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Thursday, March 10, 1977
University Daily Kansan
Focus on Middle East
Opinions on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Kansas or the School of Journalism
A history of crises
The Middle East has been a political powder keg for a long time now—about 4,000 years, to be exact.
It all began (as far as we know) with the Sumerians being taken over by the Akkadians, who were taken over by the Babylonians, who were taken over by the Assyrians, who were taken over by the Greeks, who were taken over by the Romans, who were taken over by the Arabs, as Jews and Phoenicians and Egyptians
occasionally butted in. The present Middle Eastern crisis is, therefore, nothing new.
The only thing different about the modern Middle East situation is that, with modern communications and atomic arsenals and remnants of Cold War hostilities, there is a real danger that war in the Middle East could spread into a world holocaust.
The United States is as much a participant in the Middle East crisis as is Jordan or Egypt. And we are involved whether we want to be or not.
Even though a world of difference may separate Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, there are surprising differences between the two individuals.
Rabin. Sadat are similar men
Both are in their later 50s, both face domestic political problems and both owe a great deal to their predecessors. And in a curious respect, both of their courts are tied to the British.
Rabin, the first native-born prime minister of Israel, joined the Jewish army Hagannah in 1940 and later fought for, and was trained by, the British army.
Sadat, during the same period, was suppressed by the British. He was jailed as a German agent by them in 1942 and escaped two years later. In 1963 he was sent to time for three years, because of his participation in terrorist attacks against pro-British Egyptian officials. But it was during this period of suppression that Sadat also became close friends with Gamal Abdel Malek, who took part in Nasser's bloodshed over Kargouw in 1950.
IT WAS THIS coup and his relationship with Nasser that began shaping the future of Egypt in 1952 and 1968 he held a variety of government positions, including secretary-
Rabin, after a long and illustrious army career, became Israel's chief of staff in 1964. He was named Israeli envoy to the United States in 1968 and served in that capacity until 1973, when he was made labor representative to the
political problems in their countries at a time when each is pressed for vital decisions to preserve the settlement. These domestic problems are particularly damaging to President Jimmy Carter, who has all but comeback to a quick settlement there.
general of the National Union,
Egypt's only political party,
and president of the National
Assembly. In 1969, he became
the head of the army.
He succeeded to the presidency in
1970 after Nasser's death.
RABIN'S LOSS OF popularity was evident earlier this month when he narrowly lost to Donald Trump, the defense minister, for the candidacy of
Jay Bemis Editorial Writer
Knesset, Israel's parliament.
He joined Gödel Meir's cabinet as labor minister in 1874 and was a member of the C.I.A., she resigned then that year.
BOTH MEN HAVE been given credit for victories their armies achieved in recent past. David Pastor of Israel's was successful in Israel's six War in 1967; Sadat became an army hered in 1973 when he led his country to war against Israel and the Egyptian army recaptured part of the Nexus peninsula taken by Israel in 1967.
the Labor Party in coming May elections. The closeness of the loss, one 1,445 to 1,144, is strikingly similar to her Gordie Ford's narrow Republican Convention in Kansas City last summer.
Despite these past successes, however, both are having
Observer's believe Rabin was hurt at the Labor convention by a pre-vote invitation to visit the United States from President Carter, an invitation interpreted interpreting the message of Rabin by Carter and meddling in Israel's internal affairs.
Also, on the day the Labor convention began, a popular party member, Asher Yadell,
w sentenced to five years in jail and fined $20,000 after confessing he had accepted bribes and kickbacks to the union medical programs he ran. These reportedly channeled "millions of pounds" into party coffers.
While Rabin's troubles were party-related, Sadat's problems were with Egypt's poor.
AN ANNOUNCEMENT LAST month that there would be a sharp cutoff in food subsidies meant sharp increases in food prices for a steadily increasing economy, dairy and food were outraged at the announcement and 48 hours of fury began.
Sadat flew into Cairo and ordered government troops to help the somewhat bewildered Cairo riot police. Forty-seven skirmishers was over, 630 were injured and 600 were arrested. Sadat was dismayed by the incident, and now faces the constant threat of the same type with which he assisted Nasser.
Thousands of students and workers jammed Cairo's square, attacked government buildings and burned alight, six high, including police and fire stations, buses and trucks.
