Evening star., 1948-05-21
Our Middle East Arms Embargo
In Deciding Whether to Lift It and How, the
Administration Weighs Votes and Oil
By Nevboh Noyes, J.

Israel But such countries as. France and
Italy probably could supply the Palestine Jews.
as could several South American states. And
today, anybody with dollars is unlikely to go
begging long. The Jews have the dollars.
Pressure for One-Sided Deal.
There are two ways in which the American
arms market might be opened for Palestine.
It could be one-way proposition, in which
the embargo was lifted only for Israel and
kept in force for the Arab states. Or the en-
barge could be lifted for all the Middle East
The political pressure is behind the FIRST OF
these alternatives.
A strong argument, however, is being adj
vanced by those of Mr. Truman's advisers
who want him to lift the embargo for the
whole Middle East If it is to be lifted at all
Arab and Jewish representatives here agree
that to raise the embargo for all the Middle
East would help the Jews at the relative ex-
pense of the Arabs. Again, it is the dollar
that counts: The Jews simply could buy more
arms here than the Arabs could.
A general relaxing of the export ban, ac-
cording to this view, would have the ad-
vantage of not involving deliberate choice by
this country as between the Jewish and Arab
causes We could help the Jews without point
ing openly at the Arabs as aggressors. For
mally we would be maintaining our neutrality.
And the Arabs have been trying hard to con-
vince us that this is the least we must do il
We are to retain the advantages of our pres
ent relationship with them.
The Arabs, of course, would rather we did
not lift the embargo at all. The persuasive
efforts of their spokesmen boil down, essen
TALLY. to this proposition: "You need our oil
more than we need your dollars" The prod
1ct nf their nil fields thew iS essential
to the Marshall Plan as well as to cur domestic
economy. The Arabs can do without machines
for another hundred years or so far more
easily than we can do without oil. This is
their argument or their bluff, as the case may
be-the Jews profess not to believe a word
of it. Where, they ask, would the Arabs sell
their oil If not to us?
Answer Lies in Arab Attitude.
The great question of fact in this equation
clearly is still the one as to how seriously the
Arabs should be taken. More than oil may
depend on the answer to it. Mr.. Truman has
been getting a good deal of advice tending
to minimize Arab determination in this Pales-
tine war" Many an Arab spokesman admits
to doubts that it will be possible to defeat the
Jews within the territory allotted them in the
United Nations partition decision May it not
be, then, that the Arabs eventually will recon-
cile themselves to a stalemate, accept the
alien in their midst and negotiate settlement
with him?
Perhaps. That certainly is the hope of our
government, and If the arms embargo is lifted
it will be an attempt to produce such solu-
ton. But some Of the things the Arabs say
today do not bode well for the future of Pales-
tine, whatever our decision on the embargo
question may be.
Bedia Afnan, for instance, who runs the
Paris branch Of the Arab Office, came into
town the other day to close the Washington
branch. She observed grimly that even II
the Jews can defend Israel, it will be nothing
more than strip of coastal land which must
import some 80 per cent of its food from
adjacent Arab territories. That food would
never be forthcoming, she said. It might take
years, but the Jews would not last in Pales-
tine.
Somebody wondered aloud whether, once the
initial excitement wore off, the Arabs would
hang together in their resolve to freeze the
Jews out. 49,.
I'm the crlsades," she said, 'the Arabs hung
together and fought an intruder for about 100
years. Nothing has changed since them