Middle East: Shifting Fortunes

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Not an Inch. At week's end, however, Jordan was still intact, and it was the Arab unity movement that was reeling. It had to do with a Cabinet crisis in Syria between the majority belonging to the Baath Socialist Party and the minority of strongly Nasserite ministers. The struggle had been brewing for two months, and pro-Nasser ministers frankly told newsmen that they intended to overthrow the Baathists. The Baath counterstrategy, as enunciated by its founder, Michel Aflak, was: "Do everything to preserve unity, but don't give an inch, and don't surrender any power."

When rumors of a pro-Nasser army coup last week swept the volatile Syrian capital of Damascus, Baath acted. More than 100 army officers were dismissed or clapped in jail. In retaliation, all six Nasserite ministers handed in their resignations. Deputy Premier Nihad El-Kassem, who had led a Syrian unity delegation to Cairo last March and had sobbed with joy on Nasser's shoulder, cried, "We are giving up our responsibilities because we have not been given the means to carry them out."

The Cabinet walkout was intended to bring the Baathists to heel, and it well might. Isolated in power, with the street mobs sympathetic to Nasser and the army of uncertain loyalty, Baath's only available allies are the merchants and landowners, who most oppose Nasser's social objectives. Their embrace could be as fatal to Baath as Israel's would be to Hussein.

During the crisis, Nasser was off on a good-will visit to Algeria, but, for once, Egypt's press and vituperative radio showed surprising self-control—neither mentioned the Syrian struggle or the Nasserite resignations. At week's end, Cairo's military leaders abruptly canceled a scheduled meeting to plan the merger of Arab armies.