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CAMPAIGNING BEGINS FOR
1976 GERMAN ELECTIONS
3
Unllke the stlll-confused American electlon derby,
the battle llnes In Bonn are well detlned.
4
WORLDWATCH
The gleeful exposure of every CIA actlvity could
have serlous consequences for Amerlca's security.
6
BRIDGING NATIONAL DIFFERENCES
Columnist Stanley R. Rader reports on his conver–
sations wlth three recent Japanese prime mlnisters.
6
ORCHIDS AND ONIONS
Our readers respond to the "Personal From the
Editor," "The New Civil War," and "The Sugar
Consplracy."
7
HOW WILL WE FEED
THE WORLD'S 6 BILLION?
In the second lnstallment of our new series, Human
Survival, Plain Truth examines the immense prob–
lem of feeding the earth's exploding population. •
12
SCIENCE REDISCOVERS SIN
Al recen! scientific conferences, one mlght mistake
leading scientists for being theologians in disguise.
BRITAIN " BREWING UP"
TROUBLE FOR EEC
14
In his "Speaks Out" column, Editor Garner Ted
Armstrong makes some firsthand observations of
Britain's economlc problems.
15
RADIO / TV LOG
In recen! months, Garner Ted Armstrong added
dozens
ot
new radio and TV markets. Maybe YOUR
area now carrles hls volee.
2
THI MIIIAST IN 1171-
Df Tll SAII?
X
Since earliest antiqulty. the MId<!le East
has been the Mtting for countless wars,
repeated invulons, and frequent
dom;..
nation by foreign powers.
Those
through–
out hlstory
Who
have made their homes
on this strategic tand bridge - tying
u–
tride the tradi1lonat routes of trade and
communlcallon between three contlnents
- have done
eo
wfth the certain know;..
edge tha.t one day they would have to
flght to defend them.
The current contllct between Jew and
Arab in the Mlddle East ls actually a rela–
tively recent phenomenon. Civilizations of
the distant
pas1
fought there even before
Jews and Arabs - bolh lhe progeny of
the patriarch Abraham -
existed as a
people. Later. Assyrlans and Babylonians
invaded the land, carrying the people ot
Israel into captlvity. SubsequenUy, the
Romans. Seljuk Turks, Crusaders, and
Ottomans - among olhers - waged war
on the coveled soll, occupying
~
for vary–
lng lengths of time. Napoleon's armles
swept across Ita barren deserts. And ear1y
in this century. Arab and Brltish torces
ousted the occupy!ng Turks.
tt
was
rea1y
no~unelhe
end
ot
the
quartor–
century-long Bntloll mandate over Pales–
tina in
1948
that the national
armies
of
Israel and the Arab states first clashed In
thearea -eachctalmlngthelandasitsown
by
virtue of hlstoryand religion.
Three subsequent wars - in
1956,
1967,
and
1973-
ravaged the area with·
out settllng the territorial dispute. The
one-time land of mllk and honey remalns,
lamentably. a land of blood.
Moreover,
lhe
new
factor of
o// -
of
littJe
importance until recent decades -
has focused the concem of the entire
wor1d onto the
conffic~
which In times
past might have otherwise
beeÓ
vlewed
as
ol only regional slgnlficance. Now the
literal survival ol many nations - espe–
cially those of Western Europa - resta on
who controla the reglon. So the outslders
watch wlth concern. wondering when the
estranged chlldren of Abraham will agaln
shed one another'ablood.
Warln
'76?
W~l
war agaln Itere up In the Middle
East this year'l In
a
sense, the war has
never stopped. Guerrilla r8ids, air strlkes,
and terroñst bOmblngs are daily remind–
ers of the unsenled Ar8b-lsraelí dispute.
Whether 8 fltth
full-sc8f&
conflict m8y
erupt is an imposslble question to answer
wlt h any degree of certainty. The volatlle
Mid!Sie East defies predlctlon.
There are factors. however. whfch pro·
vide a
tew
indlcat/ons, but they can be no
more than that.
Firstly,
contlnulng rlvalry In
lhe
Arab
wor1d may prevent, at teast temporarily, a
resumption ot lheArab-lsraeli conftlct.
For over nlne months, a bitter civil war
has been under way In Lebanon between
Moslem leftlsts and rlght-wing Christian
Falangista. clalmlng thousands of llves.
Besides dlsrupllng that once serene,
commercially energetlc natlon. the fight-
lng has set Syria and Egypt to feuding,
each a.;cU$ing the other ot lnterfer1ng In
the conffict. Syria and lraq, whlch have
been making separata lnitlatives toward
endlng
lhe
Lebanese conffict,
have
aleo
been wrangling
over
each olher's moves.
The Syrla-Egypt quarrel
over
Lebanon
comes on top of already stralned reta–
tlona. The two countñes have been en–
gaged i n bitter polemlcs because of
Syrla's opposition to the controversia!
Slnal dlsengagement accord reached last
summer between Egypt and Israel. Syría,
the Palestinian Uberation Organlzation
(PLO),
and
other radical Arab atstes have
labetted the accord a "seltout," brandlng
Egypt a "tr«)tor to the
Arab
caUM." Syria
fHIS lhe accord has
taken
Egypt
"out
of
the battle," leaving Syr1a largely lsotated
In her confrontation wlth Israel.
Consequently. Syria - skepllcal abOut
the prospects for further Mldeast dlplo–
macy - ls pushlng for the formatlon of a
"northern front" wfth lraq, Jordan, the
PLO, and eventually even Lebanon.
whlch would be able to wage war,
lf
nec–
essary,
wflhout
Egyprs patticlpatlon.
11
blcker1ng with lraq
can
be overcome,
IUCh
a
c:oaition
may
evenlully
be
poselble.
Many
observers
feel that economically
troubled Egypt. on the other hand, wfll
want to spend this year concentratlng on
the exploltatlon of the Sinal oll fields re–
turnad to her as
part
of the accord wfth
Israel, rather than on waglng a war she
can
111
afford (P/aln Truth, Sept.
20. 1975).
The Palestinian questlon
la
another Im–
portan! consideration. The grlevances of
milllons of displaced Palestinians will
have lo ultlmately be reckoned w•th, or
war wfll
be
inevitable.
Yet laraetl Pnme
Minlster Rabin steadfasUy declines to
deal with the Palestinians - eapecially
the PLO - or to entertaln the idea of
a
posslble Palestinian state on the West
Bank of the Jordan. Thare ls, however,
apparently sorne divislon In hls cablnet
on lheM lssues,
w~
8 rew offlctals sald
to be leanlng toward sorne accom–
modation with the Palestlnlane.
The presidential etection In the Unlted
States thls fall
is
also
a
factor In the war–
O<·peace
equation. Washington would
unquestionably prefer
a
more-or-less
tranquil Middle
East
during the campalgn
months and will undoubtedly exert lis ln–
nuence accordingly.
,And flnally, the Kremlln too would un–
doubtedly preter a "no-war, no-peace"
sltuallon thls year, thlnklog
1t
wlse to
avold potentlal causes of frlctlon wlth the
U.S.In majOf.world arenas ln'a yeafwhen
the Soviet Union wfll be lmportlng larga
quantities of American graln.
Amid
811
the uncertainties of the
com–
plex Middle East situation. one thing is
sure. Events there, as Plain Truth has
predlcted for
over
40
years, wfll ultimately
brlng the nations or the workl to a su–
prema crisis at lhe clase of thls age of
human experience. Plain Trulh wlll con–
ti nua to brlng ln-depth artlcles on the
many aspects of lhis
v~l
toplc.
o
FEBRUARY 1976
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