The Danger of Bluffing

Halfway around the globe from Australia and the problems of Southeast Asia flew U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles to land at Washington National Airport--and to find Israeli Foreign Minister Golda Meir, fresh-flown from the Middle East via Paris, already waiting for him with new and critical problems in her part of the world.

In the inevitable power-positioning that followed Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and from Sharm el Sheikh on the Gulf of Aqaba, Egypt's Dictator Nasser last week moved fast to send in one of his generals to administer Gaza's civil affairs. United Nations Representative Ralph Bunche infuriated Israel by announcing, after a 90-minute conference with President Nasser, that the U.N. would "cooperate" with the Egyptian administration.

Nasser also hurried reconnaissance troops to a base just 40 miles southwest of the Gaza Strip while the Cairo radio shrilled that Saudi Arabia would prevent Israeli shipping from passing through the Gulf of Aqaba. If true (and at week's end the Saudis had neither confirmed nor denied), this was a double challenge to the U.S. because it 1) considers Saudi Arabia's King Saud a force for stability and order in the Mideast, and 2) has pledged itself to the principle of free and innocent passage in the Gulf of Aqaba.

Israel matched Egypt shout for shout, threat for threat. The Egyptian move to take over Gaza's civil administration was a long way from the unilateral "assumptions" that Israel had depended upon in agreeing to withdraw from Gaza. Premier Ben-Gurion gravely faced the Knesset and warned that Israel's troops might soon have to march again. Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Abba Eban was called away from a well-earned Florida vacation to present to Acting State Secretary Christian Herter a Ben-Gurion message describing the situation as extremely critical.

Many of the week's scare headlines were made by Egyptian-Israeli power moves, but this did not detract from the seriousness of the situation. For in any such game, there is always the possibility that one of the players will mistake the other's bluff for the real thing, throw down his cards, kick over the table and start shooting.

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