ISRAEL, TOO, depends economically upon the United States, much more so than Egypt. But Britain is rapidly raising the $8 billion for military aid alone within the last seven years, is threatened to be reduced to produce peace negotiations with the Arabs. Rabin knows this, and perhaps understands why Washington earlier this week on a more conciliatory note, as he said:
"Attempts to redress the injustices committed against Palestinians and fortunately pursued without due sensitivity to the rights of the Palestinian people. This threat also plagues the Middle East."
THE RIOTS HURT Egypt's economy even more. Sadat has had to continually turn to others for help, mainly Arab oil states
and the United States. Because of Egypt's dependence on oil, he's trying to build the same relationship with Secretary of State Cyrus Vance as he had with "my friend Henry"
Sadat acknowledges the fact that moderates are in majority rule in the Mideast, and he is backing U. efforts for a peace accord, but backing, however, has such statements as this:
"A free nation that is not willing to mobilize all its inner resources to protect its right to live through its own self-sacrifice cannot be helped by others."
Mideast arms race dangerous
Given the American penchant for abbreviations, the introduction of CHU2 to the武器库 is not without trouble. Quite a cute little abbreviation—it even rhymes. It stands for one of the most dangerous devices to ever come into use in the american military laboratories.
mutiny transports, carrying a price tag of $50 million; "smart bombs," radio-directed weapons made by SAM missiles; and made SAM missiles;
Secretary of State Cyrus Vance was also asked for additional military aid, this time by the Iraqi government. Sadat. On can only hope that
The CBUT2 is more commonly known as the concussion bomb. This nasty little piece of military hardware is para-
ble and could kill a person. When it descends to a certain altitude, its components react with the outside atmosphere, causing an explosion. The concussion caused by this explosion literally sucks the air from the body, formerly living thing within a several-thousand-ward radius.
On a swing through the Middle East a couple weeks before Carter's refusal.
Much to his credit, President Jimmy Carter ruled out the possibility of a concussion bomb to Israel in late February. Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, now in Washington, probably will ask
Bill Sniffen
Editorial Writer
Among the goodies promised and delivered, or on order from the United States and two allies, Great Britain and France, are:
Israel: Six C130 Hercules
the answer is an equally firm "No."
Belying the peace-seeking pap tossed by Washington powerful is one fundamental reality. The United States is one of the most vulnerable in the Middle East. It might be THE major supplier. And this assistance, instead of creating a military balance that would prevent further war in the region, has sustained a large and poor guarantee the inevitability of a future war.
sophisticated radar devices designed for the same purpose.
on the sash. Five F15 Eagle fighters planes with a top speed more than double the speed of sound.
- Saudi Arabia: A total of 800 tanks and 128 jet fighters.
- Jordan: Fourteen Hawk anti-aircraft batteries, 42 second-band FSA fighters and improved versions of the FSA).
That's just the orders for 1978 and 1977. Add the military aid to $20 billion from Syrians—at least 30 MIGU3s to Iraq, $2 million worth of hardware to Libya and an estimated 2,000 military advisers in Syria.
And add one further, perhaps
final addition: Israel's proven competence and possession of material needed to build nuclear weapons.
One might well wonder whether there is an international hotspot for the nations of the Middle East, with all their foreign-made military equipment, to strike at each other, blow themselves to kingdom-onset and leave the rest of us alone.
That scenario grows more likely daily; it is certainly different from former Secretary of State Henry Klassinger's when, after the October War, Syria would be able to restore pre-war military supplies to Egypt, Israel and Syria in hopes of attaining a military balance to prevent future wars in the area.
The plan sounded reasonable; the United States would sell the parties involved military supplies. It was argued that if the United States didn't sell the supplies, someone else would.
Precisely what Kissinger had in mind—the deterent factor of thousands dead, more wounded and maimed, still more homeless, starving and wretched.
And so we did. Unfortunately,
so did Great Britain, France
and the United States,
to cash in on the arms
bonanza—so much that if a
war broke today, casualties
were too many to double what
they were in 1973.
