“More human and material progress is concentrated in tiny Israel than in the rest of the Middle East put together,” Adlai Stevenson, former Democratic Presidential candidate, says today in a copyrighted article in Look Magazine, reporting on his visit to Israel and the Arab countries.
In a frank appraisal of the Arab-Israeli situation, Mr. Stevenson enumerates the grievances against Israel and the stand of the Israel Government on these complaints. He then comes to the following conclusions:
1. Arab insistence on any major alteration of Israel’s boundaries is unrealistic.
2. With regard to Jerusalem, he asserts “it is hard to see how a city divided against itself can stand, let alone flourish.” Mr. Stevenson points out that all faiths are concerned with the fate of Jerusalem.
3. With regard to the Arab refugees, Mr. Stevenson says that indemnification for their property is no more than fair and just. As to repatriation, he doubts that any substantial number of Arab refugees would care to live as Israeli citizens under conditions and in an environment quite different from what they remember.
Mr. Stevenson believes that the Arab refugee problem could best be solved by resettlement of the refugees among then kinafolk, in the Arab countries. He says that while Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan “are awfully crowded,” Syria and Iraq are underpopulated. “With some land reclamation, the refugees now multyplying at the rate of 25,000 a year could become a strength instead of a burden” to the Arab countries, Mr. Stevenson writes.
URGES “OUTSIDERS” TO IMPOSE SOLUTION OF ARAB-ISRAEL PROBLEM
“The best reason for inaction on the Arab refugee problem, I suspect, is that to settle the refugees permanently would prejudice the Arab case for repatriation to their former homes in Israel, ” Mr. Stevenson declares. “In the camps I visited, the refugees told me they wanted to ‘go home,’ although I am sure they little appreciate the new conditions and environments they would find in Jewish Israel. “
Mr. Stevenson believes that “demagoguery and inflamed public passions make reasonable, effective leadership difficult on both sides.” He says that conciliation and compromise in the public interest invite charges of appeasement and treachery, even at the risk of assassination – as the late King Abdullah of Jordan found out. He expresses the opinion that both the Arabs and the Israelis “might welcome reasonable solutions imposed by outsiders.” It is too much to expect that such solutions will be worked out by the Arabs and the Israelis themselves, he points out.
Mr. Stevenson emphasizes that the Arab states must be made to feel that America’s friendship for Israel does not mean that the United States is “anti-Arab” or esteems the Arabs less. “But this will take far more than words,” he stresses.
Commenting on the meaning of the Arab blockade to Israel’s economy, Mr. Stevenson says that estimates of the damage it does vary from $15,000,000 to $70,000,000 a year, and adds: “Whatever it is, with cheaper food and materials, living and production costs would go down and the competitive position of Israel’s industries would improve. But peace is prerequisite to ending the blockade–and the prospects look no brighter. “
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