Evening star., 1955-03-08
GAIA, Israel and the Arabs

BY the deciding vote of it's French
chairman, the Mixed Arnistice Commission
in Jerusalem has found Israel guilty of an
act of brutal aggression--a "prearranged
and planned attack"in last weeks shock
ing outbreak Of armed violence inEgyptian-
held GAIA.
This incident. one of the graveSt of its
kind since the signing of the Palestine truce
in 1949 snuffed ont the lives of 38 Egyptians
and Israeis. According to Cairos bitter
complaint, as upheld by the Mixed Armi-
stice Commission, the bloodletting occurred
when heavily armed units of Israels regular
army invaded the GAIA strip under orders
to carry out a deliberate, unprovoked hit
and-run attack
But Israel tells a different story. In
ssting upon it's innocence, it has charged
that Egyptian troops precpitated the
trouble with an ambushing foray that led
to a running f1ght--a kind of "hot pursuit"
that reached it's climax in GAIA. Accord
inoly, since the Tel Aviv government has
used this version Of the incident as the basis
of an appeal against the mixed commissions
finding, and since the appeal has yet to be
passed upon by a special committee of the
United Nations Truce Supervision Organi-
zation, final Judgment on the matter must
be held in abeyance, even though the
Israelis seem at the moment to have weak
case And certainly they will merit the U. N.
Security Councils formal condemnation II
further investigation supports the decision
already handed down against them.
However, although Israel has committed
an indefenSible outrage if that decision is
correct. the GAIA incident falls short of
being an accurate indication of where the
blame belongs for the continuing tension in
that part of the world. The truth is that
the situation cannot be summed up in simple
black and white terms, and the complica-
tiOns involved make it impossible for any
body to arrive at a Just and precise measure
ment of the guilt attributable to each Of the
contending sides. Thus, for example, be-
tween last September and February, the
Mixed Armistice Commission censured the
Israelis Is times and the Egyptians 81 times
for a variety Of violent truce violations
ranging from theving forays and sabotage
to SenseleSS murders. But figures like these,
since they do not account for the deeper
emotional and other factors at work. are of
little help in terms Of trying to determine
where the chief fault really lies.
One of the main roots of the trouble,
of course, is the fact that Egypt and the
other Arab countrieS--for reasons that seem
to them to be thoroughly justified--look
with worried suspicion on Israel and stead
fastly refuse to accept its existence in what
they regard as territory belonging to them.
That is why they persistently decline to take
part in negotiations to translate the armi-
stice into defnitive peace settlement. And
that is why, too, some of their leaders pc
riodically threaten to do dire things to the
young Jewish state.
Such an atmosphere is obviously a
breeder of mutual acts of violence, and as
long as it exists there will be danger of in
cidents even worse than the one in GAIA
incidents of sort that could cause re-
sumption of full-scale war. The situation
thus is full of grim potentialities, and what
makes it seem particularly tragic is the fact
that the Arabs and Israelis have the where
withal to prosper in a way and on scale
that they can never know until they try
living together as good neighbors in decent