New tensions in the Middle East
During the recent Middle East negotiations Mr Rabin's Israeli government was under two exceptionally severe pressures. In the first instance, Mr Rabin and his colleagues realise the need for continued American support for Israel, without Which there might be no survival for their beleagured country. In the second, however, they realised that Dr Kissinger was determined, in view of his fast-eroding domestic political position, to bring back some kind of triumph from his latest exercise in shuttle diplomacy, and such a triumph could only be at the expense of the Israelis. Fortunately Mr Rabin found the strength and the intelligence to stand up to the Secretary of State, and it is to be hoped that, in the near future, President Ford will realise how personalised and self-centred Dr Kissinger's diplomacy is becoming — how much more concerned with himself, and how much less with the American national interest — and will take steps accordingly.
Meanwhile the situation in the Middle East remains as before, save that tension is now steadily increasing. It was quite clearly impossible, during the recent negotiations, for the Israelis to make the concession which the Egyptians most strenuously demanded — the abandonment of their hold on the Simla passes. At the very best the Israelis have never received more than fair words in the way of peace offerings from the Arabs; whereas the Arab powers, fighting war after war in pursuit and service of their settled determination to destroy the state of Israel, cry 'foul' every time their vastly superior forces are defeated, and wail like children at the prospect of having to pay any penalty for defeat. It has been clear for some time that Israel is more than prepared to make peace with her neighbours, and offer to the whole area the benefits of her sophisticated abilities in turning desert into pasture land; but only if she is offered copper-bottomed guarantees of her security. Those no combination of Arab states is any nearer to offering than they were at the time of the Yom Kippur war. So Israel must stand firm; and her friends must stand beside her.
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