WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE ...

The Saudis are by now well accustomed no the fact that in any connect between Israeli and Arab interests in Washington 'the Israeli interest will prevail. If they were themselves less dependent on the United States in so many respects they would long since have rebelled against this unequal partnership. As it is they have displayed a truly Christian forbearance, turning the other cheek and forgiving well beyond the prescribed seventy times seven. The Americans appear to assume that they will continue to do so and that the material considerations that constrained them in the past will still operate. Meanwhile, the tally of affronts grows ever longer; and growing violence in the whole Middle Eastern region must lead the rillers of Saudi Arabia to wonder how long they can safely ignore this mounting hostility to American policies throughout the area.