Dulles and the Arab Plot Against Israel

...It was also argued during last month's crisis that no Israeli conditions for withdrawal could be accepted because it was not for the aggressor to lay down terms for the cessation of his offense...

...It remains to seek an adequate explanation for this extraordinary episode and to consider what it implies for the future...

...Eden indicated then that the condition of a Palestine peace settlement must be an Israeli willingness to make territorial cessions...

...Arab friendship as between America and Russia is to go to the power which will make the better offers to this end...

...In view of the fact that Egypt openly claimed belligerent rights, it was the plain duty of the Assembly to call on Egypt to renounce these rights at the same time that it required Israel to evacuate Egyptian territory—especially as Egypt was manifestly incapable of bringing about an Israeli withdrawal by her own strength...

...In Germany, Dr...

...The result was a setback in the Arab timetable...

...His views merit serious discussion...

...The Russian purpose is to become sole patron of an Arab confederacy and to exclude the influence of the West...

...They would then know that they could never make war on Israel without making war on America, and that they could never, therefore, deliver the goods which they teach their mob-audiences to expect from them...

...It is this strong current of public opinion which will in the end frustrate the schemes of the American and British Foreign Ministers for buying the Arabs by complicity in the murder of Israel...

...In Britain, indignation at the failure to challenge Egypt's claim to belligerent rights was by no means confined to those who had supported the Suez expedition...

...Thus, barely a dozen years after the cremation furnaces of Auschwitz ceased to burn, it was left to a German Chancellor to make a stand against international policies promoted by the victors of the Second World War which, if carried to their logical conclusion, would merely complete the work left unfinished by the Nazi Einsatzgruppen...

...But it is not primarily on French support that Israel, apart from reliance on her own right arm, bases her hopes for future survival...

...In such a policy, Dulles can expect to find a good second in Selwyn Lloyd, a worthy representative of the pro-Arab "camel .corps" school of British Middle Eastern diplomacy...

...Nothing during the last two years has whetted Arab appetites more than Sir Anthony Eden's Mansion House (Guildhall) speech in the autumn of 1955...

...the few moderates who are willing to accept the existence of an Israeli nation insist on such a reduction of its territory that it would cease to be viable...

...Their attention is concentrated on North Africa, where they regard Egypt as their principal enemy, and they are therefore ready to support Israel as a check on Egypt...

...A world war can start in Palestine if there is doubt about America's position—as there was over Korea in 1950...

...This public opinion holds that Israel is entitled to national independence and security, that the same principles of law should be applied impartially to Israel and the Arabs, and that a "solution" of the conflict which compels withdrawal of victorious Israeli forces while leaving Egypt with belligerent rights is unjust and absurd...

...If, for example, the Russians were to start firing on American ships in the Baltic or shooting rockets into California from submarines in the Pacific, one cannot imagine John Foster Dulles explaining to the American people that nothing had been done to justify armed retaliation because no Russian troops were ill occupation of any part of American territory...

...The Egyptians had not yet had enough training to handle the heavy weapons with which they had been provided, their staff work proved quite inadequate, and neither Syria nor Jordan took any military action in support of Egypt...

...Antony's College, Oxford, he served seven years in the British Foreign Office, has long been an editor of the London Economist, and is author of An Atlas of Far Eastern Politics and other books on Asia...

...There is only one thing that can stop this rake's progress toward another war in the Middle East, and that is a firm declaration by the Western great powers that they will not allow what the Arab leaders intend to do...

...but RritishIsraeli relations in fact remained as bad as ever...

...Recent Russian policy has been to suggest to the Arabs that if only they will dissociate themselves sufficiently from all ties with the West, they can count on Russian help to achieve the aim of eliminating Israel...

...Nobody denies—least of all the Egyptians themselves—that Egypt claims to be in a state of war with Israel and therefore to exercise belligerent rights...

...They have, therefore, only to wait until their military strength matures and meanwhile keep the pot boiling by agitation, propaganda, threats, incidents and the partial exercise of belligerent rights...

