By the Waters of Huleh
Border incidents have a nasty habit of developing in a rather different way from that intended by their authors. Probably neither the Syrian nor the Israel Government is anxious to start a second round of their conflict just at this moment. but in their endeavours to make their diplomatic case look plausible in the eyes of the world they have played up the recent violence round Lake Hulch to such effect that their own publics have grown dangerously bellicose. Fortunately the combined rebukes of America. Britain and France have given an excuse to stop the shooting, and the Security Council will now, however reluctantly, have to turn its eyes once more to the unhappy legacy of the Palestine problem. The essence of the trouble between Syria and Israel is water. Three States—Syria, Jordan and Israel— are vitally interested in the water resources of the Jordan and the Lakes of Galilee and Hulch. Even if the relations between the three States were of brotherly cordiality, it would still be a matter of extreme difficulty to apportion the water with equity. But in the present state of tension there is no hope of any solution unless it is imposed with a very firm hand from without. This means, in other words, that the United Nations will have to make the award, and that is a task which the United Nations has so far shirked. Perhaps the recent violence will remind the outside world that there is still no trace of peace between Israel and her neighbours, and that the armistice arrangements which brought the fighting to an end are almost universally unpopular. The reckless way in which the Syrian army and the Israel air force have behaved, and the bombast with which they have been egged on by their politicians, should not blind the United Nations to the fact that the next move must come from Lake Success.
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