Kirk Asserts Free World Deceived By Extremist Nationalism of Arabs

The free world is deceiving itself by thinking that extremist Arab nationalism is a democratic ideal, according to George Kirk, visiting lecturer on Government.

Speaking in the Thursday Lecture Series, Kirk approached his topic, "The Meaning of Arab Unity," by criticizing an article in the July issue of Foreign Affairs.

In examining the authors' statement that the United States must "come to terms with Arab nationalism," Kirk declared that although all nations must accommodate their foreign policy to conditions in other nations, there are degrees of accommodation: the more powerful a nation, the less it must adjust to others.

By analogy, he said, in a game of chess, according to the Foreign Affairs article, the queen's role would be one of accommodation to the pawns, from which one would erroneously infer that "all pieces in the (international) chess board are created equal."

Traditional Expansion Attempt

Kirk next refuted the author's claim that aspirations to Arab unity come from a lexicon of liberal foundations. By quoting speeches made by Nasser on several occasions during the past five years, he showed that the dictator's desire that Egypt spread "from the Atlantic Ocean to the Persian Gulf" is but the traditional Egyptian attempt to expand, now under the guise of Arab unity.

Illustrating the difficulty in working with the Arab states, Kirk again quoted Nasser as boasting that he was among the "strongest animals in the jungle." The Egyptian ruler also seems to believe, he added, that "the British lion has grown old and mangy under regalitarian socialism," and that "the American eagle seems to have run to tail fins and Goldfines."

Worse Than Goebbels

Furthermore, he continued, one cannot deal even with moderate forms of Arab nationalism. "Those advocating it are now being murdered and denounced as traitors." Kirk went on to say that these brutal tactics of Nasser's followers were "more primitive than anything from Nazi Germany during the worst days of Goebbels."

During the question period that followed, Kirk stated that although Egypt is not the sole center of Arab nationalism, it directs the movement and profits from the "facade of universalism" which conceals local self-interest.

One member of the audience arose to correct Kirk's estimate of Egyptian literacy, stating that according to U.N. figures, 55 per cent have fifth-grade reading ability, and adding that there had been a 300 per cent increase in building of schools "since the British were taken out."

In defense, Kirk replied that Egypt has had its own Ministry of Education since 1923 and could have produced such an increase long ago. In a dictatorship, he added, "literacy" can mean the "ability to read that stuff that falls into the hands of the people. The Devil, as we know, can quote Scripture for his purpose."

In reply to the final query--whether it is possible to formulate a policy alienating neither Arabs nor Israelis--Kirk stated that "theoretically it's not impossible," but "it's like balancing along a hair as sharp as the edge of a razor.