...There has never been an international crisis in which the facts have been so little in dispute...

...But it should never have been necessary for Israel to demand guarantees and be put in the position of bargaining with the UN over terms for evacuation...

...The majority of Arab leaders frankly declare that Israel must be eliminated as a state...

...It is charitable to suppose that Dulles believes that he will be able to use the influence he expects to gain in the Arab world to restrain its leaders, when the time comes, from an all-out attack on Israel...

...Any pledges given to Israel, it was held, would mean that a nation was profiting by an act of aggression, and this was something the UN could not tolerate...

...And if Dulles is to beat Russia in this game, he must in the long run do everything to help the Arabs short of using American bombers to wipe out Tel Aviv...

...But clearly the short-term tension would involve a period of unpleasantness for the Secretary of State, and Dulles is not willing to face such a prospect...

...Secretary Dulles and the Arab Plot Against Israel 'His policy must lead to the perpetration of a great international crime' By G. F Hudson In a public statement issued on March 15, after the arrival of Major-General Abdel Hassan Latif as Egyptian Governor in Gaza, the Israeli Foreign Ministry declared: "For the Egyptian dictator there is apparently reserved a unique code of international law and conduct whereby, while waging a one-sided warfare against Israel, he is to be given the shelter of the United Nations...

...The American and British policies toward Israel are also in harmony with the attitude of the Soviet Union...

...The American people are too decent for Dulles and the British nation is not bad enough for Selwyn Lloyd...

...Nobody, in other words, denies that Egypt has been committing acts of war against Israel over since the conclusion of the 1949 armistice, which was supposed to lead lo a negotiated peace settlement...

...Director of Far Eastern Studies at St...

...The course of the debates in the Assembly and of the parallel negotiations between the Israeli representatives and the U.S...

...But the immediate result might well be an outburst of fury and resentment among the Arabs which might be damaging to American oil interests and lead the Arab rulers to make dramatic gestures of appealing to Russia...

...The military superiority they require is a matter of modern arms, of training in their use, and of close coordination between the forces of the Arab states directly concerned...

...It is now a fact of history that the United Nations under the leadership of the United States and the Soviet Union, and with the active connivance of the Secretary-General, has shown extreme partiality and injustice in dealing with the Israeli-Egyptian conflict...

...it was most strongly expressed in Labor party circles which had approved of the U.S...

...Not only does the anti-Israeli cause arouse the strongest emotions among Arabs, but it is also the only issue on which the separate Arab states can effectively be combined...

...Secretary of State reflected the competitive bidding for Arab favor which has now become the main feature of Middle East politics and the factor most dangerous to peace in the entire range of international relations...

...His idea of a Middle East policy is to win the friendship of the Arab states, particularly Saudi Arabia, and to avoid offending them in any way—a policy which is obviously incompatible with any sort of guarantee to Israel...

...Today there is still time to reconsider policy and relate it to the fundamental principles for which the Western democracies stand...

...This is not, it must be admitted, because the French have a greater regard for abstract justice, but because their view of their national self-interest happens to coincide with the aim of preserving the Israeli state instead of aiding and abetting Arab plans to destroy it...

...With America, Britain and Russia all competitively aligned against Israel, France is the only power which definitely takes Israel's side in the conflict...

...In the Middle East, competitive coexistence between Russia and the West has become competitive anti-Zionism...

...Here G. F. Hudson publicly voices grave charges which till now have only been whispered...

...attitude over Suez...

...But this cannot be more than a postponement of the day of wrath, and the former buildup has now been resumed: Soviet arms are again coming into the Middle East, and the United States, under its agreement with Saudi Arabia and the provisions of the Eisenhower Doctrine, is also engaged in arming Arab states, even if supplies are not at the moment going directly to Egypt...

...But it is really not fair to Dulles to assume that he is the victim of such illusions...

...The recent proceedings in the United Nations and the course of American diplomacy as conducted by Secretary Dulles have given the Arab, leaders more reason than ever before to hope that they can achieve the destruction of Israel without serious interference from outside...

