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Decades of war have taken
their to/1. 8oth Arabs and
lsraelis have had enough. 8oth
want peace -
but do they
think it wi/1 come?
The Plain
Truth
took a survey to find out.
Jerusalem
W
HILE GOVERNMENT
leaders
are trying to hammer out a
stable peace in the Middle
East, the people wait - and hope.
The problems involved with mak–
ing peace between warring peoples
are always difficult. The problerns
involved with making peace be–
tween the Arabs and the lsraelis are
almost beyond description.
All want peace; the religious pray
for it. Yet its attainment has thus far
proved elusive?
Justice for 8oth Sides
Tbe majority of people here are
realistic. They don't expect immediate
results from negotiations or war.
When asked what Arabs and lsraelis
should do to make peace, a young
Palestinian Arab, borne on vacation
from a Swedish university, wisely
said, "To come to conclusions based
on justice for both sides." He felt that
justice could be determined by
means of U.N. resolutions agreed to
by the superpowers. He saw no other
alterna tive "because the real power is
shared by the United States and the
Soviet Union. If I want to say the
truth, the war is not between Arabs
and Israelis. It's between these two
great forces. If they want peace, they
can force both sides to settle this
problem because both of them have
an interest in this land."
In fact, the interest of most of the
world has been drawn to the Middle
East by the currently successful em–
ployment of "oil politics" by the
Arabs. For them, the implementa–
tion of "justice for both sides" as
they see it, will come about if they
can prod the world community, es–
pecially the United States, into forc–
ing Is rael to accept what they
consider a j ust solution: returning
Arab lands and granting indepen–
dence to the Palestinian people.
PLAIN TRUTH February 1974
Oil Politics
The head of a taxi agency in East
Jerusalem gives the reason behind
the use of oil as a prod : "This is a
very important thing. We are now
very lucky because we feel that all
the European countries and Amer–
ica herself will now begin to under–
stand ... that there is an Arab
people and something they call Pal–
estine and people called Palestin–
ians. Before, they didn' t care. This
I
think is very good."
He didn't think that the withhold–
ing of oil would make the Euro–
peans or Americans mad at tbe
Arabs beca use "we are a very
friendly people with all people
in
the whole world." Wben asked if he
thought the governments might get
angry with the Arabs, he replied, "1
think so, but
I
don't krrow. The
Middle East and especially the Arab
countries are very rich in petrol.
1
think America and Europe need our
petrol. In any case, we want to be
friendly with all countries."
An East Jerusalem souvenir sales–
roan named Esa Wayway put it
more succinctly: "We're interested
tbat peace come. We don't cut off
the oil [as an action] agaiost the
American people, but for política!
reasons and to make America stop
helping Israel to make war. Tbe
American people are not our
enemy."
The Israelis, of course, view "oil
politics" in a ditferent ligbt. They
fea r that any peace agreement
reacbed under the pressure of "oil
politics" will not lead to "real
peace" but rather to another war.
Peggy Schlossberg, a Tel Aviv
housewife who works in Jerusalem
as a violinist in the Israel Broad–
casting Orchestra, gives the Israelí
view:
0:
Do you tbink tbe Arab oil boy–
cott has complicated the cbaoces for
peace?
A:
Yes, it puts, in a way, Europe
against us. They [the Arabs] will use
it every time against Europe or
against anybody as a form of black–
mail. They might give back the oil
tomorrow or resume deliveries. And
then anytime there's anything that
bothers them or they want to up–
set anybody, they' ll just turn it
off.
0 :
Do you tbink this will bring Eu–
rope more directly into conflict witb
Israel?
A:
I don't think they'll be very
happy about us. They're not happy
about us now. They'll be less happy
about us in the future.
Joseph, an Orthodox graduate
student of history, added what he
thought the Europeans and other
countries should do: "1 think the
Europeans must, if they don't want
to be blackmailed more and more,
send in troops and take by force the
oil fields. l f tbey don' t do it now, it'U
be too late." Other lsraelis thought
the Europeans might like to take ·
over the oil fields but didn' t think
they'd have the power to do it.
A new immigrant from Argentina
and now a Jerusalem store manager,
Mr. Newelman, sums
it.
up: ' 'The
people of Israel must have security .
Sorne think there's security in peace
agreements.
I
think this is impos–
sible ... because oil is the last word
in this war."
Secure Borders?
So much of the talk revolving
around a peace agreement centers
on the question of land and bound–
ary lines. Egypt, Syria, Jordan and
tbe Palestinian Arabs want their
lands back. Israel wants "secure
borders," which to many Israelis
means physical possession of certain
key, geographical positions. In real–
ity, the problem is not one of bor–
dees, but one of trust.
The Arabs don't trust Zionism.
They interpret Zionist aims as the
expansion of the state of Israel to
include al! land originally promised
to Abraham in the Hebrew Bible,
that is, from the Ni le to the Eu–
phrates.
The Israelis don't trust Arab pro–
nouncements proclaiming their de–
sire for peace. Remembered all too
fully are the threats of destruction
and annihilation - mostly of the
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