Middle East imperatives
Perhaps the central thing about the precarious Middle Eastern settlement produced by Dr Kissinger's unflagging efforts is that the new Israeli government is satisfied that the United States will continue to defend the security of the state of Israel, and that both Mr Rabin's government and the more sensible members of the Arab alliance regard the continuance in office of the Secretary of State as crucial to any hope of a permanent settlement in their part of the world. The existence and prosperity of Israel is not just crucial to Western interests in the Middle East — and crucial to the morality of those interests as well — it also offers, as the most civilised, and the only democratic, nation in the area the possibility of becoming, if peace can be achieved, a beacon to the other Semitic races, and indeed to Arab countries groaning under dictatorial yokes, and bewildered by their new-found wealth.
It appears that the next stage of the Geneva talks will continue for a year or more, and also that the Egyptian government is now almost irrevocably set on a path of peaceful relations witn Israel. Thus Mr Rabin and his colleagues can regard the withdrawals they have been forced to make as compensated for to some extent by the breaking apart of the Arab coalition that functioned so cohesively against them last October. Indeed, the Israelis are so convinced of this that they have made little fuss about the recent meeting in Cairo of a congress of the so-called democratic (in fact terrorist and murderous) Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Their sole, reasonable, and, indeed — considering what they have suffered — mild criticism of the reception accorded the Palestinian gangsters is that these people can speak in no way for the aspirations of the ordinary Palestinian, cowed by their guns; and Israel seems genuinely anxious for a just Palestinian settlement.
There are still many clouds. The shameful treatment by the Syrians of Israeli prisoners of war indicates that President Assad's reformation may be merely a surface affair. The shameful cowardice of the West German government in releasing Arab terrorists before the World Cup suggests how Western governments still quake at the guerrilla threat. The settlement has in no way dissolved the problem of putting down terrorism, nor relieved Arab governments of their duty to do so. As far as the international community is concerned, Israel cannot reasonably be asked to go further until this essential task is carried out.
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