...Nor was the verdict of public opinion any different in Europe...

...It can, of course, be argued that military occupation of another country's territory is so different from blockade and guerrilla raids that the one must formally be reckoned as war and the other not...

...The UN of its own accord should have required a renunciation of belligerency by both sides as part of an Assembly resolution for putting an end to the state of war between Israel and Egypt...

...If the Assembly failed to perform this duty, it was in no way due to any moral scruples about "rewarding aggression," but solely due to the formation of a log-rolling bloc of interests which made it possible to obtain a two-thirds vote for sanctions against Israel, but not for any restriction on Egypt...

...Last October, when the Israelis struck against Egypt, the confederates were still unprepared...

...If the United States, with or without Britain and France, were to give Israel within her existing frontiers a definite guarantee against armed attack (as unambiguous as that which has been given to Formosa) and at the same time to recognize Israel's right to retaliation for as long as Egypt claims to exercise rights of belligerency, then the propagandists of the destruction of Israel would have to desist from their perpetual rabble-rousing...

...in the eyes of the Arabs, the British were acting in collusion with Israel, and the universal Arab sympathy for Egypt was far greater than it would have been had Britain used force against Egypt immediately after Nasser's rejection of the London Conference proposals for international administration of the Suez Canal...

...Since the fiasco of the Suez intervention, however, the British Government has been making tentative attempts to regain Arab favor by showing hostility toward Israel...

...Nobody acquainted with pan-Arab propaganda and the sentiments of Arab politicians can honestly doubt that these designs, unless checked and restrained from outside, must sooner or later lead to an all-out Arab-Israeli war...

...The Arabs require payment primarily in the form of material and diplomatic support for their design of destroying Israel...

...It is this Russian championship of the Arab cause which has created the market in Arab friendship open to bids by the Western powers...

...The danger is that the turn will come too late to avert war in the Middle East, and that catastrophe will overtake the Western democracies while they are trying to extricate themselves from commitments to the Arabs...

...The policy which has recently been pursued by Secretary of State Dulles must lead inexorably, if it is continued, to the perpetration of a great international crime...

...The onlv reasonable inference to be drawn from his recent behavior is that he understands very well the price thai has to be paid ultimately for the ends he pursues and that he is prepared lo pay it...

...Manpower is not a problem, for the odds in terms of population are overwhelmingly on the side of the Arabs...

...Eden appears to have imagined that by proclaiming the Anglo-French intervention in Egypt to be a move to separate the Egyptian and Israeli forces he could dissociate Britain from the Israeli action...

...But why should he not...

...his defects are not of intellect, but of character...

...The long-term effect of such a declaration would be to pacify the Middle East by removing the hope of destroying Israel from the realm of practical politics...

...But a rivalry for the more effective fulfilment of Arab desires is not, of course, the same thing as a real agreement about the future of the Middle East...

...This sentence does not exaggerate the state of affairs which has arisen as a result of the application in the United Nations of a double standard of law for judging the actions of Israel and Egypt respectively...

...Not even President Eisenhower's broadcast availed to persuade the nation that black was white when it was so obviously black...

...Adenauer rejected an American proposal that he should suspend reparations deliveries to Israel if the UN voted for sanctions...

...And this means that it is a political necessity for politicians aiming at increased influence in the Arab world to dwell on it and exacerbate it as much as possible...

...It may be a source of satisfaction to those who feel nostalgia for the good old days of Big Three unity that America, Britain and Russia have found in a common partiality for the enemies of Israel at least one subject in world affairs on which they can agree...

...The feeling of the American people on the matter was shown clearly enough, both in the press and in Congress, when it was a question of the United States voting for sanctions against Israel...

...A series of episodes in recent history has shown that the foreign policies of democratic nations cannot in the long run be conducted along lines which are repugnant to the consciences of the great bulk of their citizens...

...It is a way of giving notice that Britain is not committed to any protection of Israel...

