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“ep problems created in
refidale East by Israel’s
Th Ssion are far from resolved.

Israeli government has

te accepted the necessity

N this

type of disengagement
front which has been

tiated with E

ay: gypt. Of
ss even the disengagement
ihe Ptian and Israeli forces

line just east of the Suez
ae Only be seen as the
€P which must lead to
tal withdrawal: of Israeli
from all the lands seized
aggressive war of 1967.

© Stubbornness. with which

Taeli leaders pursue their
Policies is underlined

a Ida Meir on Feb. 8
€ said that “The Golan
are an inseparable part

are accompanied by
declarations of in-
lish an Israeli town

Renme time, the denial
ts of the Palestinian
Ontinues, In her speech

) €sset (the Israeli par-
efore winning a

Ss confidence which
; New government in
Time Minister Meir again
Israel’s right to take
Bainst terrorist organiza-

their bases, and_ their

tionists.”

Nd of increasing in-
: pies. A Soviet com-
ae pitonov writing
4 “ine out that Israeli

Inister Pinhas Sapir
3 the direct cost of the
a. at at $7-billion, on

ch. curtailment of pro-

und
ic

“million,
5 Of meat has ‘dou-
tigen’ butter and milk
N from 30 to 70%.
8 water has gone

Pric

© Israel
Chronot “<li newspaper Yediot

Says that “according

en, :
Zing af budget, the further
4 as Sa Wages is ex-

© the reduction of
omes by 15%, the

Ie: the qirect and indirect

|B endit Urther reduction of
-Ures

Pme

nN economic de-

» public education,

medical services, social security
and of various cash grants.”

Such are the consequences to
the Israeli people of policies
based on military aggression.

Calls for Peace

Kapitonov concludes his com-
mentary: “The people of Israel
are living through unprecedented
shocks in the life of the coun-
try. Thousands of fatherless
families, hospitals packed to
capacity with the wounded,
economic difficulties, poverty,
and lack of confidence in the
morrow—all this arouses a wave
of protest against the criminal
aggressive course of the ruling
circles. Calls for the establish-
ment of a lasting and just peace
in the Middle-East resound ever
more loudly and resolutely in
Israel today.”

In the very forefront of this
struggle for peace, stands the
Communist Party of Israel
which has offered “out of his-
toric responsibility for peace
and security” to ‘lend a hand’ to
a government, with the align-
ment (around Golda Meir) in
its centre, which works for the
success of the Geneva Peace
Conference, for the defense of
the democratic freedoms and
the interests of the working
people.

Israel’s True Interests

“The new government will
“serve the true interests of Israel
if it works for establishing just
and durable peace by imple-
menting the Security Council
resolutions 242 and 338, which
require withdrawal from the oc-
cupied territories, guaranteeing
the sovereign existence and ter-
ritorial integrity of the state of
Israel and of all the states in
our region and respecting the
national rights of the Palestine
Arab people.” ;

The Communist Party sounds
a grave warning against the con-
sequences of failing to take this
course. It says “The obliteration
of the political and social differ-
ences between the Alignment
and: “Likud” (the right-wing),
the political and economic fail-
ures of the government, the con-
tinuation of the warlike tension
with all its attendant perils—all
these produce among. the public
a feeling of despair and frustra-
tion, Creates the basis for the
growth of fascist ulcers. With

this background. emerged the .

fascist threats of general A.

‘Sharon and the hysterical call of
ithe editor of Yediot Achronet,

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Israeli aggression keeps
_the Mideast pot boiling

ae Serious fighting which is
i ee around the Golan
ents on the Israeli-Syrian

H. Rosenblum, for the estab-
lishment of a military dictator-
ship in Israel, and the liquida-
tion of democratic freedoms.”

Reliable Allies
These words should be heeded
closely by democratic Cana-

dians. The stepping up of efforts
to mobilize public opinion in

support of demands for the with- —
drawal of Israeli forces from all:

occupied territories, is an action
not only in solidarity with the
Arab peoples fighting for their
land and for the rights of the
Palestinians, but also in solidar-
«ity with the working people of
Israel fighting against the dan-

ger of dictatorship and new -

military disasters.

Quite clearly, the most imme-
diate issue is the ending of the
fighting on the Golan Heights,
and the withdrawal of Israeli
forces from Syrian territory.
_In this struggle the Syrian
people continue to have power-
ful and reliable allies. During
his recent visit to Damascus,
“Soviet Minister of Foreign
Affairs Andrei Gromyko _ de-
clared: “I would like to express
the hope that new fruitful re-
sults will be achieved in the
cooperation of our countries in
the struggle to bring about a
just and lasting settlement of
the Middle East conflict on the

b

Israeli aggression cost $7-billion in the October War. Since

the war the price of meat has doubled. Bread, butter and milk

have risen from 30 to 70%. And even drinking water has gone
up 20 %. All to pay for the war.

basis of the return to the Arab
countries of all the Arab lands
seized by Israel in 1967 and the
ensuring of the legitimate rights
of the Arab people of Palestine.”
Unknown Concessions
The Syrian people and their
government need such expres-
sions of support from peace lov-
ing people around the world.
They are clearly disturbed
over what they feel to be the
premature lifting of the Arab
oil embargo against the United

States. It is not known yet what
concessions or promises Henry
Kissinger may have made to
bring about these results. But
one thing is quite certain, it will
not be Kissinger who brings
peace back to the Middle East.
It will be the Israeli and Arab
peoples, supported by the peace
loving democratic peoples of the
entire world, including the
strong and consistent effort of
the Soviet Union, and other
socialist countries.

