Mr. Mohammad Jamil Beyhum Answers... On the Conference of the Kings and Heads of the Arab States

On the occasion of the invitation Lebanon has extended to the sister states for a conference of the kings and heads of the Arab states, to take matters in hand in the face of the Jewish provocations, the delegate of "The Woman's Voice" put to Mr. Mohammad Jamil Beyhum a number of questions calculated to clarify the situation and make it plain in the minds of the readers... Our great Ustad is the man best acquainted with the Palestine question, and the one who has studied and treated it most thoroughly...

Q — I have learned, Ustad, that Lebanon has hastened to invite the sister states to a conference of the kings and heads of the Arab states, to take matters in hand in the face of the recent Israeli provocations against the neighboring Arab countries, and especially at Jerusalem. What is your view of this latest, continuing aggression, and of our people's stand toward it?

— The purpose of these persistent, brazen provocations against all the Arab states neighboring her, in full view and hearing of the United Nations, is to induce the states of the Tripartite Declaration issued in 1950 to press the Arab states into recognizing Israel by way of a peace with her.

They are the result of a severe strait into which Israel has fallen and from which she has no deliverance save by one of two things: either the conclusion of a peace between her and the Arab states, which would afterward secure to her the making of the Arab lands a market for her industrial products; or expansion in these lands by force, which would, on the whole, lead to stirring the enthusiasm of the world's Jews, one of its results being a renewed flow of funds into Israel — a flow that would rescue her from her financial straits — besides the gain of a new expanse of territory that would increase her agriculture and open the field to her industry.

For Israel, who is preparing Palestine to be a homeland for millions of the world's Jews, has been compelled to increase her budget successively until it has reached the equivalent of 317 million dollars — that is, a little less than the budget of Egypt, and six times greater than the budget of Syria.

She has likewise been compelled to allot the sum of 130 million dollars in this budget to construction works — a sum nearly equal to all that the Arab states spend in a single year on works of this kind.

And Israel is obliged, not merely to maintain this inflation, but to accept further increases, every year, in step with the steady increase in the number of immigrants.

Now since Israel, in filling this gap in expenditure, does not rely on her natural resources, but places her whole reliance on the outside subsidies that come to her from the world's Jews and from the United States;

and since these resources have been touched by weakness, and go on diminishing year after year, owing to the slackening of world Jewish enthusiasm now that the Zionist dream has been realized, and owing to the lowering of the level of American assistance;

and since the attempt of certain Israeli parties to reduce the expenditures in the state budget has ended in failure — because reducing it would bring the standard of living down to a degree the country could not endure, besides its being inconsistent with Israel's aims —

for all these reasons, Israel finds no outlet except peace with the Arabs or expansion in their lands. And she carries out these provocations in order to induce the states anxious for peace to press the Arabs into accepting the peace against their will.

Q — The Arab states have agreed with one voice to refuse recognition of Israel and peace with her. What, then, do you consider their duty in the face of the impending danger? And are they capable, should war break out, of repelling the aggression?

— The Arab League, and behind it the states that share in it, is still laying measures to meet the danger: the collective security pact, and the military guarantee that followed it, embodied in the Joint Defense Council, and in

the formation of a national guard — all this, in addition to general armament, is intended to meet force with force. And the Arab states are capable, as I believe, of winning the victory; for what is said of their military weakness relative to Israel is exaggerated, just as what is said of Israel's strength is exaggerated too.

If the Arabs were granted a period of ten years of continuous preparation, Egypt alone, or Iraq by itself, would each be capable of recovering Palestine by force, despite Israel's great preparedness.

This is a matter which that aggressor state realizes and seeks to avoid; and for that reason she is careful not to leave the Arab states sufficient respite for armament and stability.

It was therefore incumbent upon the Arab states, forced as they are against their will into entering the war, to meet force with force and aggression with aggression. If they gave real proof of this readiness, they would be able to keep the peace, making the states concerned in the matter intervene in earnest to curb Israel's aggression, in order to safeguard the peace they prize. The Emperor Wilhelm II, King of Germany, once said: "I was able to preserve peace for a long period thanks to my readiness for war."

Q — It appears, Ustad, that you are confident of the Arabs' strength relative to Israel. That is well. But are you confident of the unity of the Arabs' word?

— Yes. Israel's persistent aggression, and her certain danger to the Arab lands — even to Mecca and Medina — has turned the Arab countries into a volcano seething to wipe out the shame and take revenge. But the point of weakness that appeared in the Palestine war still lies latent in

their ranks to this day: they were formerly capable of erasing the Zionist dream when the Palestine war broke out, but what stood between them and this aspiration was the binding of some of their states to the wheel of foreign powers. If, at the conference of their kings and presidents to which Lebanon is issuing the call, the Arabs make sure of one another, under the pressure of an inflamed public opinion, nothing will remain to keep them from being confident of the final victory.

Q — And have you any counsels for taking peaceful ways to prevent the outbreak of war, in an age jealous of peace?

— Yes. The Arabs' readiness for war, and their open bracing for it, are in my view what secure the peace. Add to that serious endeavors which the Arabs must exert in Islamic and American circles.

Jerusalem is in certain danger. And Jerusalem, in the eyes of the Islamic world, and in the eyes of many Christian communities, is a grave and sacred thing.

The Arab states, therefore, while preparing the force to repel Israel's ambitions and halt her aggression, and while unifying the Arab armies, should stir the sentiments of the Islamic and Christian worlds in a prominent and telling manner, other than that to which they have resorted until now.

And they must, at the same time, call in new endeavors, of a more effective kind, to win over the holders of power in the United States; for if Washington alone frowned in Israel's face, she would stop her at once at her limit.

But to content oneself with meetings and the laying of internal plans, without displaying readiness to wage war, without enlisting world public opinion, and without persuading those in authority in Washington and London — all that avails nothing, and wards off no danger. "He who strives shall find, and every striver has his share."