A round-up of opinion on Is-
rael received by the Canadian
Tribune indicates a wide variety
of thinking on the subject of
peace with the Arab countries.

Ex-Premier David Ben-Gurion
recently said, “Nover since the
establishment of the state has
our weakness on the interna-
tional scene been so prominent
as just recently.”

Ben-Gurion was _ expressing
the growing isolation of official
Israel, due to its continued
policy of occupation of Arab ter-
ritories and obstruction of the
peaceful political settlement of
the Israel-Arab conflict,

The Israeli newspaper, Davar,
drawing a picture of Israeli
political embarrassment wrote:

“News received from London
draws a picture of increased ex-
asperation in the foreign minis-
tries with the Israeli demand for
direct negotiation as a precondi-
tion for any settlement.”

Commenting on Aba Eban’s
tour in the Scandinavian coun-
tries, the Israeli press was unani-
mous that this tour was meeting
with difficulties due, according
to Davar, to the “United Arab
Republic propaganda,” which de-
clares the U.A.R. willing'to re-
solve the conflict politically if
Israel accepts the implementa-
tion of the U.N. Security Coun-
cil resolution of 22nd Nov. 1967,
which lays on Israel the respon-
sibility for the political freeze in
the Middle East.

That this estimation is real-
istic was again and again em-
phasized during Eban’s Scandin-
avian tour.

These, for example, were the
‘words, with which the Soumen
Sosiala~-Demokraati organ of the
Finnish Social-Democratic Party,

Increased Israeli isolation

met Eban when he arrived in
Helsinki on 13th May, 1968:

“The fact that it has not been
possible to establish peace in the
Middle East in a year has re-
sulted in doubts over the whole
world including Finland over the
real Israeli intentions.”

It is obvious that the price
which Dayan and his colleagues
are paying is to evacuate the
Arab occupied territories.

It is a fact that the Israeli
ruling circles did not hide their
expansionist-annexationist ambi-
tions once the Israeli armies
seized the Arab territories from
the U.A.R., Syria and Jordan.

Further they were not con-
fined to statements such as “our
security border is the Jordan
river, the Suez Canal and the
Syrian Golan heights”, they an-
nexed Arab Jerusalem officially,
and began to establish military-

agricultural settlements in the.

occupied areas.

Thus in the second half of
April 1968 the Israeli govern-
ment ordered the confiscation of
another 876 thousand square
metres in Jerusalem for the pur-
pose of settling Israelis — thus
changing the character of Arab
Jerusalem. It was not perturbed
that this measure will mean up-
rooting 620 Arab families and
moving them to a kind of desti-
tution.

Moreover the Israeli ruling
circles encouraged ‘at the same
time the settlement of a number
of Israeli families in Hebron on
the West Bank of Jordan de-
spite the opposition of the Arab
population and their protest

against this provocative step.

It was significant that the
Mayor of this occupied Arab
_town protesting this provocative

What about drug

settlement stated: “I hope the
day will come when the Hebron
Jews would return to Hebron
and the Palestine Arabs, who
moved out of their country in
1948, would also return to their
homes which they had inherited
from ancient times.”

It is clear that the Israeli rul-
ing circles draw their basic
strength from the U.S. imperial-
ist support. Dayan admitted that
the U.S. is the decisive factor jin
the official Israeli consideration.

In the Maariv evening daily in
answer to the question whether
Israel can maintain-the present
status-quo, M. Dayan said:

“Israel can from the military
and economic point of view
maintain the present situation
and (cease fire) lines one hun-
dred and twenty years, but from
the political point of view the
question does not depend on us.
In this respect,.to my mind the
key is in the hands of the United

States,” and added if the U.S.
wants we can stay...

Premier L. Eshkol in an inter-
view with the evening paper

Yediot Ahronot completed the.

picture when he described en-
thusiastically his meeting with
President Johnson edrly this
year, lauded the profound rela-
tions linking Israel with the U.S.
and emphasized that the United
States was not pressuring Israel

Indications that the U.S. was
supporting the present Israeli
policy of continued occupation
and aggression are accumulating
at the United Nations Organiza-
tion where the U.S. bluntly dis-
rupts attempts to bring the great
moral influence of the U.N. to
bear on the Israeli government
in the direction of the peaceful
political solution of the Middle
East crisis.

prices?

By TOM MORRIS

Remember the “Big Drug De-
bate” in parliament last March?
Because the Liberals and Tories
have short memories; it may be
well to recap what took place
at Ottawa then.

Some thirty months before, a
House Committee was set up to
look into the price of drugs in
Canada. What it found, a fact
that is learned by everyone who
enters a drug store, was that
Canadian drug prices are the
world’s highest. One of the rea-
sons, the Committee said, was
the monopoly the drug compa-
nies have as a result of their
patents on drugs. The industry
also came under the eye of the
combines - investigation branch
of the Department of Consumer
and Corporate Affairs.

The first recommendation
called for a removel of sales
tax from drugs which the gov-
ernment instituted. As a result
there was a reduction in drug
prices. Since then the drug com-
panies have announced big price
hikes and the consumer losses
on the deal. The second recom-
mendation, Bill C-190, called for
certain changes in the Patent
and Trade Marks acts. This Bill
was given second reading in the
House (approval in principle)
and then the fun began.

Pressed by the powerful drug
lobby, the Liberals began to
back off. Pearson was anxious
to retire and the others leader-
ship hopefuls strained at the
leash to get into the Liberal

convention and tried to ram
through the supply debate and
adjourn the. House.

