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2 Friday, Aiiduit 1/; 11975
e f T IDttridIT 'itiffsii NEWS
Purely Commentary
Realities Never to Be Ignored Embodied in State
Department Facts and Figures . . . But Venom Pers-
ists . . . Yet there is a Semblance of Moderation
Lets Look at the Record
MIDDLE EAST
Granted that there may be an approach to
a common ground for an uninterrupted ar-
mistice on Israel's borders, there remains
the need to keep the record straight, to insist
upon truth in the negotiations, to emphasize
fact as opposed to fiction.
To revert to Alfred Smith: "Let's look at
the record."
Let the record always be kept intact..
* * *
Facts and Figures:
Deterrents to Fables
If the conditions created by fables from
the desert were not so serious in their appli-
cation to conditions in the Middle East, they
would truly be funny.
In the attempts to dismantle and even-
tually to destroy Israel, many have given ear
to claims by the would-be destroyers that
their aim is to establish a secular state in
Israel.
Basic facts provided by no less an author-
ity than the U.S. State Department indicate
the extent of religiosity in the Middle East.
A series of pamphlets appearing as "Issues
in United States Foreign Policy — State De-
partment" commenced with the first in the
series entitled "Middle East."
The accompanying chart from that pam-
phlet provides data on the religiosity of the
communities in that part of the world.
Nowhere on earth, as the facts and figures
indicate in this chart, is the religious influ-
ence as strong, the overwhelming domina-
tion of the Muslim faith as powerful.
Note the minuteness of the Israel position,
the fewness of Judaism's followers.
Yet there is the attempt to delude people
into believing that the overwhelming Muslim
states would as much as undertake to estab-
lish a secular state in the smallness of Israel.
The knowledgeable are aware that if there
is truly a secular state anywhere, compara-
ble to the United States and the west Euro-
pean free countries, it is in Israel. Nowhere
is religious liberty assured as scrupulously
as in Israel. Nowhere are the Christians and
Muslims as free to practice their faiths, to
possess church and mosque properties with-
out discrimination as in Israel.
The accompanying chart provides much
more data. It shows the massiveness of the
Arab states. It indicates the comparative
weight of Muslim domination, the vast areas
possessed by Arabs.
These are facts and figures that dispute all
of the accusations against Israel.
Calling the State Department as witness,
the accusations against Israel are disputed
here. just as they are rufuted in the maps of
the area under discussion.
How to assure the acceptance of these
truths is the chief puzzle confronting those
concerned with the Middle East problems.
* * *
Truth on the Scaffold
There is so little hope of being able to react
either to the culprits or their audience in an
effort to ascertain truth that the situation
remains tragic.
The spreaders of hate seem to predomi-
nate and the attempts at assuring good will
often appear futile.
Fortunately, as indicated, there is a ray of
hope from Cairo. This was provided primar-
ily in the talk with three Egyptians that was
conducted for Newsweek by Arnaud De
Borchgrave with Dr. Gamel el Oteifi, 50, vice
president of Egypt's Parliament; Butros
Ghali, 52, edito•-in-chief of the journal Al
Siassa Dawlya (Foreign Affairs); and Mu-
hammad Sid Ahmad, 47, political commen-
tator of the newspaper Al Abram and author
of "After the Guns Fall Silent."
Numerous claims of "moderation" have
been tclvanced for Arab extremists. Some
have even been ridiculously credited to ter-
rorist leaders. For the first time the men in-
terviewed . for Newsweek actually expressed
themselves
o ler•iltely. Perhaps there is the
gesture of good will so long aspired to in this
By Philip
Slomovitz
LAND
Total
sq. ml.
(000)
I ISLAMIC—ARAB
Algeria
Bahrain
Iraq
Jordan
920
230
172
37
Kuwait
Lebanon
Libya
6
•
Morocco
187
Muscat and Oman_ _ _
Qatar
Saudi Arabia
82
4
618
Sudan
967
Syria
72
Trucial States
Tunisia
United Arab Republic
Yemen
32
63
386
75
Yemen, Southern.
