Listening Mission

Never before in U.S. history had a Secretary of State visited, the Middle East. This week John Foster Dulles, accompanied by Harold Stassen, began a 20-day flying, fact-finding tour of the area. Dulles emphasized as he left the U.S.: "I shall bring with me no specific plans or programs, nor do I intend to ask the governments I visit for any decisions. I shall listen intently . . ."

In fact, the trip had been planned before Stalin's death and the reopening of Korean truce talks; Dulles would have liked to stay close to events in Washington, but he feared that cancellation of his trip might be misunderstood in the touchy Middle East. From Cairo to Riyadh, every government waited to see whether the top Republican statesman, after 20 years of Democratic diplomacy, was planning a switch in America's Middle East policy.

In a burst of rare unanimity, the eight Arab League states agreed that each would tell Dulles the same things. Their immediate enemy, they would say, is not Russia but Britain (see above) and Israel. They would tell Dulles that they would make peace with Israel only on condition that three U.N. resolutions are revived and enforced: i) Israel withdraw to the area fixed in the U.N.'s 1947 partition plan (and surrender 2,370 square miles, more than 25% of Israel's total area); 2) Jerusalem must be internationalized; 3) Israel must allow the three-quarter million Palestine refugees, now living in squalid camps throughout the Middle East, to return to their homes. Actually, the Arabs are making no attempt to absorb the refugees, and the U.N. has pledged $250 million on their behalf, of which 75% is put up by the U.S.

The Arab League states, beginning with Egypt, wanted also to quiz Dulles on the disproportionate division of U.S. aid for the Middle East. In fiscal 1953 the Truman Administration gave Israel, with but 1,500,000 people, $73 million, or 43% of all U.S. aid for the area ($168 million). Eight Arab states, with a population of 40 million, had to divide the other 57%. Arab states had hoped that the Eisenhower Administration would even the bal ance. Yet the new Administration's sched ule reportedly plans to give Israel 41% of the 1954 total. Are Eisenhower and Dulles only 2% more friendly than Truman and Acheson? The Arabs want to know.

After two days of listening to these and other complaints, Dulles will go to Jerusalem to be received by frankly apprehensive Israelis. An official of Premier David Ben-Gurion's Mapai Party said last week: "During the Truman regime, we were our rich uncle's favorite Middle East nephew. Now there are eight favorites--all of them more favorite than Israel."

The Israelis say they are eager for an Arab peace that would end the regional boycott of their products and allow them to cut down their standing army. Ben-Gurion assured a reporter that Israel is willing to guarantee its existing Arab frontiers "for 100 years." The government is said to be willing to make minor border concessions, and to open Haifa as a free port, but not to turn its part of Jerusalem over for internationalization or to readmit Arab refugees in large numbers.

Next on Dulles' schedule: Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, India, Pakistan, Turkey, Greece, Libya. Conspicuously absent: Mossadegh's Iran, which Dulles will fly over but not visit. Reported reason: the U.S. Secret Service rejected strife-torn Iran as unsafe for the visitors.

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