It was the New Democrats,
under constant Liberal & Tory
attack, who insisted that Bill
C-190 be passed before the
House broke up. The Liberals
promised that this Bill would be
the first order of business when
Parliament reconvened in April.
“We are not withdrawing the
Bill. It is still on the order
paper, and when the session is
resumed next month, it will be
dealt with by the government. I
am quite satisfied that no mat-
ter what events take place in

SeeZ--
PACIFIC FRIBUNESIUNE 7% 7968 Page 6

April, this Bill will be proceed-
ed with by the government of
Canada,” said Allan MacEachen,
Minister of Health and Welfare.
(Hansard, March 20, 1968). He
charged the NDP with black-
mailing the House. He said he

“almost gagged” at NDP allega-

tions that the government was
being influenced by political
considerations. It’s a shame he
didn’t, because a few minutes
later MacEachen went on to pro-
mise that the government would
deal with Bill C-190 in April.

The Edmonton Journal re-
marked: “It is sad to see the
urgent business of the nation
neglected this way. But it is not
out of harmony with the bumb-
ling and fumbling the nation has
come to expect from the Liberal
government.”

The NDP, having extracted
that promise from the Liberals,
said: “On that understanding,
we are satisfied for the present
that this Bill will not be killed,
and when Parliament reassem-
bles we shall be urging that it
will be one of the first items
called . . .” (Hansard, March 27,
1968.) :

The rest is modern history
and a lesson in Liberal promis-
es. Parliament did reconvene on
April 23—for less than one hour.
Pierre Elliott was now on the
throne, the country plunged
into this election. The drug bill?’
It lies in a heap with the other
Liberal promises with nary a
mention by Trudeau or Stan-

- field. Hates
bfhed

N TWO April editions of

the “Oregon Daily Emer-
ald,” house organ of the Uni-
versity of Oregon, there are
a few lines of wisdom for
Canadians to ponder over,
particularly this being elec-
tion time.

In a “Letter-to-the-Editor” a
chemistry graduate reminds
“Emerald” readers of the kind
of a “liberal” Bohby Kennedy
is. She writes:

“For the benefit of those
who consider Robert Kenne-
dy the ideal liberal, I would
like to point out that this
man was the chief legal con-
sul for McCarthy during the
House Un-American Activi-
ties Committee witch-hunts
(not that there was much
legality about those proceed-
ings).

_ “Whether you approved of
Joe McCarthy or not, I think
this information should make
it clear that Robert. Kennedy
is a man of a few scruples,
who would do almost any-
thing to gain political power.”

This  preceptive student
touches an extremely weak
spot of Americans and Can-
adians alike when it comes
to assessing polititians, Re-
publican or Democrat, Tory
or Liberal—our asinine for-
getfulness, and our willing-
ness to be led around by the
nose. Just by way of a post-
script the “Emerald” corres-
pondent could have added
that while attorney-general
of these United States in the
JFK government, Bobby Ken-
nedy used the total facilities
of that office to frame-up*and
railroad Teamster president
Jimmy Hoffa to jail.

Yes there’s not: much these
“ideal Liberals” won’t to do to

gain power, and at the mo--

ment Canada is literally
crawling with them.
The other “Emerald” bon

mot should be taken slowly
and well diluted. It says
“Just think of Canada as a
kind of U.S. outpost where
the war has not yet reached
and where there is apparently
a higher degree of sanity.”
The latter we'll concede,
with some reservations, but
“the war” has reached us and
the results are already de-
vastating to our economy,
destructive of our honor and
dignity (as a purveyor of
arms to kill Vietnamese mo-
thers and children with),
while our sovereign indepen-
dence and unity as a two-
nation state is still regarded
by the “Kennedy” prototypes
in Canada (Tory, Liberal and

Socred) as something nego-
tiable for a U.S. “fast buck.”
Perhaps for the time being
we'd better not lay too much
stress on our “higher: degree
of sanity”—at least not until]
June.25 is over.

In the rare moments of a
federal election campaign,
when the hustings has quiet-
ened down for the night, the
“promising” marathon tempo-
rarily halted to catch its
wind, and John’ Q. Public
wondering how best to ex-
tract a few kernels of politi-
cal wheat from a mountain
of chaff, the problem of what
it is all about assumes gigan-
tic proportions. It is never
easy to distinguish between
reason and rhetoric, and least
of all during an _ election
campaign (new style).

To the political campaigner
for the monopoly status quo
—with slight variations and
quite regardless of partisan
labels, an “image” with a
slick ‘Madison Avenue” en-
semble to match, has become
vitally important; much more
important than an ikon to a
Russian peasant under Tzar-
ism, since the latter only
served to stimulate individu-
al hallucinations, while the
“image” is specifically creat-
ed to hoodwink the greatest
number of people for the
longest possible time. :

Thus we move from the
Dief “image” of a barnstorm-
ing crusader for “progress”
to “Your Friendly Undertak-
er” with a penchant for ban-
anas and “sound business.”
From a Liberal “apology” for
existence to an “existential-

ist” who promises nothing
but “himself,” which, in
terms of today’s reality

means more of the same—
with a dash of “swinger”
thrown in to decorate the
show and fool the gullible. —

Many years ago when an
old Ontario constituency de-
cided it could no longer
stomach its “sitting” -mem-
ber, and the old chieftain of
Liberalism had to pull stakes
and head for Prince Albert to
assure a seat in the House, a
famous slogan heralded his
arrival from numerous bill-
boards. Its authors defined
their objectives in this brief
slogan with prophetic fore-
sight, KING OR CHAOS, and
we’ve had an abundance of
both ever since—with no sign
of a let-up, despite the
“images!”

Perhaps it is time we did
say in unison “all together
for a higher degree-of sanity.”

“VIETNAM POLITICS

AND “RACE POLITICS”

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