110
4, 626
3
Pasture
(per-
cent)
•
12, 200
185
8, 300 •
2,000
•
•
500
27
6
•
•
2, GOO
1, 700
19
•
•
1
19
•
•
•
3
38
•
16
26
Popula-
tion,
1966
(000)
18
12
•
4
661
, •
TOTALS
AVERAGE
Culti-
vated
(per-
cent)
•
28
3
20
•
•
32
•
Lit-
cracy
(per-
cent)
Religion
% Muslim
Ethnic
98
100
90
93
Ar.-Berber
Arab
77% Arab
97% Arab t
49
98
86
35
50
97
85% Arab;
15% Kurd
93% Arab
975 Arab
97 7a Ar.- Berber
15
15
22
10
13, 700
15
97
600
60
4, 400
low
low
10
100
100
100
Arab
Arab
Arab
10
73
15
13, 900
41
5, 500
40
87
117
4, 500
30, 400
4, 100
low
30
40
15
100
98
90
100
39% Arab;
46% Negroes
90% Arab;
9 ,/,, Kurd
Arab
Arab
90% Hamitic
90% Arab
1, 275
10
100
Arab
28
106, 037
18
GOVERNMENT
ECONOMY
PEOPLE
1966 GNP
(billions)
S1.9
.03
2. 0
.5
1. 6
1. 25
1. 1
2. 5
Unknown
. 05
1. 6
1. 5
1. 1
Unknown
0.9
5. 0
. 5 -
. 26
Per capita
GNP
Main
source of
revenue
$156 Oil
162 Oil
240 Oil
250 Agr.-min.
3, 200
Oil
U.S. ASSISTANCE
Type
Status of
Communist
•Party
1-party repub.
Sheikhdom
Noel repub.
Constitutional
Monarchy
Sheikhdom
Illegal
Illegal
Illegal
1967"
(mil-
lions)
$179. 4
0
56. 1
517. 2
521.6
0
3.3
44.3
'
0
50.0
Illegal
Illegal
79. 2
207. 5
1.6
1. 0
Illegal
546. 8
44.3
•
•
0
0
47. 4
0
0
0
Active
107. 8
20.4
108
Cotton
Republic
Constitutional
Monarchy
Constitutional
Monarchy
Sultanate
Sheikhdom
Absolute
Monarchy
Republic
200
Agr.
Nom'l repub.
Illegal
73. 2
G. 9
Sheikhdom
Republic.
Nom't repub.
Revolutionary
republic
Nominal
republic
•
Small
Illegal
Illegal
0
468. 1
1, 133. 3
41. 8
0
51.9
11.9
2. 1
481
645
Agr.-tour.
Oil
182
Agr.-rnin.
Unknown
833
364
Agr.
Oil
Oil
Unknown Oil
200 Agr.- m in.
164 Agr.
120 Agr.
204
Age.-trade
•
21. 79
26
Economic
aid
1946-66
(millions)
0
0
S3, 457. 8
762. 3
$205
II. ISLAMIC—NON-
ARAB
Iran
636
11
Agr.
25, 400
20
100
Turkey.
296
22
49
31, 900
55
98
72% Iran.;
22',-, Turk.
90% Turk.;
71/4 Kurd
6. 4
252
Oil
9. 4
296
Agr.
Constitutional
monarchy
Republic
Illegal
856. 8
108.8
Illegal
2, 277. 7
151.9
Constitutional
republic
Constitutional
monarchy
Republic
Active
19.3
1. 1
Illegal
1, 895. 1
1. 7
Legal, small
1, 076. 9
12. 2
% non-Muslim
III. NON-ISLAMIC
47
10
GOO
80
Christian, 82
Greece
3.6
•
52
30
39
8, 600
82
Israel
8
19
34
2, GOO
88
Greek Ortho-
dox, 97
Jewish, 90
Cyprus
78(;',',, Greek ;
18% Turk
95(% Greek ;
2',, Turk.
90'.;, Jews;
9% Arab
730
Agr.-min.
6. 6
.44
767
Varied
3. 8
1, 454
Varied
•Insignificant.
"figures on 1967 U.S. economic aid are not in all cases additive to net figures for prior years, since deohligations in 1967 of prior year commitments have been omitted.
t60% of Jordan's Arabs are Palestinians.
example of a readiness for cooperation with
Israel. Every gesture of temperate and mod-
erate sentiment is most welcome.
