REALITIES OF PEACE IN MIDDLE EAST

...The repeated assertions of responsible Israeli leaders that their country has no demands beyond the status quo have done little to assuage Arab mistrust...

...The last (Tenth) General Assembly left Israel and the Arab states still deadlocked on the main issues: Israel's borders, the status of Jerusalem, and repatriation, resettlement, and compensation for the Arab refugees uprooted by the establishment of Israel...

...Fear that a mass influx of embittered refugee Arabs would undermine national security works most strongly against Israel's fulfillment of the U.N...

...resolutions on refugee repatriation and compensation, and the internationalization of Jerusalem mere window dressing for a refusal to negotiate...

...But possibilities of British mediation collapsed almost immediately because of Israel's fears about losing territory...

...Although by no means charmed by the Communist ideology, many Arab leaders profess to see less danger from their expanding northern neighbor than from "Western imperialism...

...Israel has assented to the principle of over-all compensation, but actual payment has not yet taken place because of the country's precarious financial position, the political qualifications it has attached to its agreement, and the intricate tangle of technical problems involving property evaluation and means and methods of settlement...

...Changes are already occurring within the area which may help to bridge the chasm isolating Western Israel from the Orient...

...Although less than one per cent of the 900,000 refugees owned frozen funds, the U.N...

...Although the Arab East is an area of predominantly Muslim influence, it is no more possible to ignore the variations within Islam than to categorize all the Protestant denominations and Catholicism as a single religion...

...However, the similarities between Palestinian Arabs and their neighboring cousins are not that close...

...IV The rigidity of Israel's position on the status quo has also been tempered by adjustments it has made or offered to make...

...It is of little comfort to the Israelis that these jeremiads are more a form of...

...As one travels through Israeli byways and away from the main centers of communication, there are increasing evidences of a growing resemblance to its neighbors...

...But greater discipline along the borders could be maintained by the UNTSO if its personnel and powers were increased and its decisions were authoritatively backed by po* sibilities of international non-military sanctions to be used against any aggressor...

...It is the impact of economic rather than military assistance which will do the most to shape the area's future political and social structure along the lines of our long-term objectives in the Middle East...

...Within the framework of the Israel-Jordan Mixed Armistice Commission, an unusual series of meetings has occurred during the past five years...

...Why then has so little progress been made...

...and the anti-Soviet bloc...

...In his major address on Near Eastern affairs Secretary Dulles reiterated previous American offers to guarantee any peace settlement, and President Eisenhower reaffirmed the pledge in a letter to American Zionists last November...

...To justify their anxiety about Arab threats of renewed warfare, the Israelis have only to quote the daily broadcasts from Cairo, Damascus, and Bagdad, which maintain an unceasing flow of venomous warnings that Israel will be cut down to size and put in its place when the Arabs are ready...

...One of the facile solutions proposed for the Palestine problem is the resettlement of the Arab refugees in the "empty expanses" of Syria and Iraq...

...Every principal organ of the United Nations except the International Court of Justice has poured its particular brand of oil on the troubled waters...

...The areas acquired beyond the partition borders have today become an integral and vital part of the state...

...Neither forceful diplomacy nor a "gimmick" approach will work...

...Despite recent border outbreaks, the process of gradual accommodation between Israel and its neighbors has already begun...

...Egyptian blockade of the Suez Canal and the Red Sea, the Arab League boycott of Israeli goods, and Arab refusal to negotiate peace on the basis of the status quo are indications to the average Israeli of attempts to undermine the existence of Israel...

...Now a new and sudden Arab awakening is throwing the area into upheaval from which constructive social forces may evolve...

...This is based on the assumption that the former Palestinians will find in these nations a common language, religions, and cultural environment...

...Dispatch of foreign troops to the area hardly seems to be within the realm of present political reality...

...What is to prevent Russia from doubling every arms shipment the United States makes to any of its „ friends...

...Since the Palestine problem was first raised at the United Nations in 1947, it has figured on the subsequent agendas of eight regular and two special sessions of the General Assembly...

...Israel—the creation of the Western powers—bears the brunt of these emotions...

...Long term accommodation may seem an arduous path to peace...

...The British Prime Minister made no specific recommendations, but pointed out: "The stark truth is that if these nations want to win a peace which is in both their interests and to which we want to DON PERETZ gathered the material for this article while conducting a survey of Middle East tensions for the Ford Foundation in Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Israel...

...has proved capable of mustering...

...Their loss would be an economic as well as a strategic blow to Israel...

