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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, June 13, 1980
Page 16
allied consultation, President Giscard d'Estaing popped up in Warsaw for a
secretly planned confab with Soviet President Brezhnev. Soon West German
Chancellor Helmut Schmidt will be off to Moscow, responding to a "peace
offensive" from the Kremlin openly designed to further split the alliance.
Now, the signals are set for what could be the biggest storm yet to lash
the Atlantic Alliance. The Conunon Market wants to bring the Palestine
Liberation Organization (P.L.O.) directly into Mideast peace negotiations.
Both the U.S. and Israeli governments are furious over this possibility.
Even the Egyptians are not in favor of it.
Washington would have to veto any European-sponsored pro-P.L.O. resolution
in the U.N. Security Council. Yet, France, Italy and Britain seem deter
mined to push ahead--although they have yielded temporarily to pressure
from the U.S. State Department to hold back on their own plan. "We did
not believe the Camp David approach could work," says one French official.
"We are convinced that a Middle East solution must be global.''
(Note
Zechariah 12:2-3).
Europe's Weakness Exposed
There is loose talk everywhere in Europe these days about America's
inconsistency and incompetence--and the eventual need for Europe to "go
it alone."
(Arthur Schlesinger Jr., former aid to President Kennedy, says
that the United States is becoming the "Inspector Clouseau of nations"
--likening America to the bumbling detective, played by Peter Sellers,
in the "Pink Panther" films).
Yet, if Europe does indeed "go it alone," it has but two choices. The
first is neutrality between the two superpowers. But in Europe's weakened
state this would only amount to "Finlandized" submission to muscle-flexing
Moscow. The second choice is to pay the price in an all-out effort to
defend itself.
Neither alternative--when Europeans bother to think about such stark
reality--is really palatable. Reports the news magazine To The Point:
"In view of the distrust of America and the dread of Soviet attack that
are spreading through the Western Alliance, the natural question is: Why
don't the members of the alliance tighten their belts, arm to the teeth
and prepare seriously for war?
"They could unquestionably afford it. The NATO countries' combined gross
national product (GNP) is double that of the Warsaw Pact nations. Con
sidering the very real Soviet threat, one would think the political
leaders of the Western World ought to consider serious rearmament. Un
fortunately, Western Europe, the United States and Japan are governed, not
by statesmen, but by politicians who are primarily-interested in getting
themselves reelected."
Both Carter and Schmidt are locked in Autumn election battles; Giscard
faces an election next Spring; and--just as we go to press--Japan's Prime
Minister Masayoshi Ohira has just died of a heart attack. Japan is in
political turmoil. National elections are only eleven days away and the
ruling Liberal Democratic Party is virtually leaderless. Japan won't even
have a prime minister to send to the free world economic summit in Venice
on June 22-23.