DIPLOMACY: A Triumphant Middle East Hegira

Like the prophets of old, the President of the U.S. demonstrated last week that he is not without honor save perhaps in his own country. From the moment Richard Nixon set foot on Egyptian soil, beginning his historic, seven-day trip to four Arab nations and Israel, the huzzas and hossannas fell like sweet rain. For the President, coming out of the parched Watergate wasteland of Washington, the praise and the cheers of multitudes were welcome indeed, particularly since each stop, each spectacle, was beamed in living color back to the living rooms of the U.S. Press Secretary Ronald Ziegler called Nixon's welcome "the greatest in my six years with the President." He meant no irony, but home was never like this, and the President's aides were convinced that the accolades abroad would strengthen Nixon's hand in his battle to stave off impeachment.

The hegira to Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Israel and Jordan had, of course, far broader purposes. It constituted not only what some Nixon critics scorned as "impeachment diplomacy" but also sound foreign policy. His trip, said Nixon, was "another journey for peace," like his earlier trips to Moscow and Peking.

The first U.S. President to make a state visit to any of the five countries, Nixon went to the Middle East to seed the fields so brilliantly plowed by his Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger. Behind the highly visible pomp and pageantry, there was serious bargaining between Nixon and the heads of state or government who received him. Technical and financial aid was discussed, including the offer of U.S. nuclear reactors for peaceful purposes to Egypt. Most important—and most difficult—were the long, hard talks conducted by guests and hosts about the next steps toward achieving peace and stability in the area.

To the Arab world, Nixon's trip dramatized the beginning of a new era in U .S.-Middle East relations. "To the critics, to those with pragmatic American minds, the gesture is unnecessary," admits Cherif Bassiouni, an Egyptian who teaches international law at Chicago's De Paul University. "But such gestures reflect emotions, and to the Arab psyche such gestures have a greater impact than anything else the U.S. could have done. For the Arabs, political issues must be couched in moral and symbolic terms, not in terms of pragmatism."

To Abba Eban, who only this month lost his portfolio as Israel's Foreign Minister, Nixon's trip to Arab states as well as Israel symbolizes a change in U.S. policy in the Middle East, which has suffered for years from what he calls the "seesaw" effect—"if you go up with Israel, you go down with the Arabs." Now Eban sees both ends of the seesaw rising, a "spectacular paradox" that could greatly aid stability in the region.