Dear Editor
Dear Editor Political Aria Why is Robert Lekachman so unanalytical in his review of John Kenneth Galbraith's latest, highly stylized socialist symphonette, Economics and the Public Purpose...
...With that record, and after Israel sacrificed so much in October to show that the Arabs are the warmongers, how can he think the burden of proving good will falls on Israel...
...It should be provided if Israel wants it...
...The blessings of peace always were available to Islam, which is a warlike religion, but the Arab demagogues preferred rallying their people's frustrations against Jewry...
...could, and in my view should, force the Israelis to evacuate the conquered territories, as President Dwight D. Eisenhower did in 1957, the Soviet Union cannot realistically force the Arabs to agree to Brzezinski's suggestions on unilateral demilitarization...
...The deep, decades-old causes of hostility should be recognized by whoever wants to eliminate them...
...Many in the West have hoped that Cairo would come to reject as folly the tying of its own national interest to the cause of "the legitimate rights of the Palestine Arabs," since this would commit it to an undefined objective...
...The key is to guarantee the security of Israel while restoring the territory and honor of the Arabs and finding a solution for the Palestinians...
...Since the Arabs started wars from the Golan and Sinai before, it isn't logical to argue that this latest venture had no objective but to recover those areas from Israeli "expansionists...
...Finally, although the U.S...
...and Israel (and the Arabs) will find no light, except perhaps a thermonuclear one, at the end of the tunnel...
...It argued that Israel should cede Sharm el Sheik because control over it cannot prevent a blockade of Eilat, although Israel says that control could afford a counter blockade of Egypt...
...Tt projected onto other Arab states Jordan's ability for off-and-on peaceful coexistence, yet a jackal gets along with a bull until the bull is felled by a pair of leopards...
...Even now, in the new atmosphere created by the October War, an understanding will be difficult to achieve—as Henry Kissinger discovered in skillfully working out what is only the beginning, an accord on where the Egyptian and Israeli armies should stand while their governments negotiate a political settlement...
...The time when American policy in the Middle East can be significantly determined by domestic political considerations must end...
...Dealing with Egypt is Israel's most important problem, for Egypt is its main adversary...
...His recipe includes the interposition of UN forces, U.S...
...Ten years ago, that might have seemed reasonable...
...Failure to enforce earlier agreements led to the 1967 and 1973 conflicts...
...They excuse their anti-Israel rabble-rousing by asserting that their rabble would otherwise overthrow them...
...Then how would they explain a peace treaty to embittered subjects, and when would they start...
...promises against Egyptian blockades and missile-emplacements...
...If the Syrians are not ready to negotiate or to accept such guarantees, let them wait...
...Two have to do with the basis for a settlement, the other with how to get there...
...there will be another war...
...Third, Brzezinski's scheme has considerable value because of its specificity...
...Israel, which has never hidden its contempt for the United Nations as a peacekeeper, will be impressed only by assurances coming from Washington...
...Second, it courageously advocates a shift of U.S...
...New York City John C. Campbell Senior Research Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations I am in strong general agreement with Zbigniew Brzezinski's views on a Mideast settlement: on the necessity for gradual but eventually near-total Israeli withdrawal from the territories conquered in 1967, with a UN force interposed between Israel and the Arabs, and with a U.S...
...Dear Editor Political Aria Why is Robert Lekachman so unanalytical in his review of John Kenneth Galbraith's latest, highly stylized socialist symphonette, Economics and the Public Purpose ("Focusing on the Planners," NL, January 7...
...That he is on the right track seems to be confirmed by Henry Kissinger's shuttle diplomacy...
...As in the case of Sinai, Israel must agree to the eventual return of the West Bank, Gaza and the Golan Heights (perhaps with minor modifications...
...The rest of the territory should go back, though, dependent again on measures of demilitarization and guarantees for Israel's security...
...We didn't know then how empty would be the U.S...
...Those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it...
...The third point, which is where the United States comes in...
...For a settlement will stand a greater chance of lasting if it rests on more than an American military commitment...
...They have the right to expect that a settlement be made, but they also have the obligation to see that it holds...
...Indeed, the Egyptians themselves may in the end balk if it appears they are about to sign a treaty alone...
...could veto this...
...To paraphrase Willy Brandt with respect to West Germany's Ostpolitik, this would not give away anything that was not given away long ago...
...There are, however, some serious, living classical composers from the Faculty of the Old School of Real Socialism—Orwell, Djilas, Koestler, Solzhenitsyn—whose choral works on the themes and character of centrally planned societies have an entirely different message and resonance...
