U.S. Press Hopes Israel and Arabs Will Join Command

The New York Times says; “The disputed over the Suez Canal and the Sudan, and the mutual fears and hatreds between Israel and the Arab states, make the active participation of any of these countries a hope for the future rather than a practical possibility for the present. Yet t he Middle East Command will ultimately by a failure if it does not win the support of the people of the region. They must be made to realize that the Western objective is the sovereignty and independence of each nation and the relief of the region’s appalling poverty, ignorance ad disease.”

The New York Herald-Tribune writes: “There are still many divisive elements in the Middle East–Arab suspicions of the European powers, the unresolved Arab Israeli issue, national and dynastic ambitions, economic and political inequities, religious antagonisms. The success of the M.E.C. in its first stages will be judged by the extent to which these forces can be subordinated to the overriding need for a common defense against the common danger of Communism. If even a few of the Middle Eastern states will join the charter members of the organization for that purpose, a genuine beginning can be made not only toward fortifying a region ‘vital to the free world’ but toward raising living standards there.”