LEWISTON – If opportunities for peace in the Middle East are to follow the recent death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, the leaders of Israel expect to see evidence of it soon.

Hillel Newman, Israeli consul to New England in Boston, told a Bates College audience that the election of a successor to Arafat in early January will send a prompt signal. Whoever is elected, the early announcement of a policy of coexistence with Israel or absence of such a policy will tell the story.

“Now we have optimism,” Newman said, but he cautioned that Israeli statesman Shimon Peres talked about a new Middle East when the Oslo agreements were signed, “and it cost him dearly” when terrorist attacks began.

“The fact that Arafat is gone does not promise us anything for the future yet,” Newman said.

He said it seemed likely that Abu Mazin, head of the PLO, will be elected president of the Palestinian Authority.

Big question

“The big question is: What will the policy be? It doesn’t matter who the person may be. Will he be making peace with Israel or will he be making peace with Hamas and with the Islamic Jihad?”

That is the crucial decision, Newman said.

“If he will stand up and say, I am going towards peace with Israel, that will be the decisive issue because that will mean confrontation with Hamas.”

Both sides of the conflict are in transitional periods, the consul said. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is being challenged by his own Likud party. The outcome of that will be settled this week.

Arafat preferred internal peace with Hamas, the Islamic Jihad and other militant Islamic groups over peace with Israel, Newman said.

“It was a calculated decision. He had the power, he had the ability, and he made the wrong decision.”

Newman said the first of three key issues necessary for peace is the strategic decision of the new Palestinian leader, whomever he may be, to advance a policy of peace.

Second is abandonment of terrorism. Newman said continued terrorism would solidify Israeli public opinion against Palestine. He added that non-democratic nations of the Middle East don’t understand the importance of public opinion.

The third key issue needed by the Palestinians is support of the Arab world. Newman pointed out that some Arab nations do not stand to gain from Palestinian peace with Israel because it threatens their non-democratic regimes.

The lecture by Newman, “Prospects for Peace in the Middle East: After Arafat,” took place Wednesday afternoon before an audience of several dozen Bates students, a few members of the general public and the Jewish community of the Twin Cities. The program was sponsored by the Harward Center for Community Partnerships.

From 1992 to 1998, Newman taught history at Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan outside Tel Aviv, concurrently serving as director of the Center for Research at Bar-Ilan University’s Yad Ben Zvi during the middle years of his tenure there. He recently returned to academia as an adjunct associate professor at the Center for Judaic Studies at Boston University.

Appointed consul of Israel to New England in November 2001, Newman also served for brief periods in Athens, Greece; Ankara, Turkey; and Tashkent, Uzbekistan.