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EAST
Diplomacy
Bring
Peace?
Pressure is mounting
on
world leaders to step in and engineer
a seHiement to the Arab-lsraeli dispute. But are the big
powers big enough to bring ;ustice and lasting peace
to this troubled, vitally important
orea?
by Richard C. Pe te rson
Beirut, Lebanon
E
VENTS OF
recent months have
served notice to world leaders
that the Middle East can no
longer be relegated to secondary
concern.
For years statesmen have been
preoccupied with Southeast Asia.
Yet the agonizing Vietnam struggle
could literally pale into in–
significance against the perilous
backdrop of forces and events now
in motion in the Middie East.
rt
is imperative that we under–
stand the problems behind the Mid–
east crisis and that we recognize the
only
workable solution! At stake is
world peace.
Who Speaks With Authority?
The Middle East today, seen from
virtually any vantage point, is an
arena of conflicting geopolitical, re–
ligious, cultural and emotional aspi–
rations, ideals, and issues. One
prime example is the Palestinian
refugees. This perennial issue is cen–
tral to Arab thinking on the entire
Mideast.
The first question to face aoy or–
ganization working for a Middle
East peace settlement is: just who
speaks authoritatively for the Pales–
tinians? And also, for
which
Pales–
tinians?
Today's Palestinians have no
well-defined organizational struc-
Bit/
Schuler -
Ploin Trulh Arl
ture or accepted leadership. The
reason is that Arab Palestinians are
tragically fragmented. Besides the
Palestinian refugees are the
fedayeen,
militant Palestinian guer–
ri llas working from bases in sur–
rounding countries. And then there
are the successful, so-called pent–
house Palestinians. those who have
relocated elsewhere and have risen
to prominence in tbeir individual
occupations.
And what about those Palestin–
ians now situated on the Israeli-held
West Bank of tbe Jordan? Who rep–
resents them? Then we have those
refugees living on the other side of
the river in Jordan.
Furthermore, what part shou ld
the leaders of Jordan, a country
heavily populated with Palestinians,
play in this human drama? And
who is to decide? This dilemma has
wearied and frustrated
all
who have
tackled it.
Egypt -
Arab
Kingpin
lt
is widely felt in diplomatic cir–
cles that Cairo holds the key to
Middle East peace. As the strongest,
most populous Arab nation, Egypt
has for years set the political and
military pace in the Arab world.
Neighboring states, including Hus–
sein's Jordan, are wary of making
any initiatives toward peace with
Israel without Egypt first taking the
lead.
Egypt's problem with Israel
is
es–
sentially twofold: ( l) the issue of the
Gaza Strip and Sinai Península,
now occupied by Israelí forces, and
(2) the important matter of the Gulf
of Aqaba and Suez Canal water–
ways.
The United States and other lead–
ing powers want the Suez Canal,
closed since the 1967 war, reopened
to international shipping as a pre–
lude to a more general peace set–
tlement. Egypt wants any such
agreement tightly bound to an
lsraeli promise to relinquish aU oc–
cupied Arab territories. Israel is gen–
erally view these captured lands as
vital to their interna! security and
insist that a Suez Canal pact be a
totally separate matter.
Across from the Suez Canal líes
the Gulf of Aqaba. lsrael claims
Egypt ignited the Six-Day War of
1967 by closing the Straits of Tiran
at the entrance to this strategic
waterway. thus blocking tbe critica!
shipping lanes to Israel's Red Sea
port city of Eilat.
lnternational diplomacy has been
busily trying to effect a solution to
the Suez and Aqaba problem, as
well as deal with the question of
sovereignty over Sinai and the Gaza
Strip. Perhaps the crowning effort to
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