U.S. Help for Europe's Communists

...Two years ago he persuaded Henry Kissinger, who ought to have known better, to send a posse of U S diplomats thundering after European Socialist leaders to urge them not to form electoral alliances with the Communists Consequence The Communists were able to pose as the defender of national self-iespect, and their understandings with the Socialists in France and elsewhere, and with the Catholic Demochnstian party in Italy, were stiengthened Now President Carter's Administration has done its bit by declaring dramatically that the U S is not in favor of Communist participation in Western European governments (Of course it isn't Nor, one assumes, is it in favor of alcoholism or pederasty Are we shortly to be treated to ringing declarations on these themes, too7) Predictably, every Communist party in Western Europe is at this moment basking cozily in a glow of nationalistic indignation, and some Socialist and Catholic politicians and commentators have felt obliged to join the Communists in denouncing America's "intolerable interference " A commentator on Radio France, an official broadcasting service, has suggested that McCarthyism is now being exported because the U S domestic market is saturated L'Humamte has accused Washington of "a flagrant violation of international law" and hinted that Carter may be trying to subvert the French Revolution The day that appeared, Soviet Premier Aleksei Kosygin publicly attacked Egyptian President Anwar Sadat's negotiations with Israel, describing them as "a policy ot capitulation " Oddly, L 'Humamte did not criticize Kosygin's intervention in Egyptian affairs The Pacemakers Politics being the art of swallowing today what one choked over yesterday, it is a good idea for democracies to have their peace treaties signed by conservatives, preferably the hawkish variety Only Charles de Gaulle, who was put into the presidency by the "French Algeria" lobby, could extract France from its Algerian debacle and survive politically If his Liberal and Socialist predecessors had given Algeria independence they would have been execrated as traitors—not least by the Gaulhsts I suspect that if, in Israel, a Labor prime minister were now negotiating with Egypt and contemplating the concessions Menahem Begin is offering, Begin and his friends would be flaying him It is too easy to be a hawk, and there are times when it is safer to have hawks in the government, carrying responsibility, than screeching on the sideline Whether or not Sadat and Begin ultimately succeed in the role, they are creditable pacemakers They have given the idea of peace an impetus in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria as well as in Egypt and Israel, and there are reports that they have inspired Turkey's new Prime Minister, Bulent Ecevit, with a desire to meet his Greek opposite number in order to discuss their differences over Cyprus and the Aegean Propagandists for the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Libya and Iraq have been trying in London, Pans and elsewhere to convince European opinion that no peace agreement between Israel and Egypt can endure unless it is acceptable to the other Arab states But it has been obvious for some time that peace can come onlv if one of Israel's neighbors —preferably the biggest, Egypt—is brave enough to turn a\\a\ trom the myth of "Arab unity" and defy the extremists All "Arab unity" has done during the last 30 years is hamper economic development and social progress, make huge profits for arms suppliers, and keep hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Arabs in refugee camps The Palestinians could have been resettled comfortably in underpopulated lands like Syria and Libya, but the extremists whose veto fixes the line that must be toed have always ruled out resettlement, preferring to use the refugees as political pawns Arab goodwill for Sadat during his negotiations with the Israelis has been greater than the controlled media of the Rejection Front states were able to reveal Many Jordanians, Syrians and Lebanese are as tired as the Egyptians of a war inherited from King Farouk, Shukry el-Kuwath, Azzam Pasha and other deadbeats of the late 1940s In Jordan, as in Egypt and Lebanon, there has for years been a division of opinion between nationalists who want to concentrate on tackling their country's own problems and the pan-Arabists who would give priority to the confrontation with Israel Relations between the two groups are more delicately balanced, and more dangerous, than elsewhere because of the Hashemite kingdom's big Palestinian population The "Jordanian Jordanians" accuse the PLO of having tried more than once to assassinate King Hussein—on one occasion, by means of a poisoned nasal spray In PLO circles the Jordanian nationalists are accused of having engineered the aircrash in which Queen Alia, a Palestinian, was killed last year Whether or not there is any truth in the PLO allegation, the Jordanian nationalists appear to be stronger at court and in the government than they were a year or two ago Jordanian officials and some Western diplomats were pleased that President Sadat's initiative halted the Carter Administration's rash drive toward a Geneva conference on the Middle East whose mam purpose appeared to be to get the Russians back into the game Last October's joint Soviet-American declaration appalled Jordan's officialdom from Crown Prince Hassan down Highly-placed Jordanians accused Washington of recklessly appeasing the Kremlin, strengthening the veto-power of the extremists, and weakening Jordan's efforts to lessen PLO influence and increase that of moderate Arabs in Israeli-occupied Judea and Samaria Despite the Saudi rulers' desire to give the PLO "a state of its own to keep it occupied and out of mischief" (as a Saudi official is reported to have said), the Jordanian government is no more eager than the Israelis to have a PLO-dominated state for a next-door neighbor Thanks to pacemakers Sadat and Begin, and to Carter's visit to Iran, Arabia and Egypt in January, the U S Administration's education in Mideast affairs has made some progress in recent weeks The Jordanians mentioned above think Washington has adopted a more supple policy and is less inclined to bow to extremist pressure The President discovered personally that the State Department had been overestimating the political influence of Saudi Arabia and underestimating the political and military weight of Iran Somewhat to his surprise, Carter learned that, in the new politico-military complex now taking shape m the Persian Gulf and East Africa, the Shah is setting the pace and the Saudis are tagging along American in Paris I doubt if President Carter's touch-down in Pans, on his way back from the Near East, contributed anything to anyone's education The French media paraded the usual "intellectuals" who paraded the usual cliches and generalizations about "the Americans" (all 215 million of them) A contributor to Le Monde went back (rather desperately, I thought) to the Louisiana Purchase ("for which they still owe us money") and a comment written in 1786 "The American loses no opportunity to enrich himself He weighs everything, calculates everything and sacrifices everything to his interest " The Left-leaning Catholic weekly Temoignage Chretien pronounced Carter "a hazy, unimpressive person, in the image of the Americans who elected him a hazy President for an indifferent people " In another paper, a professor of Vmcennes University complained that many European students who visit the U S return with a false (because favorable) impression of American society "They admire the Universities, not having seen the flag-raising ceremony or the campus police or having experienced the tight rules and regulations The constraints of American society are as strong as those in Russia or China He went on to argue (in the kind or article that was popular in the 1940s) that Americans base their behavior on Hollywood stereotypes In an effort to substantiate this weary theme, he described an American Airlines employe he had seen standing "like Glenn Ford acting a sheriff " If this professor were to walk with open eyes through the streets of Pans one fine day, he would see scores of French young people wearing jeans and walking or lounging like film cowboys, he might even overhear some of them drawling their native language with what they imagine to be a Wild-West accent...

...Help for Europe's Communists From time to time, someone in Washington decides that Western Europe's Communists need a helping hand He may, perhaps, fear that without continual Marxist harassment European democracy will grow soft and wither away, or he may simply be concerned to stimulate musketry exports to Europe Whatever the explanation, the Pennsylvania Avenue cell should award him an honorary party card...