THE MIDDLE EAST

To the Editors of The Crimson:

To this non-expert on the Middle East who has no solutions to offer, your editorial, "Israelis and Arabs: No One Is Right" (October 16) was encouraging in its sobriety and awareness of tragedy. I would add one further comment for pondering by your editors and readers, namely, that the strident calls for the release of Soviet Jews coming from this country not only frighten the Russians but also frighten the Arabs, since they add to the image of an indefinitely expansionist Israel. The sad fact is that many of the nationalities within the Soviet Union would like to emigrate: Ukrainians, Lithanians, some Jews, many others. The "people's democracies" surrounding the Soviet Union would also like to be free of Soviet imperialism. One has to choose between preserving--or trying to preserve--the fragile detente with Russia, or the quite possible destruction of it through incendiary calls to let the Jews go (and, in an ancillary way, anybody else) coming from Senator Henry Jackson and many of his Zionist and non-Zionist supporters. Since Hiroshima, I have believed that we must look, not at only one issue at one time or in isolation: we must see situations in context, above all, the context of the existence of nuclear weapons. Lurking always in the background is the possibility of nuclear war and we must face this before all else. Eventually, nations may learn to behave less nationalistically and destructively, but before that, the world must survive mass destruction. David Riesman '31