* * *
The Cumulative Venom
•While there is a semblage of encouraging
words from Cairo, the cumulative venom
from other Arab capitals is most dishearten-
ing. Here are a few examples of the incite-
ment to hatred_and to tent-or from Arab
quarters:
EXAMPLE 1
In the June issue of the Kuwait monthly
Al-Arabi, Dr. Ibrahim Dasouki Abadda,
professor of economics and politics at Mo-
hammad V University in Rabat, wrote of the
Middle East conflict:
"In an era of new initiatives as a result of
the October war, \ye must plan the fate of
our nation for the future. The principal prob-
lem is the Israeli existence. We do not belong
to those who dream of co-existence between
the Aral) and the Israeli people. This is be-
cause the cultural origins and the economic
developments of the two - sides are distinct.
The fundamental base of Islamic culture is a
balance between the material and the spirit-
ual, while the Children of Israel' rest on
fa l se v i ews o f th e Tora h w hi ch establish ma-
terialism as the purpose of life . . .
"Israel's economy is founded on material
values and exploitation that is tied to all ma-
te•ial regimes, capitalist and socialist alike
. . . Israel wants a peace in which it can
achieve more than it achieved in war. It will
strive toward rapid economic advancement
and expansion will he necessary for its prog-
ress Israel will try to take advantage of
peace in order to take over control of the
Aral) world. In the hest case, we are ap-
proaching a counterfeit lull or a perpetual
peace . . .
"Aral) wealth g•ants us an unprecedented
opportunity. There are possibilities for coop-
eration - hetwe-en Arab countries -, and to-
get het with the unity of religion, language 'to attack Tanzania. Uganda must have an
and history this constitutes tremendous outlet to the sea.' "
weight in the cause of economic development
. . .
EXAMPLE
The Egyptian journalist Suzanne Ahdal-
EXAMPLE 2
lah wrote in the Cairo newspaper Al Akhbar
In the June 29 issue of the Saudi newspa- on July 10: "The proliferation of electric
er Al Balad. Dr. Abdel Aziz Azam says of pinball machines has turned into a severe
the Jews: "They are the sworn enemies of the problem. There are many halls in Cairo with
Believers. They cast falsehoods about Allah such machines. They attract great numbers
when' they knew full well the truth. They of youth, who waste their money, gamble
were men of deceit in the time of the Prophet and even steal away from school and univer-
Mohammed, messenger of Allah, and today sity for this purpose. Most of the machines
as well they continue with their deeds of come from Beirut, where they were surrepti-
crookedness . .
tiously introduced by the Jews, who sold
"The heretic Communist state (the Soviet them at great discounts:"
Union) arose atop the bodies of Christians
and on the ruins of the Christian and other
faiths in Russia in 1918, as a result of that
very Jewish religion which does in Western
Europe what it did in Eastern Europe, all in
the name of the heretic science . . . When
Karl Marx was . asked for the substitute for
religion, he replied that it was the theater.
And indeed, the theater is one of the corrup-
ing tools of Jewish science: the harlotry re-
flected in their tendentious films and plays
is bringing about the corruption of Euro-
pean, American and world youth . ."
EXAMPLE 5
Radio Damascus announced Aug. 2 that
four Palestinians and one Syrian were
hanged on the gallows for "terrorist and sab-
otage acts" attributed to an anti-govern-
ment Arab Communist organization which
allegedly blew up buildings in Damascus ano
Aleppo.
On Aug. 4, an announcement issued in
Damascus to news organizations said the Ja-
penese Red Army group claimed •esponsibil-
ity for the terrorist takeover of the U.S. Em-
hassy in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and the
EXAMPLE 3
seizure of 53 hostages. The Red Army has
Radio Kampala, in a broadcast on Aug- . 9, previously acknowledged its cooperative re-
quoted Ugandan President Idi Amin Dada as lationship with the Popular Front for the
saying that Palestinian "suicide" pilots were Liberation of Palestine, led by George Ha-
serving in the Iigandan Air Force after being bash, which commissioned the Japenese
sent to the African country by Palestine Lib- group to carry out the Lod Airport massacre
eration Organization chairman Yasir Ara- in May, 1972. The PFLP maintains offices in
fat.
Damascus.
Former Israeli Foreign Minister Abha
El)an said in an Israel radio interview Aug.
Subsequently a plane carrying- the Japa-
1 that Amin demanded jet fighters from Is- nese gunmen and their hostages was allowed
rael in 1972 but was refused when the Ugan- to fly to Libya. News agencies reported from
dan leader explained that he wanted to use Tripoli that the Libyan authorities were ex-
them to - u-d-lex land from Tanzania. Ehan re- pected to free the Japenese without any for-
counted: "When I asked him why, Amin . Said mal an