Defying the World

Despite a sixth order from the U.N. General Assembly and a personal appeal from the President of the U.S., Israel dug in on the Gaza Strip and along the Gulf of Aqaba, flatly and firmly refusing to get out. To the U.N. and to Dwight Eisenhower's plea for "a decent respect for the opinions of mankind," Israel last week answered pointedly that "no guarantees have been obtained yet for definite stoppage of Egypt's belligerence and sea blockade of Israel." Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion's Cabinet had decided that until such guarantees are obtained, Israel will defy the world. Said an Israeli spokesman: "We are down to rock bottom. Our stand is vital for Israel's security and there is no further room for retreat."

Although this lone stand spawned the prospect of canceled U.S. aid and more austerity at home, Israel was in a state of patriotic excitement unparalleled since Israel's independence was proclaimed in 1948. In Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa, Israelis paraded by the thousands through the streets in mass protest "against the return of the Egyptian murderers to Gaza." At Nahal Oz, the Israeli settlement across from Egypt's old gun positions in the Gaza Strip (see box), delegates from 14 frontier communities passed a resolution against the "strangulation policy of the U.N. majority." For Orthodox Jews who could not express their feelings at public meetings on the Sabbath, rabbis intoned special prayers in Israel's synagogues for the safety of their country.

Compromise & Questions. The Israeli defiance was fateful not only for Israel and the Middle East, but for the U.S., the U.N. and for world peace. The U.N. General Assembly had passed a U.S. compromise resolution calling on Secretary-General Hammarskjold to station U.N. Emergency Force units at the border trouble spots "in consultation with the parties concerned." But the Israelis protested that this only gave Nasser a veto over any UNEF moves. When Israeli officials asked Hammarskjold to seek a statement from Egypt renouncing warlike intentions, he not only refused but demanded an answer within 24 hours to two significant questions of his own: 1) Will Israel agree to the posting of U.N. forces on the Israeli side of the line? 2) Will Israel evacuate its civilian as well as military units out of the Gaza Strip?

After the Israelis refused to answer these questions which Jerusalem newspapers termed "an ultimatum," the Arab-Asian bloc this week moved to debate sanctions against Israel. Washington's hopes that Ben-Gurion would accept private U.S. assurances of support arid pull out gave way to pessimism; U.S. officials predicted that Israel's holdout would damage its own long-term self-interest.

Intransigence & Intransigence. There were other ominous notes in the situation. Out of Washington came reports that Nasser was once again receiving shipments of Soviet arms. The Egyptians had been deliberately delaying the U.N. task force's Suez Canal clearance work by failing to dredge around and remove explosives from the only two important wrecks still blocking the ditch. After Egypt's first Cabinet meeting in several months, Nasser's radio announced that the Canal would not be opened to navigation until the last Israeli clears out of Egypt.

Thus intransigence fed intransigence. If there is no early settlement in the Middle East, the standing of both the U.S. and the U.N., as the key peacemakers, will suffer a serious blow. Even more serious is the prospect that the exchange across the Gaza Strip might once again shift from words to bullets and bombs.

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