...II The causes for failure to date are rooted in Middle East realities which have been overlooked in the calculations of those who have attempted to settle the dispute...

...European Israel, with its Western approach to economic and social problems, its numerous commercial and business contacts with the Occident, has become a powerful colossus in Arab minds—a colossus to be feared, if not for military might, then for potential economic expansion...

...Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion charged that the Eden proposal aimed to "truncate the territory of Israel for the benefit" of her neighbors...

...Foremost is apprehension of a second round of hostilities...

...An impressive list of private organizations and prominent individuals have proffered their own plans to soothe Middle East tensions...

...Conflict has been over issues which are considered vital to national existence...

...Egyptian accommodation is evident in Cairo's agreement with the U.N...

...With the influx of Middle East Jews, the social structure and demography of the nation are changing...

...It is possible to find a way of reconciling the vital interests of all the parties...

...The belief persists that Zionist influences are pervasive...

...Syria and Israel have established an arrangement to return fishing vessels which mistakenly enter each other's territorial waters...

...Others are poverty stricken...

...The very thought of a sizeable refugee return haunts the security-conscious Israelis...

...To the most extreme, it is a blot on the map of the solidly Arab East which must be removed...

...Only vigorous action can keep the situation under control...

...These vendettas present an ever constant threat to the accommodation process: but the dilemma of the situation is that while emotional tensions remain at such a high pitch, border flareups are inevitable...

...Final arrangements to finance Egypt's new High Dam have not yet been concluded...

...help them, they must make some compromise between these two positions...

...hence it had "no legal, moral or logical basis and cannot be considered...

...called the move a significant contribution toward a settlement of differences...

...The Lebanese government has also cracked down with strong measures on illegal border crossings...

...The Arab refugee problem which resulted from the struggle against the new state is the most goading irritant in this dilemma...

...This massive outpouring of global good-will on the Middle East has failed to raise even one laurel wreath from that barren soil...

...From time to time Jordanian teams have crossed over into Israel and Israelis have been received in the Jordan border regions to implement this mutually beneficial activity...

...The latter seems insignificant, even parochial, alongside the cosmic clash between the giant Soviet and Western spheres...

...Although Russia for the present seems to have an edge on the West in the Middle East arms race, we can still push ahead in the economic field...

...As a result, a strong neutralist sentiment has taken root...

...There is hardly a twist or turn in American Middle East policy which is not attributed by most Arab leaders to "perfidious Zion...

...Israel has also released approximately $12 million in frozen funds from blocked Arab refugee accounts...

...The social structure of Arab League members varies from the ancient sedentary alluvial civilization of the Nile to the nomadic herds-society which roams the plains of Arabia...

...Following an attack by Arab extremists on an Israel bus in northern Galilee, the Lebanese authorities forcefully removed 9,000 Arab refugees from the Israel frontier...

...This is a concession of no little significance in view of Egypt's scarcity of cultivable land reserves relative to its rapid population growth...

...The refugees are an ever constant reminder of the frustration engendered by establishment of Israel and an unremitting pressure against acceptance of the status quo...

...Israel's refusal to bargain for less than its battle-won status quo only angers the Arabs, who feel that the very creation of the Jewish state was a fundamental injustice...

...The creation of Israel through Western intercession further complicated Arab emotional responses...

...They contend that the nearly 2,500 square miles of territory conquered in 1948 and 1949 never belonged to any neighboring nation but were intended by the U.N...

...Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO) but even the Israeli military have acknowledged the genuine efforts of the Jordan authorities to curb infiltration...

...Secretary Dulles said that "in spite of conflicting claims and sentiments . . . it is obvious that the reason for failure has not been lack of effort...

...And with these changes there are slightly perceptible signs of decline in the animosity to the West, The West does not yet possess the-: means to create an environment for...

...Final success in reaching an ultimate settlement will depend on the skill with which the West and the parties concerned circumvent such pitfalls...

...Periodically government doctors and health officers from each side confer on methods of malaria control along the boundary which splits Jerusalem into an Arab and a Jewish town...

...Then there are Israeli fears...

...Even though belated from the standpoint of subsequent history, this is a measure of progress when one considers that six years ago any Arab leader would have been in danger of his life for even considering recognition of the Jewish state, and that the Palestine defeat toppled several Middle East governments...

...resolutions calling for repatriation...

...Of course both Iraqis and Palestinians speak Arabic, but the variance in dialect is as great as that between French and Italian...