...In addition, means must be found to prevent the UN force from being withdrawn by the Secretary-General, as in 1967, or by its participants...
...For this reason, I think the U.S...
...Anwar el-Sadat's evident desire to pay more attention to the home front than Nasser did has encouraged such hopes...
...A political settlement is the condition for economic cooperation, and not the other way round...
...security guarantee of the settlement...
...It minimized Soviet deviltry on the grounds that "smarter" Arabs are catching on to it...
...Those key questions were not addressed...
...By what double standard does he condemn Israel as expansionist while offering Jordan the very land it expanded into in 1948...
...policy toward both a more even-handed approach in the Arab-Israeli dispute and a more active U.S...
...A strong case can be made for Israel's retention of the crest of the Golan Heights...
...the U.S...
...One can quarrel here or there—for example, I do not see why the Egyptian Armed Forces should be allowed to remain permanently in Zone A of the Sinai Peninsula, and I worry about the complex nature of the suggested arrangements for Jerusalem—but altogether the proposed changes, if obtainable, should provide for a fair and, hopefully, permanent settlement...
...The real keys to peace are the nature of the agreement itself and its backing by the international community, especially by Europe and by the Soviet Union (the USSR is being relatively quiet at the moment, but may not stay that way...
...New York City J. C. Hurewitz Director, Middle East Institute, Columbia University Zbigniew Brzezinski's imaginative proposal has four principal merits: First, it recognizes the inevitable necessity for an Israeli withdrawal from Arab territories to something roughly equivalent to the 1967 boundaries...
...guarantee of Israel's security, one of Brzezinski's cardinal points...
...Cambridge, Mass...
...What is really necessary, for peace and stability in the region and the world, is that Israeli and Arab freedom of action be so limited as to forestall a resumption of hostilities...
...seems more promising than the idea of a separate Palestinian Arab state on the West Bank...
...Israel and the Arab states chose alternatives that were politically easier...
...It said "perhaps" some minor adjustments should be made in the notoriously unsafe 1948 borders...
...If there is no agreement, the energy crisis will get worse...
...Maybe his plan will work, but he doesn't inspire confidence by resting the blame for war on its Jewish victims and the faith for Israel's security on its antagonists...
...A border with Syria there makes much more sense than the old one, less than 11 yards from the shore of Lake Tiberia...
...that speaks for itself...
...What about the proposed U.S...
...The much-orchestrated "Variations on the Theme of Humanistic Socialism" is a perennial favorite of a school of conductors who either: (1) compose best-selling pop melodies about social maladies while skiing on the slopes of Switzerland (J...
...Despite such experience, Brzezinski would trust a new Nixon guarantee...
...Northridge, Cal...
...Will the Congress approve a draft treaty giving a defense commitment to Israel...
...It certainly should, especially if this is the one remaining requirement for Israel's acceptance of a peace settlement...
...Then, too, they believe that the oil weapon is still working in their favor...
...or (4) celebrate the musical scores of all Socialist movements, in the bistros of Paris (Jean Paul Sartre...
...K. Galbraith...
...diplomacy in achieving and securing a settlement...
...is that no settlement can be reached without our participating directly in the mediation and pressuring both sides...
...Withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza raises the issue of whom they are to be returned to, and if the Arab governments and the Palestinians are confronted with this question, knowing that the territory cannot be given over until they have settled it, at least on a temporary basis, it should be a great inducement for them to come to some decision...
...They have also vowed that accepting a plan such as Brzezinski's would be only the first step toward destroying Israel...
...This will require disengagement of forces, demilitarization of territories and the development of a Palestinian state...
...On the subslantive side, it became clear shortly after the Six Day War that Israel could not get the kind of agreement it wanted by using occupied Arab territory as a bargaining chip, and that the mere possession of the territory, backed by a heavy arms buildup, would not provide durable security...
...and that there should be demilitarized zones on both sides...
...The settlement should therefore pro vide that any one permanent member of the Security Council (e.g...
...Still, Egypt has not separated itself from the rest of the Arab world, and the Arab solidarity demonstrated in the October War and the use of the oil weapon has made this prospect less likely than ever...
...More importantly, the Arabs are convinced, correctly, that they won a political victory in the October War, while they understandably do not emphasize their military defeat...
...should guarantee the new (i.e., the 1967) frontiers from violation by the Arabs or the Israelis, besides guaranteeing the security of Israel within those borders...
