Koran v. Socialism

After Syria's breakaway last September, the three-year-old United Arab States consisted only of two members--Egypt and tiny, backward Yemen. Last week, Nasser kicked out Yemen. With Egypt thus turned into a federation of one but still clinging to the now meaningless title of United Arab Republic, Nasser promised new glories for "Arab socialism," started off by lavishly insulting his old Arab enemies and generally agitating the Middle East.

Pugnacious Poem. The tie with Yemen had been bizarre from the first. Nasser had hoped to reform the Stone Age kingdom and make it part of a Pan-Arab nation; Yemen's wily old Imam simply hoped to pry as much cash as possible out of Nasser without changing his country (where slavery, public flogging and eye-for-an-eye justice are still practiced). The Imam dodged all meetings with Nasser, barred the twelve-member U.A.R. committee from convening in Yemen, and tore up all of its recommendations for reform. He was unimpressed when, in his new drive for socialism, Nasser jailed scores of capitalists and officers as "reactionaries," sequestered the wealth of hundreds of well-heeled Egyptians, nationalized some 400 businesses. Last fall, the Imam dashed off a little poem in classical Arabic scoring both Arab socialism and, by implication, Gamal Abdel Nasser. The poem evidently loses something in translation, but its point is clear enough:

The Koran says, do not nationalize other people's property. Let us return to Islamic laws and let us have union on our own terms.

The ditty fell into Nasser's hands and he exploded. Speaking at Port Said last week, Nasser lumped the Imam with Jordan's King Hussein and Saudi Arabia's King Saud as "reactionaries," and accused them of fostering conditions that are an affront to "the law of justice and the law of God." Said Nasser: "We shall have genuine class equality. Political freedom is nonsense without freedom from feudalism and capitalism ... If social justice is applied in Saudi Arabia, how can King Saud finance his harem and his slaves?" Stabbing the air with his fingers and pursing his lips, Nasser continued: "They accuse me of conspiring to topple their regimes. If I were really to conspire, I'd finish them in two months. In two months, I tell you. Saud spent six million dollars trying to assassinate me. I swear to God I haven't spent a single penny on him--he's not worth it."

Having thus done his bit for Arab unity, Nasser struck out in other directions.

Muscle from Moscow. First he continued his drive against the French and other foreigners in Egypt, vowed to expropriate all foreign holdings that he has so far overlooked, including 150,000 acres of farm lands held by 2,614 aliens. Last week his government seized all French schools and ordered 300 French teachers out of the country. In prison awaiting trial on fantastic charges of plotting against Nasser, are four members of a French mission that was liquidating property seized after the collapse of the Suez invasion.

Next, Nasser set Western alarm bells ringing by playing host to a Soviet naval delegation--which presented him with a model submarine--at the same time that Russian and Czech-built "naval units" were steaming into Egyptian ports to add muscle to his navy. Israeli newspapers warned that Nasser was about to reverse his stand against foreign bases by opening Alexandria to Moscow as a replacement for Russia's abandoned Albanian submarine base. Actually, Nasser granted a scant 35 minutes to the delegation's chief, Admiral Sergei G. Gorshkov, Commander in Chief of the Soviet Navy, and, as one Western observer noted: "Even a fast-talking Russian couldn't persuade a stubborn man like Nasser to make such an about-face in so short a time."

Potent Precautions. More likely, Nasser's newest venture into troubled waters involves Kuwait. On Christmas Eve Iraq's Premier Abdul Karim Kassem, keenly interested onlooker in India's invasion of Goa, said that he would follow suit by "liberating" the oil-drenched sheikdom "in the coming days." In the past, Nasser has had as little use for Kassem as for Arabia's harem kings, but recently there have been rumors of a reconciliation.

Britain quickly alerted 7,000 paratroopers, infantrymen and R.A.F. units in Cyprus, Kenya and Bahrein. From Mombasa, Kenya, a strike force of seven warships including the aircraft carrier Centaur with 45 fighter-bombers and helicopters aboard, sailed to join six British vessels already patrolling the Persian Gulf. "Just small-scale precautionary measures," said the Defense Ministry. Added the Foreign Office, confident that the show of force would be effective: "We don't expect any trouble."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.