Sir Winston and the Arabs
SIR,—The British Prime Minister may have been "at his best hitting nails on the head . . " as far as his eloquence was concerned in his recent foreign policy speech, but there is one nail he would have done well to have left alone—Israel. By hitting this nail so firmly and squarely on the head. the Prime Minister may not have realised that he gave the impression of wishing to drive a nail into the coffin of the Arabs. As a result he has upset the entire Arab people who are seething not only with fury but also with deep resentment at his calling what they regard as a usurper State, made at their expense and against their will by foreigners, "the most important factor in the Middle East." If we wish to lose the goodwill of all the Arab countries who, with their oil alone, are a vital factor in our economy, then to make rash statements of this kind is the quickest way to go about it.
It is easy to say that the standard of living in Israel is higher than in the rest a the Arab world, with the possible exception of the Lebanon. It is equally easy to give the explanation; not Jewish superiority— a race doctrine which would in any case be abhorrent to the best in Jewish tradition—but to the fact that Israel has received forty-three per cent. of American aid to the total Middle Eastern area. But such American favouritism is not likely to last for ever and if Britain is to have any part in the future of the Middle East it will be with the Arabs whose parabola of recovery after four centuries of Turkish domination is rapidly rising. After such statements as those made in the Foreign Affairs debate by the British Prime Minister the Arabs may not want us to play a part in their future. It will-be more our loss than theirs if they do not.—Yours faithfully, Joni. HAYLOCK.
Primary Teachers' Training College, Baghdad, Iraq.
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