...It would ease matters tremendously if Israel would concur in principle to the ultimate restoration of the whole of Sinai to Egypt, subject of course to agreement on a withdrawal schedule and concurrent arrangements for demilitarization and UN participation...
...The view that following Vietnam the American people will not supThe New Leader welcomes comment and criticism on any of its features, but letters should not exceed 300 words...
...The UN was less biased...
...Thus, we may have to turn to a more "even-handed" demilitarization arrangement...
...We hadn't seen how easily its troops could be uprooted from buffer patrol...
...While all this has been apparent in the years between 1967-73, the governments concerned were not moved to take the necessary action...
...port a security commitment to Israel's continued existence is nonsense, as the wide acceptance of U.S...
...One final matter: Only in the distant future, I fear, will Israel and the Arab states participate in the kind of common economic development plan Brzezinski envisages...
...military assistance to Israel last October demonstrates...
...Brzezinski's article paid lip service to prudence, but unguarded phrases reveal a reckless attitude...
...Moreover, I agree with the value of a formal American security guarantee to Israel...
...From many points of view, it would be desirable to have Jordan as the designated recipient, considering King Hussein's offer to grant the Palestinians self-government on the West Bank and in Gaza...
...It has been equally clear that the Arabs could not regain their territory except by agreeing to recognize the Jewish State and take account of its right to a secure existence...
...Yet I doubt that Brzezinski's proposal of extensive demilitarized areas in Egyptian Sinai, on the West Bank and on the Golan Heights, but none in Israel, is likely soon to be accepted by the Arab states concerned...
...New York City Richard Hillel Shulman Zbigniew Brzezinski's proposal contains three points that I agree are essential to the achievement of peace in the Middle East...
...Although some exchanges of land to adjust frontiers might be arranged, there will be no peace in the Middle East until this is accomplished...
...Sol D. Kaufler Brzezinski Plan Basically, I agree with Zbigniew Brzezinski ("A Plan for Peace in the Middle East," NL, January 7...
...As for the United Stales, former Secretary of State William Rogers and then Assistant Secretary Joseph Sisco pursued a settlement at different times, but could never find the right combination of Arab willingness to negotiate, Israeli reasonableness and a White House disposition to exercise pressure...
...In the longer run, both Israel and the United States will gain by emerging from the near-isolation events in the Mideast have imposed upon them...
...Arab tactics have included riots, continual terror against bystanders, holy wars, persecution of native Jews, exploitation of Arab refugees, blackmail, Nazi propaganda, and the murder of POWs...
...2) teach sophisticated, revolutionary rhythms to graduate students in sunny California (Herbert Marcuse...
...William E. Griffith Center for International Studies, MIT...
...The nations of the world have been imperiled for a long time by the Arab-Israeli conflict...
...They argue that Israel has attacked them at least as much as they have attacked it...
...But an agreement with Cairo will not necessarily open the door to settlements between Israel and its other neighbors, including the Palestinians...
...The possibility of a combined Palestinian-Jordanian state, with its internal political problems resolving themselves in their own way...
...This does not mean that the Secretary of State must spend weeks shuttling back and forth between Aswan and Tel Aviv, but it does require that Washington accept the need to put more pressure on both parties, even if it hurts us at home...
...Though some of those leaders are crazier than ever, their illusions are cocooned by a world that sanctions their crimes and softens their defeats...
...Jews migrated to Palestine at the same time as Arabs, bought acreage, suggested negotiation, accorded Arab citizens equal pay and rights, occasionally retaliated against terror in continued on next page kind, and had to preempt Arab invasion sites...
...No matter what other international pledges are offered...
...3) hail the essential harmonies of Man at Manhattan cocktail parties (Leonard Bernstein...
...New York City Andrew J. Pierre Senior Research Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations I have admired Zbigniew Brzezinski's articles for years...
...In particular, the plan succeeds in coming to grips with the Palestinian dilemma through the creation of an autonomous Palestinian state, consisting of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and linked to Jordan (here King Hussein's 1972 proposal for forming a United Arab Kingdom deserves a footnote of acknowledgement ). Finally, Brzezinski wisely argues for a gradual and phased process over a period of years, during which time the confidence of both parties in such a peace settlement can be built up...
...With his ear for history, Lekachman might have cautioned readers to listen more critically...
...guarantees, territorial concessions by Israel, Arab appreciation of peace, and a secret miracle ingredient to make it all jell...
Vol. 57 • March 1974 • No. 5