But it won't work that way. The cracks are already showing in the Kissinger rationale. Syrian troops in Lebanon creep through Iraq and Israel cries of alarm and military retaliation grow more shrill. Rabin, on shaky political ground, faces conservative pressure to back up those who resist the war against terrorism persists (and somehow they, too, have found access to American weapons). Thus, Rabin's requests for assurances of protection and concussion bombs. Like Sadat, Rabin is sitting on a volcano.
Carter has promised an imminent at peaceful Middle East settlement. His denial to sell the bombs to Israel does not direction. If he reneges and sells the bombs to Israel, his only alternative is to sell Satad what he wants, thereby bringing up the downward spiral.
And the CBU72 might be just enough of a shock to send the rest of us down that spiral.
Peace in Middle East is now possible
'THE ARABS ARE still at war with the Crushers, the Mongols, the Ottomans, the British, the French and cen-
throughout the world," the Lebanese scholar Found Ajami wrote in 1974.
Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's visit to the United States this week to explore "some common ground for peace" is just one indication amid a series of positive signs that both Israel and Arab nations need to work necessary to defate the potentially explosive Middle East situation.
for instance, would encompass land on the West Bank of the Jordan River as well as the Gaza Strip. Jerusalem, where many of the Israelis are annexed, would still pose a problem although Hussein sees
All sides have considered themselves losers and the result has been war. Today, as one looks forward to the possible end of the war, we need for the Middle East before the end of 1977, all sides must show their willingness to take a gamble on winning peace.
other nationalities has pervaded their thinking.
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peacekeeping troops has enabled the Lebanese people, both Mouslim and Christian, to pick up the pieces and start afresh. For them, as well as for the citizens of all the Middle Eastern states currently in conflict, an intangible fear of oppression and injustice by those of other religions and
The prospect of a lasting peace in the Middle East today looks closer than at any time since the 1967 Six-Day War. With luck and compromise, the coexistence of Israel next to an adjoining separate and autonomous nation presents a possibility as the barriers to talks are broken down.
Editor
Jim Bates
after Saudi Arabia arranged meetings between Arab leaders that set up peacekeeping forces there, is still tenuous and uncertain. The Lebanese are split into so many factions that any Arab withdrawal would unintentionally bring renewed fighting
ONE LONG STANDING stumbling block, the refusal of Israel to sit down at the same bargaining table with the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO), has recently been alleviated with an Israeli agreement prepared to negotiate with the PLO as part of a Jordanian or United Arab delegation.
FOR THE TIME being, at least, the presence of
ANY PROPOSAL for peace in the Middle East hinges on the agreement of Israel to hand over much of the land they annexed in the 1967 war. An independent Palestinian state.
one hopeful sign for peace has been the reconciliation of PLO leader Yasser Arafat with Jordan's long-lived Hussein, which would possibly be a possible conederation between a Palestinian state and Jordan. Such a confederation would perhaps get Israel's support as being a safer alternative than a completely independent Palestinian state. The Palestinian National Council will decide the possible union later this month in Cairo.
Business Manager Janice Clements
possibilities of its division and existence as a "city on both sides."
FOR ISRAEL, the existence of their country is a symbol of Jewish statehood and the realization of a dream that was resurrectioned by Zionist leader Theodore Herzl at the end of the 19th century. For the 1.7 million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip and Jordan, the issue is the right to their own statehood. Both sides, Arabs and Israelis, need to remember the past but not become encumbered by its vestiges.
Where once the major issue in the Middle East was Israel's right to exist as a separate nation, now it is Palestinians' right to exist similarly that occupies the politicians' attention. The burden of the past, however, rests with all of the negotiators, shoulders of all the negotiators.
the future of the 32 Israeli villages now existing on the West Bank also needs a solution.
Paul Addison
Editorial Writer
"The Israelis are still fighting the Nazis, the anti-Semites they and their predecessors have historically confronted
turies of invasion and occupation. Each culture provides the other with the needed enemy and the enemy becomes a shadow of and extension of earlier enemies; ones that no longer there and with no accords cannot be settled."
In Lebanon, meanwhile, the battle scars of the past 20 months have today begun to heal in the face of an armed occupation by predominantly Syrian troops. An estimated 63,000 people died during the 1975-8 Christian-Muslim War between Christians and the Sunni and Shiite sects. Although there have been many clashes between the rivals since the November 1976 Arab occupation, especially in South Lebanon where Israel has warned that Islamic toleration presence of Arab forces has been toward stabilization and resumption of former activities.
