Getting It in Writing

Until last week the threat of war hung over the Middle East, even though all parties to the crisis protested that they did not want war. It took the skilled diplomacy of U.N. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold last week to get their protestations in writing. Result: a cease-fire along the bloody Israeli-Egyptian border and a promising stillness spreading across the Middle East.

In making peace (even though it may only be temporary) Dag Hammarskjold had the enthusiastic backing of the U.S., which sponsored the U.N. resolution to create his mission. In midweek the U.N. Secretary-General received further timely help from an unexpected source. The Russian Foreign Office suddenly announced that it shared President Eisenhower's conviction that the great powers should jointly seek Middle East peace through the U.N. Naturally the Russians had reasons of their own. They had been willing to help Egypt's Gamal Abdel Nasser with arms in order to create mischief, but pulled back when it seemed that the mischief might turn to war--a war that could get out of hand. The Russians also undoubtedly hoped to reap an immediate benefit. What better--or more inexpensive--present could Khrushchev and Bulganin take to their hard-pressed host, Anthony Eden, than a Russian promise to work for Middle East peace?

Whatever the Kremlin's motives, its pronouncement had lightning results in the Levant. "The end of an illusion," wailed a Beirut newspaper. "Arabs can no longer play East and West against each other." In Cairo the newspaper Al Ahram denounced the Russians for "meddling in the Middle East." "Iniquitous," cried Syria's Defense Minister. "The U.S.S.R. lumps aggressors with victims." And in Israel old David Ben-Gurion, sniffing the air, shed his khaki battle dress and turned up at work wearing a nonbelligerent white shirt instead.

Subtle, courtly, now puckishly smiling, now coldly decisive, pausing to tell Swedish jokes, dodging irrelevant emotionalisms by declaring, "Let me discuss this as a lawyer," Dag Hammarskjold negotiated adroitly with Ben-Gurion. Before he left for Lebanon, Syria and Jordan, he had the assurance of a cease-fire on 165 miles of Israel's borders, to match the promise he had received from Nasser the week before (TIME, April 23). He had talked out Ben-Gurion's objections to stronger U.N. border patrols. He had taken a step toward his third objective, which is formulating some sort of long-term Palestine settlement to be discussed by the U.N. Security Council after he flies back to New York in May. That will be the moment when Arab and Israeli promises--and Russia's assurances--will be put to the test.

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