Editorial II
Krieger, Terry
"Editorial II" Russians to disarm is to heat them to it. All these notions are of course untrue and irrational. They are genuine superstitions. The last two are...
...Consider old Tom Jefferson dreaming away down in Monticello...
...Egypt remains bellicose and intransigent, and Israel is now apprehensive...
...Those who hold the view that America had best dismantle its military because it already possesses enough weaponry to puff this globe into dust are victims of a dangerous delusion...
...The Administration seems to use "evenhandedness" as a synonym for "fairness," and it is possible to infer from the Administration's actions, including official statements, that the Administration conceives of "fairness" as "similar or even identical treatment for all parties in the same situation...
...have taken it to be a sign of a bias in favor of decency and good sense...
...If men are going to fight, the scarcity of modern conveniences is not going to dissuade them...
...Israel's determination is unquestionable, but its strength is limited...
...For example, after the 1956 Middle Eastern war, the United States joined with the Soviet Union in compelling Israel to withdraw its army from the Sinai Peninsula and accept a fragile set of security arrangements, arrangements which Egypt would wreck in May 1967...
...The incompatibility of the Egyptian and Israeli ends often is obscured by the euphemistic and vague language of President Anwar Sadat and other Egyptian leaders...
...That is to say, rather than cut back defensive outlays for research and development, we should probably increase them...
...Egypt accuses America of duplicity and giving total support to Israel...
...But we should never yield to our dreams before assuring that they become realities...
...The new "evenhanded" policy has replaced the old American policy of firm opposition to Soviet penetration of the the Mediterranean and the Middle East (a policy which helped to maintain Israel's security even though that was not its primary goal...
...they can be achieved seriatim...
...In the course of doing this, the United States has attempted to meet some of the conditions and demands put forth by Egypt and, by withholding arms and diplomatic support from Israel, to get Israel to do the same...
...The Administration has failed to achieve these goals...
...If the United States would have limited itself to urging the two sides to enter negotiations without preconditions, it might have helped to promote a settlement...
...Further, the Republic is chopping through high seas, and from all quarters there are grave fears for America's future...
...If the current cease-fire is to be maintained, and if a loug-term, overall settlement eventually is to be achieved, it wil not be because Egypt suddenly changes its attitude toward Israel, but rather because Egypt is convinced that it cannot win a war against Israel and that it cannot gain through diplomacy what it has failed to gain through military means...
...No one wants to wake up tq a commissar, though he might break fortune cooXies with a War Lord...
...Israel resents and resists the pressure America is putting on it and it is disturbed and puzzled by the lack of American understanding and support...
...Yet these leaders realize that such candid and colorful language, however much it may raise morale at home, offends many people abroad...
...But in this entire situation, what is perhaps of greatest significance for America's international interests and responsibilities is the Soviet Union's expansion in the Mediterranean and the Middle East, an expansion which has coincided with the Nixon Administration's "evanhanded" policy and an expansion which, insofar as it could have been stopped only by American opposition, may be attributed in part to that policy...
...At the very least, Egypt wants Israel to withdraw unconditionally to the armistice lines that prevailed in May 1967 and at most, it wants to destroy Israel (these two Egyptian ends are not, as Israel well knows, incompatible...
...On the other hand, Israel wants to survive and, consequently, it refuses to withdraw unconditionally to the old armistice lines, lines from which Israel easily was attacked and could again be attacked by Arab armies and guerrilla bands...
...While America's refusal to sell arms to Israel has weakened Israel's military position and thereby strengthened that of Egypt, America's diplomatic initiatives have undercut Israel's diplomatic activity and encouraged Egypt to believe that it can gain throught diplomatic means what it so far has not beeen able to gain through military means...
...Imagine...
...This is what it would take to demonstrate American determination, but given the cynicism, disillusionment and weariness which have overcome many people in the course of the public debate over the Vieinam War, given the malicious and mindless criticism by some people of America's role in international affairs, and given the doubt of some people that America can legitimately defend its interests or that America even has any legitimate interests to defend, given all this, is a demonstration of American determination politically possible...
...18 The Alternative February, 1972 Russians to disarm is to heat them to it...
...It intoxicates them...
...The United States still has substantial strength but its determination is very much in doubt...
...to be fair means to treat the parties in a situation consistently in accordance with certain rules or standards...
...IV It is manifest then that in this great nation --the hope of all Christendom and the home of Leonard Bernstein - - there still flourish as many superstitions as ever...