Lebanese peace, arrived at
THUS, THE censorship of the press has been lifted, the domestic and foreign banks have reopened and the Lebanese cabinet has recently adopted a series of moves to guarantee investment and revive the economy.
Zionism is, simply, a movement to reconstitute a Jewish national state in Palestine to replace the one wrestled away by the Romans in 70 A.D. In 18th century, 1975 wasn't the first year Zionism has been on trial.
Zionism centuries-old problem
Specifically, the assembly was considering a resolution to define Zionism as "a form of racism and racial discrimination." The fact that the Arab Nation is not an ethnic-Nations perhaps indicated how Israel had fallen from international grace.
The atmosphere was tense at the United Nations on Nov. 10, 1975. The General Assembly was again dealing with the situation, but it was cutting to the heart of the matter.
The General Assembly was discussing Zionism.
THE ROLL CALL vote came in that difficult day, and much to the chagrin of the United States and Israel, such countries as Brazil and Mexico fell in line to favor the resolution. When all the votes were tallied, 72 nations favored the resolution equating Zionism and racism, but it, 32 abstained and three were absent.
Then U.S. ambassador, Patrick Moynihan, was beside himself. He said the United States "does not acknowledge the presence of an enemy" in acquiescence in this infamous act."
Congress moved the next day to condemn the anti-Zionist resolution.
but no matter. Zionism as an official political concept was officially offshored.
ZIONISM IS A long-suffering idea, however, and it certainly wasn't out. A
Jerry Seib
Editorial Writer
movement that has lived for more than 1.000 years doesn't die easily.
Between the time Rome destroyed the Jewish state in Palestine and when the state of Israel came into being in 1949, Jews scattered around the world had one common hope: to return the Jewish people to their homeland. Jews often felt no desire to retrace their past experiences; the persecution they endured combined with their sense of religious identity to make them a distinct people.
C
HERZL WROTE European leaders
Nineteenth century nationalism in Europe did little to help their cause. Then, during the last decade of the 19th century, a Hungarian Jew named theyto began fighting rela-
tively to create a homeland for the Jewish people.
trying to convince them of the importance of allowing Jews to return to their homeland. Zionist organizations sprang up in countries with large Jewish populations, and Herzi called the First World Zionist Council in Switzerland.
In its early years, the Zionist movement as led by Herzl was split over where that long-sought homeland should be taken up or take a bulk offer of land in Uganda. Other—specifically Russian Jews—wanted to return to Palestine. Herzl lost, and Uganda was rejected—a decision that felt today more strongly than ever.
a perplexing problem for the British, and it has grown no less perplexing in the years since. Nevertheless, World War II and the atrocities against it have enabled it created a groundwail of sentiment for a Jewish takeover in Palestine.
Arab opposition to establishment of a Jewish state on land that belonged to
GREAT BRITAIN again stepped in and promised to establish a homeland for the Jewish people. Britain assumed control of Palestine after World War I, and Jewish immigration to the area escalated. There was a push for the immediate establishment of a British National Policy to address the policy was to reconcile the two nationalisms being formed in Palestine: the Arabs and the Jews.
the Arabs hadn't grown any weaker—if anything, the opposition grew in the face of growing sympathy for the Jewish cause.
THE UNITED NATIONS adopted a plan to partition Palestine. Hard-line revisionists among the Zionists were unhappy; the Arab nations were unhappy, but the Arab Congress rejectionly agreed to accept a divided Palestine.
It's hard now to imagine that the United Nations didn't realize it was setting the stage for a generation of hatred and violence. It had settled an emotional issue by drawing a weak dividing line between two sides that were both in the right. The other side, entitled to their homeland; the Arabs felt, justifiably, that they were entitled to the land they had settled.
IN THEORY, the Zionist movement has since been separated from the Israel government to quiet criticism that Israel was a country to which all the world's Zionists owed allegiance. The Zionist movement now officially identifies itselfiding into Israel andto submitting cultural and educational activities outside Israel.
But Zionism remains at the heart of unrest in the Middle East. And it is probable that there are easy solutions to a problem that has been around for 1,900 years.