Futile Effort to Solve Mid-East
Problems in N.Y....Israel Avoids
Panic...Survey of Affected Areas
By TERENCE PRITTIE
zation of the world opinion by the put his new development projects
Diplomatic Correspondent of the Arab states.
east of the river Jordan, and away
Guardian, London, Author of I Not only has Israel remained from the Israeli frontier. Popula-
calm and consistent, refusing to tion has drifted east as a result.
"Israel, Miracle in the Desert"
budge from a yard of occupied In the last 20 years the population
Nearly six months after the end territory until a solution of the dis- of Trans-Jordan has increased
Of the Arab-Israeli Six Day War, pute is in sight. She has begun from 400,000 to 1,250,000; that of
a settlement in the Middle East— contingency planning for those oc- the West Bank has gone down from
in spite of the occasional hopeful cupied territories, believing that 800,000 to 700,000 (including east-
remark from King Hussein of Jor- the war has created a political ern Jerusalem). To this dramatic
dan and President Nasser of vacuum in the Middle East which change the refugee-exodus from
Egypt — looks just about as far will not be filled by aimless dis- the West Bank this year accounted
off as ever. By mid-November, in- cussions in the United Nations, for only 150,000, while the natural
deed, Mohammed Hassanein Hey- and that she alone will be in a increase of population in the West
lal editor of the Cairo newspaper position to take action. The Israelis Bank was probably around 300,000.
Al Ahram and generally regarded have in fact, recognized a new re-
The West Bank has a flourishing
as Nasser's "mouthpiece," was an- sponsibility — for showing what
nouncing the inevitability of an- can be achieved in a part of the agriculture, with big surpluses of
other war with Israel. Heykal Middle East which has fallen un- fruit and vegetables. It could prob-
claimed that the effort to find a der her control as a result of a ably grow enough wheat to make
political solution of the Arab-Israeli war which she feared and wanted its own bread, although Hussein
dispute had failed and that the to avoid.
has — once again, with tactical
Arabs should launch a four-pronged
I suppose the problems of occu- objectives in view — grown the
campaign in preparation for the pation, in order of difficulty of bulk of Jordanian grain east of the
war to come. This should consist solution, are the Gaza Strip, the river Jordan. Israel's Economics
in re - equipping and re - training West Bank, Sinai and the Golan Advisory Committee will certainly
Arab armies, strengthening the Heights. Here is a survey of what advocate the introduction of indus-
home front, unifying all Arab is being done in these areas, and tries into the West Bank. This fer-
forces by a military pact, and win- what is being planned for them.
tile area, with a comparatively
ning over world opinion by skillful
sophisticated population, is not only
First, the Gaza Strip. There are
and persistent propaganda.
350,000 Arabs penned into this capable of supporting itself; it
Only two months earlier Heykal tiny area of 160 square miles, two- could absorb at least 20,000 from
had struck the first blow in the thirds of them refugees. Gaza's the Gaza Strip. And, given better
new Arab propaganda campaign natural function should be to be education, it could produce skilled
with his article "Time to Talk—as the seaport of the southern half workers and administrators for
Equals" in the London Sunday of Israel, the Negev. The city's the under-developed Arab countries.
It is significant that the Israeli
Times. In this article he preached detachment from Israel prevented
peace and sought to split the this for the past 20 years, owing government is carrying out a major
Anglo-American alliance by prais- to the Arab blockade and boycott road-building and improvement
ing Britain and vilifying the United of Israel. The refugees have not program in the West Bank. The
States. He was so sucessful that been allowed to take Egyptian current program provides for an
the British Foreign Secretary. nationality or emigrate to Egypt expenditure of only $3,500,000.
