20 Friday, December 3, 1976
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Arab Propaganda Effort in West Seeks Peace
While Military Hardware Stockpiles at Home
SHINE CITY
29030 Northwestern at 12 Mile
adjacent to TOTAL Station
'By MURRAY ZUCKOFF
352-9230
NEW YORK (JTA) —
For the first time since
the birth of Israel in 1948,
the Arabs are conducting
a propaganda campaign
in the West that appears
to be highly successful.
Their so-called peace
offensive makes them
seem reasonable, en-
lightened and, above all,
deeply devoted and dedi-
cated to peace with Is-
rael. They seem to have
taken a propaganda
morsel from the favorite
recipe of television's fa-
mous purr-sonality,
Morris the cat, and stop-
ped pulling their finicky
act.
Israel, by contrast, is
made to appear intransi-
gent and recalcitrant, re-
sisting at every turn to
avoid what the Arabs,
especially Egypt, claim to
be a serious proposal of
peace.
The cause of the Jewish
state's continuing and
consistent search for
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peace is not being helped
by one-sided media re-
ports, by U.S. Con-
gressmen on jaunts in the
Middle East who report
upon returning home that
Egyptian President
Anwar Sadat has em-
barked on a "new" policy
or by some Israeli politi-
cians searching for plat-
forms as they prepare to
run in next November's
general election.
The media seems to be
deliberately reporting
only one element of the
Arab peace offensive
while either ignoring or
minimizing the bellicose
statements. The media
has also been one-sidedly
depicting the Palestine
Liberation Organization
as a revamped peace-
oriented group.
The media, for example,
failed for the most part to
report that even as Sadat
was cooingly telling a
group of Congressmen
that he is ready for peace
with Israel, he also
announced that he would
ask the U.S. for additional
military hardware just in
case Israel decided to get
huffy. And while the
media was beguilingly
reporting about the
PLO's "new image" at the
United Nations, it for the
most part failed to report
that at the same time a
leading PLO official was
saying in Paris that his
organization intends to
step up activities inside
Israel in a "war of libera-
tion."
Nor has the media and
some of the returning
congressmen consis-
tently related the Arab
peace offensive with their
intransigent organized
hostile anti-Israel posi-
tions at the UN, UNESCO
and other world forums in
which they participate
and where they are cer-
tain of winning their
points by the existence of
an automatic majority
voting in their favor re-
gardless of the issue.
But there is, in fact,
more to the peace offen-
sive than the media's
juggling of news, the Con-
gressmen's apparent
seduction by the siren
calls of the Arab prop-
agandists and the belated
criticism by Israeli politi-
cians of Israel's caution
but who were themselves
leaders of the anti-Arab
peace pack before
announcing their electoral
hopes.
The fact is that the
Arab confrontation
states, especially Egypt,
are waging a peace offen-
sive abroad, but at the
same time retaining a
war stance at home in
order to keep both options
open. There is no question
but that the confronta-
tion states and the PLO
want and need peace at
this time in contradis-
tinction to opting for
peace with Israel as a
sovereign Jewish state.
All of Israel's neighbors
and the PLO are either in
political or economic
trouble.
The key, however, to
MURRAY ZUCKOFF
the Arab peace offensive
— both by the confronta-
tion states and some of
the oil-rich countries — in
relation to Israel and in
terms of inter-Arab rival-
ries is one of economics.
The search for foreign
markets for investing
petro-dollars and the
search for foreign in-
vestments in their own
economies is stymied by a
continuing war atmos-
phere.
Neither the outward
flow of investment capital
nor the attraction of
foreign- investments is
possible as long as the
economies are geared for
war and national budgets
are tied up in military
overkill. Nor are invest-
ment flows in and out of
these countries feasible
as long as instability and
uncertainty prevails.
In addition, the Arabs
are beginning to realize
that they cannot maintain
a top-heavy military estab-
lishment without a highly
developed economic base.
Developing and support-
ing such an establishment
is very much like trying to
build a skyscraper on
stilts.
Another basic factor is
the presumption on the
part of the Arabs that the
new Administration in
Washington will be less
willing to continue a pol-
icy of excessive expendi-
tures for Mideast mili-
tary spending in view of
the perspective outlined
by President-elect Jimmy
Carter that the focus
must be on America's
domestic needs.
In short, the oil-rich
states are now in the
same position as the
Western nations: invest
or die. Their economies
are literally choking to
death with an excess of
petro-dollars that cannot
be siphoned off by buying
sprees of mansions,
yachts and automobiles.
These dollars must find
profitable investment
markets.
The
confrontation
states must reorganize
their tattered economies
and cannot hope to do so
without foreign loans and
investments. For this
they need stable eco-
nomic and political sys-
tems that do not threaten
foreign investors with
either economic chaos or
revolutions.
Two events especially, in
the past several weeks,
confirm the economic
basis for thepeace offen-
sive. One was the Arab-
European business coop-
eration symposium at
Montreux, Switzerland
last month. The other was
the visit to Paris by Lawr-
ence R. Klein, one of Car-
ter's closest economic ad-
visors.
The Montreux confer-
ence, attended by 1,600
bank presidents, bankers,
manufacturers, consul-
tants and traders from 40
countries, was organized
by the European Ma , "
agement Forum an
sponsored by 100 West
European and Middle
East banks. David Baird,
reporting on this confer-
ence for the Belgium-
based bi-weekly maga-
zine, "To The Point In-
ternational," noted that
"cooperation was the
keynote" of the meeting.
This was illustrated by
the variety of schemes
put forward, including
the creation of a
technological develop-
ment bank, owned and fi-
nanced by nationals and
governments of develop-
ing countries with
surplus financial re-
sources; a Euro-Arab in-
vestment company,
shares to be held by the
Organization of Petro-
leum Exporting Coun-
tries and the European
Economic Community;
and a committee open to
all enterprises interested
in Arab-European busi-
ness which could help
broaden business pros-
pects.
Baird noted, "with so
much money floating
around — investable
surpluses from the oil
states is expected to be
more than $45 billion this
year — everyone had an
interest in making the
event a success." In addi-
tion. to this investable
surplus, the European
countries are eager to get
some of this to help bol-
ster their own sagging
economies, knock Japan
out of the competitive
market and hopefully en-
hance their own competi-
tive stance in the Arab
world against the en-
croachment of American
investments.
Burhan Dajani of Jor-
dan, secretary general of
the Union of Arab Cham-
bers of Commerce, made it
clear in an interview with
the Belgian magazine
when he stated: "I would
say that the Arab is less
suspicious of the Euro-
pean than ever before . .
It is with the Americap
that we have a problen
because here we have a
complicated situation
(economically and politi-
cally) . . . But I think the
Europeans stand a very
good chance of winning the
confidence of the Arabs."
From the European
point of view, Lord Sels-
deon, adviser to Britain's
Midland Bank; summed
up the problem of the con-
tinent by stating: "There
is a growing realization
by the Arabs that, with-
out proper cooperation
(Continued on Page 21)