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June
1971
ing a portion of their wages. In a
reasonably short time they are able to
move into a house or flat. As 1 now
remember it, they can buy their own
flat on the installment plan, and it is
to a considerable extent subsidized by
the government. Sorne are taken into a
kibbutz.
Advances Made By lsraelis
Mrs. Meir made a special point of
another astonishing achievement.
"An extraordinarily high infant mor–
tality rate plagued these immigrants
before their arrival in Israel. There
was a correspondingly high death rate
of mothers in childbirth. But now one
may contrast those figures with what
is one of the lowest infant mortality
rates, and mother childbirth death rates
in the world."
Then she told us of the Israelis'
ability and wi llingness to
HELP
their
Arab neighbors. This small but remark–
able nation now sends its experts and
its technology throughout the deepest
parts of Africa and to even more
remote places in the world to help
under-developed nations.
"How easy it would be," she said
earnestly, "to send the same teams
across the border into Jordan,
oc
across
the canal into Egypt, and how much
prosperity and happiness would be
brought to this entire area of the world
by peace."
Two days before, Egyptian President
Sadat had made a speech on the Middle
East crisis, extending the cease-fire
another thirty days. Mrs. Meir did not
see in his speech any evidence of desire
for peace. On the contrary, she said, it
was belligerent and militantly hostile.
"How," she asked, "could the Egyp–
tian leaders believe with any sincerity
that destruction of Israel - or war
with Israel - could produce any pros–
perity
oc
happiness for the Egyptian
people ?"
"We don't want to have to go on
winning more and more victories," she
added. "We only want peace."
Mes.
Meir spoke of a newly devel–
oped kibbutz in Israelí occupied Jordan
west of the Jordan river. I have driven
past it three or four times. She con–
trasted the bumpec crop of tomatoes
with adjoining areas occupied by Arabs,
The
PLAIN TRUTII
desolate and consisting of rocks and
sand. The Israelis, since becoming a
nation, have had to take this same
kind of desolate land, with nothing
but rocks and sand - clear away the
rocks, and turn the land into fertile
productive soil. Of course 1 have been
very much impcessed with this condi–
tion ever since I first visited the coun–
try. To see the contrast between rich,
black soil covered with green vegeta–
tion and crops, and, in adjoining Arab
land the utter desolation reflecting indo–
lence, laziness, shiftlessness and degen–
eration, is an astonishing spectacle.
"How easy it would be," said this
lady Prime Minister, "if they would
let us help the Jocdanians do with
their neglected and arid wasteland as
we have done."
Hussein Would Like Peace
I would like to mention, at this
point, that I feel King Hussein would
gladly welcome such peace, cooperation
and help in improving his people.
Three times I have had appoint–
ments set up for a personal meeting
with King Hussein. Each time a war
incident prevented. Once he had unex–
pectedly been called away from Amman
in an emergency. Another time, war
conditions made it unsafe for me to
go there.
I have read King Hussein's auto–
biography. He was educated in Eng–
land, and also in Cairo, as well as in
Jordan. There is much to admire in
him. He yearns to help upgrade his
people and improve their status in lífe.
Above all things, he is an Arab at
heart, and that is the principal reason
he went along with President Nasser
in fighting against Israel. 1 personally
feel Hussein would have been glad to
make peace with his Israelí neighbors,
and have entered a co-operative ar–
rangement for the benefit of his people.
But his dedication as an Arab, and
the política! pressures from Cairo aod
other Arab Capitals prevented. Hussein
also is under constant pressure from
within bis own country. Other Jor–
danian leaders are constantly maneuver–
ing to overthrow him and seize his
throne. He lives in daily fear of
assassination. He witnessed personally
the assassination of his beloved grand-
43
father, King Abdullah. As in the title
of his autobiography, "Uneasy lies the
Head."
Back to Our Meeting
Mrs. Meir showed us one of a four–
volume set of books published in
Hebrew. These were most unusual.
They contained pictures of all of those
dead as a consequence of the
1948
war
of independence, the
1956
Sinai cam–
paign, the six-day war of
1967
and the
various incidents during the entire
period of the $tate. The volumes also
contained pieces of
poetry
and prose
written by sorne of the people who
sacrificed their lives.
Mrs. Meir said that President Nasser
never understood the character of the
Israelí people. He proclairned that no
people would be able to be successful
on the battlefield if they placed such a
great value on human life that they
published pictures daily in their news–
papers of their casualties and compiled
reminders of the battlefield mortalities.
"However," she said, "it was this
vcry great value that the Israelí people
placed upon human life that enables
them
to
endure and to prevail in their
efforts to resist aggression and to build
a great nation."
Mes. Meir then presented each of us
with an autographed book. Each con–
tained, in English, bits of poetry and
prose written by young roen who re–
turned to their kibbutz after having
experienced the horrors of warfare
during the six-day war in
1967.
She stressed how this particular seg–
ment of the Israelí population, dedi–
cated to life and things productive,
was affected by the necessity to take
human Iife in a military campaign. She
indicated that these young people did
not harbor any feelings of hatred or
hostility toward their oeighbors, not–
withstanding the trauma of the war
and the stresses on the society since
June of
1967.
She seemed very proud and pleased
to be able to make that comment.
Why Can't We Have Peace?
What a deplorable tragedy that the
whole world cannot
now
have the kind
of
PEACE,
with prosperity and happi–
ness that Prime Minister Golda Meir