2 Friday, April 13, 1919
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Purely Commentary
The Liberals in Congress:
The Levin-Riegle Team
Is the country turning conservative? What's the role of
the liberals, and who are they?
In the last election, Carl Levin's opponent for the
Michigan seat in the U.S. Senate attempted to appeal for
conservative support by hammering away at his opponent,
warning of Carl Levin's liberalism.
The Michigan electorate refuted the concern that con-
servatives, who are often reactionaries, are threatening
control of the American legislative bodies.
Carl Levin and the now senior U.S. Senator from
Michigan, Donald Riegle, form an interesting — and im-
portant — team in the Upper House of the U.S. Congress.
Both young and energetic, they are the liberal team repre-
senting this state.
They may not, probably will not, always agree on the
issues confronting them. That will only emphasize their
alertness to the problems that may arise. That, too, is to the
good.
Liberals are riot necessarily always of one designation;
nor are they faultless. What is expected is that they can be
reasoned with. That's vital to national needs and foreign
obligations.
Who is a liberal, and what is liberalism? Many dis-
putes have been generated by these terms. Whatever the
attitudes, the fact is that the liberal has brought progress to
the community of man, often at great risks created by the
conservative opposition. To have two liberals represent this
state is a condition' meriting satisfaction, auguring proper
relationships between the legislated and the legislators.
The Great Bargain of the Year: Facts Will Show
How the Cessation of War Threats Between Egypt
and Israel Is Attained in Spirit of Practical Diplomacy
Minister of Industry, Ibrahim Atallah, that their
products were not selling in local markets be-
cause of competitive foreign goods. The nation's
match manufacturer reported an accumulated
inventory of 2 million unsold cartons because
Egyptians prefer imported matches.
The conspicuous consumption has widened the
visible gap between rich and poor in a country
where per capita income is still below $300 a year.
While some Egyptians drive about Cairo in Mer-
cedes cars and own air-conditioned apartments
and seaside villas, others live crammed 12 to a
room in squalid slums. . . .
The Government is committed to spending $1.7
billion this year to keep food staples and cooking
gas pegged to an artifically low price. These direct
subsidies are as much the Government's budget
deficit .. .
There is also a need for more frozen chicken and
meat to upgrade the basic Egyptian diet of beans,
rice and bread. Khaled el-Shazly, an Alexandria
agronomist, has estimated that the average Egyp-
tian eats less than 22 pounds .of meat a year. By
way of comparison Americans consume 186
pounds.
Egypt is having a harder time feeding itself be-
cause of a burgeoning population of 40.5 million
people that could reach 70 million by the year
2000. Less than 4 percent of the country is culti-
vated and 20,000 acres a year are lost to urban
spread.
The hope for good relations between Israel and her
neighbors depends on the cooperative efforts in education,
in industry, in science, in agriculture.
Israel's Prime Minister Menahem Begin has expressed
his people's desire for an exchange of confidence in the form
of cooperative tasks, of availability of know-how for both
nations, of open borders to encourage tourism. That's how
peace will be practical and realizable. That's mankind's
hope.
`Peace at Any Price' Becomes
a Matter of Prejudice When
There Is a Lack of Realism
CARL LEVIN and DONALD RIEGLE
Egypt's Plight: Is Israel
Destined to Be Her Savior?
Israel has been a blessing to many countries. Her ag-
ricultural and industrial, as well as educational, experts
have gone to underdeveloped nations and guided them on
the road to progress. Help to Iran and to north African
countries have been phenomenal.
Arab prejudice drove these experts back home. The
effects of Khomeini's rule and the Arab pressures in many
lands are well known.
A new chapter may be written in international rela-
tions as a factor in the cooperative tasks proposed to assure
fulfillment of hopes for a lasting Israel-Egyptian friend-
ship.
Egypt does not deny that she needs Israel's advice in
assuring a higher standard of living for her people. The
plans for large scale tree planting in the process of Egypt's
take-over in the Sinai certainly suggest a role for the
Jewish National Fund. Then there is the total picture of
Egyptian backwardness that is in dire need of know-how
which could be available from Israel.
All such talking and dreaming is dependent upon the
sincerity with which the peace pact will be put into action.
The plight of the Egyptians was summarized in a report to
the New York Times, from Cairo, by Christopher Wren.
The deplorable state of affairs in the land ruled by/Anwar
Sadat invites the interest and concern of all peoples with
compassion and certainly with Egypt's neighbors. Here are
some of the detailed elements of trouble affecting Egypt's
status in civilized society:
Mr. Sadat is worried about the rising expecta-
tions, according to sources close to him. In return
for his compromises on the peace treaty, Mr.
Sadat is reportedly counting on the Carter Ad-
ministration to help bail him out with some quick
infusions of visible aid, including food, com-
modities and accelerated solutions to Egypt's
chronic problems with telephones, electricity,
sewage and public transport .
Recently, 120 companies complained to the
"What price peace?" has become a shibboleth of aggra-
vation resulting from confusions where there is a refusal to
recognize realities.
It is possible that political cowardice contributes most
of the fear stemming from the confusions that have been
ascribed to the suspicions attached to the accord reached
between Egypt and Israel, thanks to the efforts of President
Carter.
There is one apparent certainty in the peace pact: the
emphasis on "no more war" on the Egyptian-Israeli border
on which Anwar Sadat and Menahem Begin agreed.
