition?