Dollar hunting causes crisis

By O. BOGDANOV

Early in January the rate of
exchange of the U.S. dollar made
a sharp jump in ‘relation to
West European currencies and
the Japanese yen; the French
franc “set out floating” and the

price for gold reached an unpre- -

cedented level.

As distinct from the previous
years which were marked by “an
escape from the dollar’, the
sharpening of the current mone-
tary crisis has been caused by
the “hunt for the dollar’.

_ The raising of the U.S. dollar
rate has revived hopes of the
United States to restore the
leading role of the dollar within
the monetary system of the
West. However in my opinion,
which has been shaped as a re-
sult of the analysis of the situ-
ation in the monetary markets,
these hopes are built on sand.
Temporary raising of the dollar
rate by no means testifies to its
firm stabilization. It has been
caused by a number of reasons
which, to my mind, are of trans-
ient nature.

Results of Trade War

First, the raising of the dollar
rate is one of the results of the
trade war the U.S. has long been
waging against the EEC member-
states and Japan. The twofold
devaluation of the dollar and the
revaluation of a number of lead-
ing currencies of Western Eur-
ope and Japan has resulted in
the correlation of the competi-
tiveness of U.S. goods on the

. world market. Asa result, in’

1973 the U.S. succeeded in con-
siderably improving its trade
balance and balance of payments,
which has led to the consolida-
tion of the position of the dollar
on the monetary markets.

But raising the dollar rate
brings to nought the advantages
which: the lowered dollar rate
creates for U. S. exports, and in
the future will inevitably cause
the worsening of the U.S. trade

balance. That will, in the final
analysis, lead to the fall in the

U.S. dollar rate again. It was

not without reason that at the
secret meeting of the Finance
Ministers of the five biggest capi-
talist countries held in the
French town of Tours at the end
of November 1973, U.S. Treasury
Secretary Schultz insisted that
other countries should take meas-
ures aimed at. checking the fur-
ther growth of the dollar rate.

Influence of Oil

Secondly, the raising of the
dollar rate and the unstable po-
sition of the currencies of many
West European countries and
Japan-has been caused by such
a market-determined factor as
an increase in prices for oil. West
European countries and Japan
depend to a much greater ex-
ent than the U.S. on deliveries of
Arab oil. Therefore, the growth
of prices for oil will first of all
adversely affect these countires’
balances of payments and, hence
will lead to the weakening of the
position of their currencies in
relation to the dollar. The es-
tablished tradition of settling ac-
counts for oil in U.S. dollars is
also advantageous for the dollar
and growing prices for oil leads
to a higher demand for this cur-
rency.

But these circumstances, de-
pending to a certain extent on
the situation in the Middle East
and on the intricate complex of
foreign policy relations both be-
tween the Western countires
themselves, may change. In par-
ticular, it is not ruled out that
the Arab states may revise the
existing system of settling ac-
counts for oil and refuse to ac-
cept payment in dollars. The
West European countries, for
their part, are considering pro-
jects aimed at revising the sys-

tem of settling accounts for oil. -

All this may result in ‘another.
round of “escape from the
dollar.”

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, MARCH 29, 1974—PAGE 7

Shameful Profi

Thirdly, the raising of the dol-
lar rate not only reflects the
needs of trade but also testifies
to the shameful profiteering tak-
ing place at the monetary mar-
kets. Currency profiteers have
now begun to buy dollars which
they consider to be the most
stable currency at the moment
although only a few months ago

- they hurriedly sold them. With >

the slightest change in the eco-
nomic and political situation not
in favour of the U.S., floods of

“speculative “hot money” may
gush out in the opposite direc-._

tion and the dollar rate will fall
again.

Last, a slight improvement in
the position of the dollar cannot
obliterate the fact that the crisis
of the present-day monetary sys-

. tem is, first of all, the crisis of

the American dollar. The post-
war monetary system of the
West, based on the Breton
Woods agreements concluded in
1944, put the dollar in a privi-
leged position. The dollar was
recognized as the gold equiva-
lent in settling international ac-
counts and as the standard value
of other currencies. But as the
dominating role of the U.S. in
world production and trade dim-
inished, the position of the dol-
lar was undermined, too. Being
a non-convertible currency and
having been devalued twice with-
in 14 months, the dollar began
to lose its paramount status in
the international monetary sys-
tem and to some extent became
equal to other currencies.
Irreversible Process

This is an irreversible process.
The dollar standard runs counter
to the interests of most countries,
as it compels them, by buying
up dollars in unlimited quanti-
ties, to cover the U.S.; balance
of payments deficit. Therefore,
most countries insist that the
position of the U,S. dollar be
brought down -to the level of
other currericies.