...The man who goes lo an auction determined to get what he wants must be ready to bid as high as is necessary...

...The Arab world is up for auction to the highest bidder, and the bids are required not only in economic aid or concessions but also, and above all, in toleration or support for the pan-Arab designs against Israel...

...Since Israel's present territory is the bare minimum needed for strategic and economic viability, and since there is no juridical or moral ground for requiring territorial cessions from Israel any more than from the Arab states, this attitude is nothing but an encouragement to the Arab leaders to intensify pressure and threats against Israel...

...The Communists have always been hostile to Zionism—in the early days because it was a rival to Marxism for the ideological allegiance of the younger generation of East European Jewrv, and later because the state of Israel, allegedly an outpost of American imperialism, was feared as a source of influence over Jews in Russia and the satellite countries...

...It is only Egypt which i* deemed to possess, uniquely among the nations of the world, the right to wage war without interference and yet to be protected by the world's security organization from the normal risks of belligerency...

...There would, in fact, be little danger in this, for if the Soviet Government were convinced that America would protect Israel against an Arab attack it would be very unlikely to support such an attack, unless it intended to go to war with America in any case...

...If so, he has fatally overestimated the restraint which can be exerted by counsels of moderation on an inflamed nationalist fanaticism when there is no deterrent of military commitment to support them...

...But time is needed to bring the Arab armed forces to the point where they will be qualitatively a match for the Israelis...

...Britain was trying to huy Arab friendship by an anti-Israeli policy long before the Eisenhower Administration entered the market...

...But the time is short...

...Since the Israelis have no intention of submitting to national extinction (or even to deprivation of territory which they now hold) without a desperate fight, the present policies of Israel's Arab neighbors must inevitably result in war—whenever the Arab leaders feel that they have attained military superiority over Israel and are reasonably sure there will be no great-power intervention against them...

...But it is clear that governments which invoke this distinction in regard to the Israeli-Egyptian conflict would not be willing themselves to accept the logical implications of the principle...

...Selwyn Lloyd has publicly returned to the Eden thesis that Israel can have peace only if she is willing to cede territory...

...Nobody denies that Egypt has for six years kept the Suez Canal closed to Israeli shipping in defiance of a resolution of the Security Council, has forcibly kept Israeli shipping out of the Gulf of Aqaba...

...But it can be foreseen with a high degree of certainty that, before that point is reached, the American people will rebel against the policy...

...The arms deliveries from the Soviet bloc, by nullifying the Western attempt to keep peace in the Middle East through a balance in military supplies, have made the project of a serious attack on Israel one of practical politics...

...Thus, Moscow has no interest in cooperation with the West for a settlement, even at Israel's expense...

...Israel is not his country, and he thinks it important to conciliate the Arabs...

...It is on the general attitude of public opinion throughout the Western world, and not least in America and Britain...

...and has organized systematic raiding of Israeli territory by fedayeen bands...

...Britain's subsequent quarrel with Nasser n\cr Suez superficially brought her inlo an alignment with Israel against Kppt...

...He is a diplomat of great knowledge and experience...

...Yet, as soon as Israel also exercises belligerent rights and commits acts of war against Egypt, virtually the whole world as organized in the United Nations (including not only the Arab and Moslem states, which were predisposed to side with Egypt, but also governments which might have been expected to approach the issue impartially) agrees to treat Egypt as an innocent victim of aggression and order the Israeli forces to withdraw without exacting from a defeated Egypt any renunciation of belligerency...

...Their concord in conspiracy for the obliteration of a small people is all the more impressive in that it would certainly have had the unreserved approbation of Hitler...

...The French have no oil holdings in Arabia or Iraq, or pipelines through Syria, and are therefore less susceptible to blackmail from that quarter...

...As it turned out, nobody took the Eden version seriously...

...Since the Eisenhower Administration took over in Washington, it must have been obvious to the Kremlin that Israel no longer enjoyed American favor or support, but Russia has found a new motive for hostility to Israel in the desire to obtain predominant influence in the Arab world...