MIDDLE EAST: The Critical Mass

The Middle East, somnolent, hot, primitive, resembles what scientists call a critical mass. Add one extra gram, and all sorts of violent reactions are set off: atoms break loose, rush about, rearrange themselves in new patterns. The extra gram that had set the Middle East fissioning and fusing was the sale of Communist arms to Egypt. Last week this dance of the atoms was going on to the accompaniment of shudders, groans and forebodings from the journalistic moaner's corner, led by those partners in anguish,...