Dimensions of a Crisis

The most urgent problem confronting the President on his return from Denver was the stability of the Middle East. The Communists recently began shipping a consignment of 100 tanks, 200 jets and two submarines to Egypt, and now Israel was asking the U.S. for arms. If the President rejected the Israeli request, the huge new Communist commitment would eventually tip the balance of power in the Middle East. If the President sent arms-to Israel, he would antagonize the oil-rich Arab states. Beyond the specifics of his dilemma lay the question of whether the President could much longer maintain the U.S. policy of "impartial friendship" toward both Arabs and Israelis.

Lines of Approach. The Administration's policy towards the Middle East was most clearly defined last year by Ambassador to Egypt Henry Byroade, at that time Assistant Secretary of State. To the Israelis he said: "You should come to truly look upon yourselves as a Middle Eastern state and see your future in that context rather than as a headquarters--or nucleus so to speak--of worldwide groupings of peoples of a particular religious faith who must have special rights within and obligations to the Israeli state. You should drop the attitude of the conqueror and the conviction that force and a policy of retaliatory killings is the only policy that your neighbors will understand." To the Arabs Byroade said: "You should accept this state of Israel as an accomplished fact. You are deliberately attempting to maintain a state of affairs delicately suspended between peace and war--while at present desiring neither."

Meanwhile, the Communists frankly courted the Arabs. They made no attempt, as did the U.S., to be impartial, but shouted loudly for the 45 million Arabs against the 1.7 million Israelis. The Communists also agreed to accept part-payment for their military planes in Egyptian cotton; the Communist states need cotton while the U.S. does not. Further more, the U.S. has the power to dump its own cotton surplus on world markets, a potential threat to the fragile Egyptian economy.

Against the Aggressor. Last week from Denver the President issued a cautious statement on his dilemma: "While we continue willing to consider requests for arms needed for legitimate self-defense, we do not intend to contribute to arms competition in the Near East." Israeli officials in Washington interpreted the statement favorably and set to work drawing up a list of "defensive" weapons needed, according to one officer, "to enable us to defend ourselves against attack by Stalin tanks under MIG cover."* U.S. Government departments will review and report upon the Israeli list; then it will be for the President to decide what arms, if any, to send.

As fighting sputtered once more along the desolate and peaceless border, the U.S. and Britain formally warned both Israel and Egypt that they would range themselves against whichever side started a "preventive war."

*One of the byproducts of U.S. planes to Israel might be a chance for the F-86 to demonstrate, as the Korean war first proved, that the highly touted Russian MIG-15 is an inferior aircraft.

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