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...Editorial II The Results of 'Evenhandness' I N KEEPING with the Administration's "evenhanded" Middle Eastern policy, President Nixon and Secretary of State William Rogers offered to Israeli Premier Golda Meir, during her recent visit to Washington, "assurances" that the United States is committed to Israel's security...
...We already have a Department of Peace...
...A philanthropist who wants to he "fair" does not give assistance to anyone who asks for it, whether he needs it or not...
...It will be the reluctant recognition of these facts which will lead Egypt -- anything will lead Egypt - - to abandon its plans for the destruction of Israel and to work for a settlement which both sides can live with...
...Finally, imagine trmt we stop hoping for a magic act from every agency of the federal government and start yawning at the moral exhibitionism of our demagogues while elevating personal standards...
...They describe the excitement and glory of the "coming battle" and, invoking Allah, they characterize the defeat of Israel as not only a military and political goal but also a spiritual imperative...
...But such limited diplomatic activity might not have appeared "evenhanded" since Israel, but not Egypt, always has been willing to enter negotiations without preconditions...
...V/hile the misconception underlying the Nixon Administration's Middle Eastern policy is that "evenhandedness" or "fairness" means "similar or even identical treatment for all parties in the same situation," the false assumption of this policy is that similar treatment of the parties in the Middle Eastern situation, particularly Egypt and Israel, will promote a "just and lasting peace" because Egypt and The A l t e r n a t i v e F e b r u a r y , 1972 19 Israel have similar ends...
...they did not, however, offer to Mrs...
...47401...
...And the best way to persuade nations not to use their horrid offensive weaponry is to develop invulnerable defensive weaponry...
...Whether Israel is now militarily inferior to Egypt is difficult, perhaps impossible, to determine, but America's failure to sell arms to Israel, and the concomitant question of America's commitment to Israel's security, undoubtedly encourage Egypt to believe that, if not now then someday, with the help of Allah (and the Soviet Union), it can defeat Israel...
...But their ends are not similar...
...It is caled the Department of Defense, and if the pawky senator is implying that the Department of Defense truly intends to promote war, well then a cursory look at recent history reveals that it has been about as successful at bringing war to America as another large Federal agency has been at providing health, education and welfare...
...To the extent the United States can get Israel to make concessions without receiving anything in return, the United States removes an incentive for Egypt to negotiate seriously with Israel...
...Nixon...
...And m/my of these superstitions have sent fumes dangerously close to national policy...
...If it were true it would not be beautiful...
...Students and/or organizations--sell The Alternative on campus for fun and profit...
...Fairness is not equivalent to justice, but without fairness, there can he no justice...
...Our country can begin to demonstrate its determination -- its determination to resist Soviet expansion in the Middle East and to defend its own interests and those of its allies -- by abandoning its futile attempt to meet Egypt's conditions and demands for a settlement, supplying Israel with the arms it needs, and making it clear to the Soviet Union that America will not allow it to dominate the Middle East...
...Were McCarthy ever to stumble into a position where he had to face the consequences of his brassy chatter, he would become a soaring hawk overnight...
...Whenever he picked up his quill he journeyed through time to consort with poets, philosophers, and even an archangel or two...
...It is true that, at times, especially when they address crowds of citizens or soidjers, Egyptian leaders clearly state their ends...
...Nixon's sensible doctrine of a low profile abroad should continue while a sound defensive superioritv is maintained...
...Many Arabs have taken America's opposition to these heinotl.~ ~nals tn be a sign of an "anti-Arab" bias...
...But imagine that politicians were to demur from magnifying our sense of relative depravation...
...Besides giving some people an inaccurate and misleading impression of the policies of preceding adminislrations, the Nixon Adminislration has based its own "evenhanded" policy on a misconception and a false assumption...
...A "fair" judge does not sentence a convicted criminal and his victim to jail...
...Such policies would have entailed support for the deslruction of Israel and the annihilation of its people...
...They are just not that serious about he business of government...
...We should continue to argue against war...
...Finally, the doleful truth is that limiting arms has very little to do with limiting war...
...to use the United States for its own purposes...
...in fact, they are incompatible...
...To be fair does not mean to lack discrimination or to systematically avoid judgment...
...A "just and lasting peace" is no nearer to realization in the Middle East today than when President Nixon took office, and by trying to maintain friendly relations with Egypt and Israel, the United States has managed to achieve bad relations with both...
...A "fair" teacher does not give A's to students who always attend class and turn in superior work and to students who rarely attend class and turn in inferior work...
...In any case, the United States has not limited itself to urging such negotiations...
...Meir "assurances" that Israel soon will be permitted to purchase the Phantom jets and other military equipment which it has been asking to buy for months...
