Informed political observers in Israel are disturbed by what seems to be the determination of Britain, and to some extent the United States too, to convince themselves of the “beneficial consequences” of the Egyptian-Syrian union and to overrate the value of the Iraqi-Jordan merger.
These same sources point to the fact that Nasser’s actions are according to the book a specific book, his volume on the Egyptian revolution. In it he noted that he would use the West’s dependence on Middle East oil supplies for blackmail purposes.
In addition, with control of the Suez Canal and the Syrian pipelines, the President of the New Arab Republic can squeeze Iraq most of whose oil travels by one or the other of these routes. Moreover, the fact that King Saud has not joined his fellow monarchs in the Iraq-Jordan axis permits Nasser to first apply pressure on the Western European countries which own most of the Iraqi oil wells and then proceed against the American-owned Saudi Arabian wells. This divide and conquer plan reduces the possibility of an energetic Western reaction.
Observers here feel that the only way the West can avoid this trap is to undertake an immediate political and economic counter-offensive including the building of alternate pipelines through Israel and Turkey and to launch large-scale development projects in those Middle East countries which are still pro-Western.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