...There are still many other areas of possible accommodation where steps toward creating an environment conducive to peace can be taken without impairing what each side considers its vital national interests...

...More than seventy resolutions have been passed and seven special bodies created in the fruitless efforts to settle peacefully the bitter quarrel resulting from the 1947 resolution partitioning Palestine...

...But the catch in the Administration offers was that American guarantees will have to be preceded by mutual agreement of the antagonists...

...The former rulers—the French, British, and Turks—have left a heritage of hatred and resentment...

...He felt that a solution could be based on a compromise between Arab demands that Israel surrender all territory not allocated to it by the United Nations' 1947 partition resolution, and Israel's insistance on the status quo, which would mean the retention of all territory Israel seized by force in the shooting conflict of 1948-1949— seizures which increased its area by nearly a third more than allocated by the U.N...

...Yet this Middle East hurly-burly can claim the dubious notoriety of ranking second as disturber of world peace in the decade following World War II, and a pretty close second, too...

...It is— because of the many snares ahead...

...In the last year there were no major incidents along the Israel-Jordan frontier...

...Some are endowed with great natural wealth...

...But it would be a poor analyst indeed who failed to consider the great differences among the nations of Europe when drafting international policy...

...To many Arabs, including those who are progressive and open-minded on all other subjects, Israel represents the climax of Western imperialism...

...The vigorous dynamism of the young state, the unrealized aspiration of some Zionists to double, triple, or even increase by five times the present population, and the growth of Zionist ambitions from homeland to political statehood—all are cited by Arab leaders as evidence that the claims of their antagonist to more than the status quo have not really been abandoned, but merely suspended...

...Arab policy has shifted from an intransigent refusal to recognize Israel under any circumstances to an agreement to discuss peace on the basis of the 1947 partition resolution and refugee repatriation...

...Over a third of all Security Council meetings since 1948 have been devoted to the Arab-Israel conflict...

...III Israelis consider Arab peace demands for surrender of all territory not allocated to them by the U.N, partition resolution, fulfillment of standing U.N...

...Since the armistice pacts halted actual warfare between Israel and its neighbors, a number of other agreements have been signed to accommodate mutual interests...

...encouragement of accommodation, and constructive social change, sup-' ported by effective guarantees against the use of force by either side, it can hasten the day when peace in the Middle East will be a reality...

...Internationalization of Jerusalem is almost a dead issue...

...Most responsible for this oversight is the common misconception that the Arab world is a unity...

...They greatly intensified Arab feelings of inferiority in relation to the Western World...

...It has laid the area open to Soviet machinations and maneuvers such as the Egyptian-Czech arms deal and Russian promises to send economic, scientific, agricultural, and meteorological missions...

...immediate peace...

...As a result of these parleys, mixed crews of Jordanians and Israelis have been able to keep under control the anopheles mosquitoes which breed in the area...

...and repeated Security Council censure motions seem to be no cure...

...Besides the realities of psychological factors, the West has overlooked many of the social, economic, and political characteristics peculiar to the Middle East...

...The threat seems to them far more immediate and menacing than Communism...

...Arab oratory than an indication of policy...

...The United States is the special target of such attacks because of the role played by its Jewish community in the establishment of Israel...

...Most difficult to fathom are the realities of emotions...

...For the present such arrangements could be made through the Mixed Armistice Commissions (MAC's) on matters having to do with border controls, return of property and persons that accidentally cross the frontiers, health measures of mutual benefit, continued reunion of families on a larger scale, and similar activities in which the need of both sides stimulates the imagination...

...To denationalize the city today would require powers far beyond those the U.N...

...The tools of modern economics, agriculture, and the physical sciences have been enlisted in the formulation of scientific proposals based on population distribution, areas of cultivable land, potential irrigable areas, and the like...

...No matter how much military equipment is poured in, it will be of little value in maintaining internal stability or in warding off outside attacks as long as the governments receiving it rest on unstable political and social foundations...

...At the root of Arab feelings about Israel and the West is frustration generated by centuries of foreign repression, resulting in cultural and social decay...

...The Europeans also left a legacy of material progress and technical knowledge, a legacy of whose value the Arab East is aware but realizes it cannot yet exploit...

...Among these realities are the clash of emotions involved and the mistaken images the parties have of each other...

...The nomads are only one of the many centrifugal forces creating political instability and resistance to attempts to create strong central governments...

...Protracted debate at the U.N...

...Because the Palestine Arabs failed to establish their own government, and because the territory was won in a defensive war, Israel sees no reason for surrendering any part of it to hostile neighbors...

