Basic HTML Version
16
The
PLAlN TRUTH
May 1971
Suez Canal - and then sorne. Even if reopened, the canal
could not accommodate supertankers. But the port of Eilat
can.
This combination of Eilat's deepwater port and the
Israelí pipeline permits oil companies both to use their giant
supertankers expeditiously and to achieve considerable sav–
ings in time and expense over the older route to Westero
Europe around the Cape of Africa.
The companies can route their supertankers to Eilat,
pump oil to Ashkelon, and load it there on smaller tankers
destined for European ports.
Where is the oil coming from? Israelí officials decline,
for obvious reasons, to divulge the exact producing countries,
saying only
it
comes from "East of Suez." But it is believed
the oil originates in Iran and such Arab states and sheikdoms
as Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Kuwait.
Sorne 13 million tons of crude oil were pumped through
the pipeline last year. Israelí officials expect an increase to 20
million tons this year, and to 40 million within the next few
years. Ultimate capacity is about 65 million tons yearly.
Two important facts stand out from Israel's newly
assumed oil role.
First, oil-starved Western Europe is increasingly depen–
dent upon Israel's security in the Middle East, as well as
stability in the oil-producing Arab states.
Second, Israel will continue to insist on retaining Sharm
el Sheikh in any peace talks. This Sinai fortress guards the
entrance into the Gulf of Aqaba at the Strait of Tiran.
It
was Nasser's takeover of Sharm el Sheikh and his
blockade of the Strait that precipitated the 1967 war.
One Israelí official stated that a state of war with Sharm
el
Sheikh would be better than peace without it.
•
Japan's Corner of the World
Government, industry and labor have worked hand-in–
hand to make the Japanese economy second only to the U. S.
in the free wodd.
Th~s
cooperation and hard work is reaping
huge economic dividends in Japan's own "backyard."
Non-Communist Asia is undergoing a new forro of
"economic colonization." The area is being transformed into
a mass market and raw-materials source for Japanese industry.
He·re are sorne exaroples:
Japanese trading companies now control over half of
Nationalist China's exports and imports. Taiwan, of course,
was once under Tokyo's control.
Japan is threatening to supplant the United States as the
Philippines' No. 1 trade partner. She is now the leading
exporter of goods to Hong Kong.
South Vietnam has been "invaded" by Japanese com–
merce, despite Tokyo's efforts to avoid involvement in the
Vietnam War. Saigon's streets are so clogged with Japanese
motorcydes that the Soutb Vietnamese capital has been
dubbed "Honda City."
Japanese business is beginning to domínate Thailand - ·
again with a heavy imbalance in favor of Japan. Tokyo has
become the leading supplier of goods and the leading foreign
investor in Malaysia. When the Singapore government
embarked on an industrialization program, Japanese com–
panies rapidly moved in.
South Korea is looking to Tokyo fot economic aid to
offset U. S. troop withdrawals. And finally, one Associated
Press correspondent wrote this of Japanese trade with Indo–
nesia: "The Japanese failed to do it with the Samurai. Now
they're trying to do it with the Honda."
With the U. S. withdrawing from Asia, it appears
certain that Japan will increase its economic domination -
and political influence - over the area. No other nation,
including industrially inferior Communist China, could fill
the vacuum left by the vacating Americans.
•
Europe's Military Dilemma
The balance of firepower in Europe is shifting to the
Soviet camp. North Atlantic Treaty Organization Secretary–
General Manlio Brosio sums it up this way: "The Warsaw
Pact countries today have more tanks, more artillery and more
aircraft than the Atlantic Alliance."
The latest shift occurred late last year when the MIG-23,
Russia's most modero fighter, entered the Soviet Air Force. At
Mach 3 the new Soviet jet is faster than any NATO aircraft,
which range from Mach 2 to Mach 2.5. A bevy of sophis–
ticated air-to-surface and air-to-air missiles gives the aircraft
real military muscle.
While the Communists have been beeóng up their
armaments, NATO forces have stagnated, relying on an
increasingly obsolete fleet, a smaller air force, and an out–
gunned army. The American equivalents of the MIG-23, for
example, are the Navy F-14 and the Air Force F-15 - botb
several years short of operational stages.
At preseot no massive effort by NATO to match Soviet
advances is in sight. The Alliaoce has instead been frag–
mented by squabbles over who will pick up the defense bill.
Many European NATO governments have been far more
anxious to finance domestic social programs and proroote
their own economic well-being than carry the burden of
defense.
Harassed by an unending balance-of-payments deficit,
many U. S. leaders have warned that either European
countries must radically increase their share of NATO
expenses, or the U. S. Congress
will
withdraw a major por–
tion of the 300,000 G.I.'s stationed in Europe.
Despite a European offer to spend an additional $1 bil–
lion over the next five years and a promise by President
Nixon that there will be no U.S. pull-back from Europe with–
out matching Russian withdrawals, the possibility of eventual
American troop cuts still remains.
Many observers feel that any major American with–
drawal could shatter European confi.dence - possibly even
wreck the Alliance.
It
would force Europe to strengthen and
unite its own military forces in a do-or-die situation. This is
of special concern since Europeans are becoming more skep–
tical of U. S. willingness to use its nuclear umbrella to
repulse any massive Soviet attack.