The Arabs are unlikely to turn to Soviet Russia for aid in their fight against the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine, the Foreign Policy Association says in a report on the Arab League, prepared by Vernon McKay and published today.
“The significance of Arab threats to turn to Russia, made in the heat of the Palestine controversy, have been greatly exaggerated,” according to Mr. McKay. “In any case, available evidence indicates that the Arabs are winning their fight against a Zionist state comprising the whole of Palestine, and therefore have no reason for so drastic a step.
“Whatever its weakness, the Arab League is more than a device to combat Zionism, and is likely to outlive the Palestine issue if only to carry on the fight against European domination of other Arab lands,” McKay predicts. “Although British and Arab interests sometimes coincide, the Arab League is not a British tool,” he adds. “Some British army men who were alienated by Arab hostility during World War II fear that the Arabs, having driven the French out of Syria and Lebanon, will turn against the British once the Zionist threat is removed.
“In view of Russia’s growing influence in the area,” the report concludes, “the ideal approach for the Big Four would be a program of economic development undertaken in full cooperation with the Arabs. If the Soviet Union will not participate, the West should not hesitate to act alone. Typical of the possibilities is the proposal for a ten-year, $280,000,000 Jordan Valley development to provide enough power and irrigation to make room for 2,000,000 more people in Palestine.”
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