Isn't this the "peace at any price" that is worth paying?
But the peace is not as expensive as the panicked would
portray it. As a matter of fact, it is inexpensive when all the
factors involved are taken into consideration.
An authoritative study made for the American Jewish
Committee by George E. Gruen shows that talk of costli-
ness is greatly exaggerated, that there are circumstances
which make the proposals for a workable peace less costly
than appears on the surface, that many considerations
indicate that the price to be paid for this peace is a bargain.
In the interest of an understanding of all that is in-
volved, the basic facts in the AJCommittee's study are
offered here. It is to be hoped that they will enlighten the
public and especially the legislators who will have the final
say on allocations to make the peace pact workable. If panic
can be avoided in Congress, part of the problem threatening
misrepresentations about the peace and the cost it will
involve will have been solved.
The Justified Cost
for the Coveted Peace
In his memorandum posing the question, "Is the
Egyptian-Israeli Peace Worth the Cost to the U.S.?" Gruen
has analyzed all of the queries and problems related to the
issue, providing his answer, in part, as follows:
How much money is actually involved? The to-
tals of $13 billion to $15 billion published in the
press are highly exaggerated, mixing old and new
aid, grants and repayable loans, White House
Press Secretary Jody Powell stated on March 27,
claiming that direct new cash outlays would total
only $1.47 billion, spread over three years. (Cur-
rent aid has been running at about $1.8 billion to
Israel and $1 billion to Egypt, mostly in credits.)
More than half of the new aid is to help Israel
redeploy its defense forces. These high costs are
largely the result of Egypt's insistence, backed by
the U.S. government, that Israel totally and
By Philip
Slomovitz
rapidly relinquish its airbases and other vital in-
stallations in the Sinai. Most of the supplemental
American aid to Israel will help pay for construc-
tion of two airbases in Israel's Negev desert to
offset the loss of the sophisticated Sinai bases.
Israel Defense Minister Eter Weizman stressed
that the United States was not being asked "to
foot the bill for everything . . . We shall tighten our
belts and do our bit too." The heavily taxed. Is-
raelis already spend 27 percent of the budget on
defense.
Moreover, only $800 million of the $3 billion in
new aid to Israel will be a grant, the rest will be
long-term loans. Secretary Brown announced on
March 27 that more than 80 percent of the total aid
to Egypt and Israel will be "fully repayable loans
at current interest rates."
The U.S. military and economic aid is also in-
tended to enable both Egypt and Israel to
strengthen their capacity to counter threats from
radical, Soviet-armed opponents of the
American-sponsored peace process.
How much additional aid may ultimately be
charged to the American taxpayer will depend on
several imponderables: 1) Will the oil-rich states
of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait continue to provide
their annual subsidy to Egypt, currently running
at between $1 billion and $2 billion? 2) Will
Presidents Sadat and Carter persuade the indus-
trial states of Western Europe, as well as other
developed nations, such as Japan, to help under-
write the economic and social reconstruction
President Sadat has prdmised the war-weary
Egyptian people? 3) Will American businessmen
accept the Egyptian and Israeli offers to invest in
their countries?
As already noted, the net outflow will be far less
than $5 billion annually. Not only will the major
portion of the amount eventually be repaid as
loans, but most of the aid will immediately be used
to purchase American military and electronic
equipment as well as surplus agricultural corn-
modifies. American corporations will also receive
the contracts for most of the construction and
other ancillary materials, creating employment
for over 100,000 American, workers, including
some who otherwise might have been laid off be-
cause of the cancellation of defense orders from
Iran.
It should also be remembered that U.S. help to
Israel is a two-way, not a one-way street. Demo-
cratic Israel has played a crucial role over the
years as a dependable ally of America by resisting
Communist-backed radical takeover of the region
and defeating Soviet-armed Arab attacks. For
example, in 1958 and 1970 Israeli action helped
Jordan's King Hussein survive the threats
against him. In the spring of 1977 Prime Minister
Menahem Begin provided timely Israeli intelli-
gence warning of Libyan-backed plots to assassi-
nate the Egyptian president and the leaders of the
Sudan and Saudi Arabia.
.
Major General George Keegan, former chief of
U.S. Air Force Intelligence, has pointed out that
"For every dollar of support which this country
has given to Israel, we have gotten a thousand
dollars' worth of benefits in return," through ac-
cess to captured Soviet equipment and other in-
telligence information that "preparbs us to cope
with Soviet forces and Soviet equipment around
the world."
The overriding consideration, however, is the
importance for all Americans of avoiding war and
encouraging peace in the Middle East. Sen. Frank
Church, chairman of the Senate Foreign Rela-
tions Committee, stated on March 18 that the di-
rect economic cost to the United States of the past
four Arab-Israeli conflicts, including the shut-off
of oil, totalled $27 billion. A study conducted by
the Library of Congress in 1975 concluded that a
six-month oil embargo of the magnitude of the
1973 Arab embargo would result in an increase in
U.S. unemployment of a million to a million and a
half and a loss in Gross National Product ranging
from $39 billion to $56 billion.
Steadfast American commitment to Israel and
to a peaceful Egypt may finally convince the other
Arab states and the Palestinians that war is futile
and that the only way they can achieve their
legitimate aspirations is through negotiations. By
reinforcing that message the latest American aid
package truly serves the national interests of the
American people and of all who seek peace in the
Middle East.
ak