...It is difficult to predict the status of America's crisis if the frantic superstitions of the left liberals should fade before the triumph of a new, more enlightened, set of spurious beliefs...
...The leaders of a nation at war would not consider it "fair" - - indeed they would consider it "mad" - - to give their hattie plans to their allies and their enemies...
...The Soviet Union is attempting to achieve hegemony in the Mediterranean and the Middle East...
...It has not induced Egypt to break or even loosen its ties with the Soviet Union and it has not reassured Israel of its commitment to Israel's security...
...Under the old policy, the Soviet presence in the region was small...
...This conception of "fairness" is peculiar and even wrong because it means the party that is trying to be "fair" acts without taking into account or making judgments on the different attitudes toward it of the parties in the situation and the different circumstances, resources, actions and ends of these parties...
...instead it has participated in efforts to work out the details of an interim agreement on reopening the Suez Canal as well as an overall settlement...
...Professors who wish 1o avoid preparing lectures-order quantities for your classes...
...The blessed McCarthy has been engagingly poetic in his foreign policy statements but all good poetry is palpably untrue...
...So when they meet with leaders and newsmen from other countries, these F_,gyptian leaders talk about "peace," a "political settlement" and so on...
...What stands in the way of Soviet hegemony are the determination and sirength of Israel and the United States...
...By characterizing its Middle Eastern policy as "evenhanded," the Nixon Administration may give some Americans the inaccurate and misleading impression that the Middle Eastern policies of preceding administrations were not "evenhanded," that they were, in fact, biased in favor of Israel and against the Arab states, Since 1948, when Israel won its independence from British colonial rule, proclaimed its statehood, and defended itse!f against Arab armies intent on its destruction, the United States has given some economic and military aid to Israel and it has had friendly relations with Israel...
...most Americar...
...Terry Krieger S p e c i a l Bulk Rates The Alternative is available for classroom use or bulk distribution on campus...
...But Egypt cannot recognize, reluctantly or in any other way, facts which are not facts...
...What would be the state of our national distemper if, say, Senator McGovern moved on to newer, less cosmic, superstitions...
...This language apparently affects some State Department officials as booze affects alcoholics: they cannot get enought of it...
...No one is going to forget...
...Neither has it had policies which can be characterized simply us "pro-Arab" and "anti-Israel...
...But assuredly autumn will soon be upon them, and then the civlized few will have a new batch of palmists to enjoy...
...that Mr...
...Nations already know how to blow up the world...
...The last two are vividly illustrative of the deficiencies afflicting the nitwits who hold these views...
...Since the Nixon Administration's "evenhanded" Middle Eastern policy went into effect, the Soviet Union has built up a Mediterranean fleet which is equal or superior to our own, supplied Egypt with vast amounts of advanced military equipment and establsihed in Egypt its first major military presence outside its own territory since the occupation of its satellite states in Eastern Europe...
...11 Box 360, Bloomington, Ind...
...We should continue to urge moral principle in international relations...
...But as soon as he stepped into the White House he swore off the thing, began dictating his thoughts and gave manifest destiny its most vigorous shove So it has been with the sainted Kennedy, the second Johnson and now Mr...
...The problem with those who flatter themselves with the peace prefix is that they rarely think matters through...
...I have never been able to take them seriously, though I have always dreamed of taking them on in a game of poker...
...By refusing to sell Israel the arms it wants, the United States is allowing Israel's military position to deteriorate while the Soviet Union continues to supply Egypt with the most advanced military equipment and, where necessary, technicians and soldiers to operate the equipment...
...R. Emmett TyrreU, Jr...
...Whether the United States should have given so much economic and military aid to the Arab states and worked so hard to achieve friendly relations with them is questionable, but what is unquestionable is that the United States has not had Middle Eastern policies which can be characteriC_,ed simpl~" as "anti-Arab" and "pro-Israel...
...But, since 1948, the United States also has given generous amounts of economic and military aid to the Arab states and it has strived to achieve friendly relations with these states, even when some of them have been hostile to our country and even when friendly relations were achieved at Israel's expense...
...But in spite of its criticism of the United States, Egypt knows that the United States may help it gain concessions from Israel which it cannot gain on its own, so it is willing -- why should it not be willing...
...But the United States will not meet or, at least, cannot get Israel to meet all of the Egyptian conditions and demands...
...Among the goals of the Nixon Administration's "evenhanded" Middle Eastern policy have been the attainment of a "just and lasting peace" (that is, the millennium) in the area, and the maintenance of friendly relations with Egypt and Israel...
Vol. 5 • February 1972 • No. 5
