Euphoria on the Nile

It became clear last week that there is one miracle ingredient that can produce at least temporary unity in the wrangling Arab world: hatred of Israel.

The kings, princes, sheikhs, presidents and dictators of twelve other Arab nations poured into Cairo in answer to Egypt's President Gamal Abdel Nasser's call for unified action against Israel's intention this spring to divert the waters of the Jordan River to irrigate the Negev desert. Declared Israel's Labor Minister: "We will pump water even under gunfire, and we will defend ourselves against any attack!"

Nasser's Kiss. Nasser's reaction was equally militant. "For the sake of Palestine," he told the Arab world, "we are ready to meet with those with whom we quarrel, and to sit with those against whom we strive!" Observers of the summit could scarcely believe their eyes. Arab leaders who have been actively trying to cut each other's throats were suddenly enveloped in each other's arms. Saudi Arabia's King Saud, who once spent $5,300,000 trying to procure Nasser's assassination, was embraced and kissed by the man he tried to kill. Yemen's pudgy President Abdullah Sallal sat genially beside his bitter enemies, King Saud and Jordan's King Hussein, who have invested money and munitions in seeking the overthrow of Sallal's regime.

In long private sessions, Nasser vowed to withdraw his forces from Yemen, and, in return, the Saudis vowed to cut off aid to Yemen's royalist rebels. "I don't want Yemen," Nasser declared. "I don't want to endanger or control any Arab land. I want only that all Arabs should unite against the Israeli threat." So it went down the line. Only last October, Algeria and Morocco tried to redraw their disputed boundary with blood, but last week in Cairo, Morocco's King Hassan II and Algeria's ebullient Ahmed ben Bella warmly agreed to mediation. Jordan and Saudi Arabia reopened diplomatic relations with Egypt, which also re-established relations with Tunisia and Morocco. Jordan's King Hussein, so often in the past denounced by Nasser as a hireling and imperialist stooge, emotionally explained that his nation only accepted Anglo-American aid in order to become selfsupporting.

Secret Sessions. The euphoria of the chiefs extended over a mile-square area around Cairo's glass-walled Nile Hilton hotel. Each Arab nation got a half-floor to itself--24 double rooms, plus a three-room corner suite overlooking the Nile and the gardens of Gezira island. Even Nasser moved into the hotel. Egyptian army engineers broke through the walls of both the Hilton and the Arab League Headquarters building, 100 yards distant, and linked the two with a temporary esplanade carpeted in vivid green. Some 2,000 soldiers and police provided security, and traffic, forced to detour around the summit area, snarled downtown Cairo.

Though the sessions were secret, the emerging Arab strategy was not. The summit meeting placed on Jordan, Syria and reluctant Lebanon the burden of controlling the headwaters and tributaries of the Jordan River that rise in their territory. By constructing dams and canals, the Arab states can divert the 'flow of the Yarmuk, Banias, Hasbani and Dan rivers, and thereby reduce the water level of the Jordan far below Israel's requirements.

Should this happen, it is considered almost certain that Israel will go to war and either occupy the Jordan watershed in Syria and Lebanon, or the west bank of the river. In reply, Nasser would immediately commit Egypt's armed forces in support of the Arab countries under attack. Under no illusions about Arab military inferiority, Nasser does not hope to overwhelm Israel but, instead, to call upon the U.S., the Soviet Union and the United Nations for help.

At week's end all 13 states agreed on a unified military command under Egypt's Lieut. General Ali Amer, and a second summit meeting was scheduled for Alexandria next August. But August is seven months away and, remarkable as was the spectacle of Arab unity last week in Cairo, not even the most optimistic observers were prepared to say that the volatile Arab world has put more than a momentary end to fratricidal quarrels, personal ambitions and national self-interests.

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