Word: arabism
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Adamant Rejection. In the month since the U.N.'s ill-named Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee approved a draft linking Zionism and racism (TIME, Oct. 27), the U.S. and its Western European allies had lobbied furiously to get the impending vote postponed if not quashed. But Arab lobbying won in the end. The resolution passed easily, 72-35, with 32 abstentions. Two other resolutions directed against Israel were approved by much wider margins. One creates a 20-member committee to try to set up in what is now Israel the sort of "democratic secular state" the Palestine Liberation Organization...
...worst-kept secrets in the Middle East is Israel's nuclear capability. For nearly a decade, Israel has had the materials and scientific talent needed to make atomic weapons, as well as some means of firing them on Arab targets. Jerusalem has consistently refused to acknowledge its nuclear muscle; yet since it is fooling practically no one, what is to be gained by ambiguity? Not much, argues Robert W. Tucker, professor of international relations at Johns Hopkins University. In the November issue of Commentary, Tucker suggests that Israel should seriously consider making public the existence of an atomic arsenal...
Tucker, 51, is emerging as something of a superhawk on Middle Eastern affairs. Last January, in another much-debated Commentary article, he laid out a blueprint for a U.S. military takeover of Persian Gulf oil wells in the event of another Arab oil embargo. In an interview with TIME last week, he argued that the nuclear situation in the Middle East "is going to evolve anyway. The real question then is: What is the best way to have it evolve? My concept of an Israeli nuclear deterrent may create the context in which the Israelis will feel secure enough...
...Provide a "substitute for territorial security," allowing Israel to give up occupied Arab territories "without the need to insist upon concessions the Arabs will almost surely not make...
...Israel, would "provoke a uniformly adverse reaction abroad." He also recognizes some dangers in his suggestions, such as the start of an atomic arms race in the Middle East and disapproval by Washington that could result in "sharply reduced American arms support" for Israel. He insists, however, that the Arabs will probably acquire atomic weapons anyway. His reason: "[Their] wealth and power, as well as the ever-increasing availability of nuclear technology." In fact, last week Egypt and the U.S. initialed an agreement for the construction in Egypt of two nuclear power generators. Even so, Tucker argues, a "nuclear [weapons...