George Brown, immediately began proper. Nasser treated the area as Three main roads are being com-
his effort to woo the Arab states a concentration camp and threw pletely renovated, and new east-
and, in particular, Egypt.
its inhabitants on the charity of west roads connecting the West
The mounting tide of Arab propa- UNWRA. It is not too much to say Bank with Israel are being built.
ganda has had its effect in the that the underfed, undereducated, Thousands of Arabs are being
United Nations, too. It is signifi- imprisoned inhabitants of the Gaza given employment, but if Israel
cant that the only clear-cut de- Strip were brought up, by Egyptian remains in possession of the West
cision taken in the United Nations propaganda, with the single-minded Bank, a still bigger road-making
since the Six Day War was to con- intention of hating Israel and work- program will be launched. The area
demn the union of Jerusalem, by ing for her destruction. The sol- will be linked, in the most obvious
99 votes to none, with 18 absten- diers of the victorious Israeli Army way, more closely with Israel. This
tions. The United Nations have were horrified to find that even is something which the Arabs, who
become progressively so bemused eight year-old children there had are still refusing to talk to the
by the complexities of the Arab-
Israeli dispute that they came to
see its main symptom as being
Israel's post-war occupation of the
Sinai Peninsula, the West Bank
of the Jordan and the Golan
Heights in Syria. The results of
the war have become much more
visible than its causes. To the
United Nations the reversal of
these results has begun to seem
the logical method of reaching a
settlement.
The Israeli attitude since the war
towards a possible settlement has
remained absolutely consistent.
Israel has never wavered from her
demand for Arab-Israeli talks, the
object of which should be a peace
settlement entailing Arab recogni-
tion of Israel and normal relations
with her. Israel has never stated
her peace terms, although it is
fairly clear they would include the
incorporation into Israel of eastern
Jerusalem, with certain, far less
important frontier rectifications,
and the demilitarization of the
Sinai Peninsula and, possibly, the
West Bank. But the Israeli demand
for talks has been stultified by the
prevailing view in the United
Nations, that a solution can be
found in New York. This view has
been supported by the Soviet Union
in order to make mischief, by
France in order to regain influ-
ence in the Arab world, and by
Britain in order to make the Arab
states less dependent on the Com-
munist Bloc.
What is at once striking about
Israel's reactions to this trend of
international feeling is the lack of
bitterness and the total absence
of panic. Bitterness might have
been expected, in view of the fact
that Britain and France were for-
mer allies, and that right up to
the outbreak of the Six Day War
Britain was thrown onto Israel's
side by the Egyptian blockade of
the Gulf of Aqaba. Panic could
have been the result of the mobili-
been taught to depict and describe
Jews in a manner which would
have delighted Adolf Hitler.
Gaza is a social sink. But I
found that the Israeli governmnet
is in no way daunted by the prob-
lem of dealing with Gaza. In the
first place, Israel has made it pos-
sible for the people of Gaza to visit
the West Bank or, if they wish, to
emigrate. Several hundreds have
already emgirated. In the second
place, the Economics Advisory
Committee which the Israeli
government has appointed is study-
ing the possibilities of introducing
light industries into Gaza. It will
certainly come up with proposals
for the future employment of up
to 10,000 breadwinners.
But the main Israeli contribution
to Gaza's problems will be to in-
crease vocational training. At pres-
ent only 300 Arabs are being
trained annually; the intention is
to increase this, with some help
from the outside world, to 5,000.
Israel herself would probably be
prepared to produce funds for at
least 700 of these. In 10 years
time one-third of Gaza's breadwin-
ners could be trained for lucrative
employment. The rest of the Arab
world has a desperate need for
trained workers of any kind. Gaza's
population should be steadily
siphoned-off, to the West Bank, to
Israel, most of all to oil-rich Arab
countries which can offer these
people a real future.
Israel will, if the present diplo-
matic deadlock in the Middle East
goes on, press steadily ahead with
her plans for Gaza. It will be the
hardest nut which Israel has to
crack. But the West Bank, if not
the hardest, is the biggest. Its
population, leaving out eastern
Jerusalem, is nearly 650,000. The
West Bank has little industry (its
industrial potential is 1% that of
Israel, which has only four times
as many inhabitants).
King Hussein, understandably,
Israelis, should take into account.
Time is on the Israeli side, in
the sense that economic progress
favors the side which carries it
through.
Completion of Terence Prittie's
Survey in next issue of
The Jewish News
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Friday, November 24, 1967-17
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