...Most of these returnees were infiltrators who were not expelled after discovery by police or military authorities...

...His articles have appeared in Foreign Affairs, The Reporter, The New Leader, Middle East Journal, and various foreign publications...

...Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) to open territory in the Sinai peninsula for resettlement of 60,000 to 70,000 of the Gaza refugees...

...Last August our own Secretary of State urged on both Arab and Israelis a "spirit of conciliation...

...In the mass influx of Europeans and the erection of a Western state on the ruins of the Palestine Arab community, the Arabs see parallels to Boer policy in South Africa...

...In Syria and Iraq wandering Bedouin tribes create special problems because of their resistance to the advance of civilization and its settling ways...

...Since 1950 both sides have moved in that direction in areas where they felt assured that compromise would not jeopardize their vital national interests...

...In Iraq and Lebanon, for example, the political structure is largely influenced by a delicate balance of minority groups...

...Israel has also offered, as part of a final peace settlement, to make Haifa available to Jordan as a free port and to permit Egyptian transit through the country so Cairo will not be cut off from land contact with the rest of the Arab world...

...Psretz has also represented the United Nations, the National Broadcasting Company, and the- U. N. World magazine in that area of the world...

...Not only have Jordan and Israel incorporated their respective sections of the divided town into their national borders, but each side has designated Jerusalem as its capital...

...Despite Arab admiration for, and burgeoning attempts to emulate, Western material progress, the strongest feeling is deep resentment...

...In this mesh of socio-political complications and explosive emotional tensions there is little possibility of a "reasoned" Western peace based on negotiated settlement...

...The military defeats of the Arab armies and the subsequent accomplishments of Israel were severe blows to national pride...

...Before a conclusive settlement can be reached, much time will be needed until both sides have learned to adjust themselves to the realities of Arab-Jewish relationships, and until the West correctly evaluates these realities...

...World Zionism and its invaluable assistance to the new state is a specter constantly raised by the Arabs when one points to the limitations on tiny Israel's physical power...

...Arab resentment of the West is clearly reflected in a comparison of attitudes toward the U.S.S.R...

...In fact the Arab League states are a mosaic of cultures, languages, economic and political systems...

...During the past year such disparate personalities as Premier U Nu of Burma, Marshal Tito of Yugoslavia, Premier Mohammed Ali of Pakistan, and President Cafe Filho of Brazil have offered—or were reported to have offered—their services as mediators...

...However, time is the essence of a Middle East solution...

...Given enough time for the process of long term accommodation to bear fruit, there will inevitably be changes in the present atmosphere...

...Not only the U.N...

...Prime Minister Sir Anthony Eden's November offer to mediate between Israel and the Arab states also stirred the political cauldrons...

...to be part of the still-born Palestine Arab state outlined in the partition resolution...

...True, there are many common denominators just as there are in the civilization of the Western world...

...Short-term objectives should seek to check the continued outbreaks along the Arab-Israel frontiers...

...Every Kibya or Gaza, every Scorpion Pass or Meiron, causes a detour which sets back the process...

...In the Arab states the ferment of social change has also begun to alter the land...

...The use of a large plan or a quick facile formula worked out by slide-rule and computation table will not break the Arab-Israel impasse...

...But through its...

...Despite the Israeli policy of no repatriation, 30,000 Arab refugees have been permitted to reunite with their families within the country...

...These include negotiation, enquiry, mediation, conciliation, and arbitration...

...The United States can still offer Cairo better terms than Moscow...

...The status of borders and refugee repatriation is further complicated by the settlement of hundreds of thousands of new immigrants in the more than 300 villages abandoned by the Arabs...

...Concern has been expressed not only through the multiple agencies of the United Nations...

...The problem is to prevent them from spreading into a major conflagration...

...The Arabic spoken in Iraq is so different from that of the Mediterranean coast that during the Arab-Israel war Iraqi soldiers sent to Palestine were often mistaken by the local Arabs for Jews because of their "strange" speech...

...Nor will an attempt to balance Russian-supplied arms to one side be met by arming the other...

...Its success can be attributed to common need, and to exclusion of any political discussion from the meetings...

...This as much as any other factor accounts for the obstinate resistance to an influx of "foreigners" which would throw askew the existing ratios of populations...

...International efforts aimed at reaching a solution have so far pursued most of the conventional methods of diplomatic procedure...

...From it may evolve a pattern of peaceful association to replace the present profitless friction...