The Miami News from Miami, Florida • 11

Charles Hesser Mleml News Politic! writer 1 Friday, July 19, 1968 the arabs i F' A Gar After, Citrus Tycoon Griffin In Town For Wallace The U.S. Slip Is Showing By DREW MIDDLETON The New York Times Newt Service Arab hostility, due largely but not entirely to American support for Israel, has brought about a sharp decline in the prestige and influence of the United States in the Middle East. The decline is less marked In North Africa but it still is significant. A majority of Arab gov ernments and many individuals seem to have come to believe that America's role has changed from that of a -disinterested, ant i-colonial power that supported Arab independence after World War I to that of a gredy With George Wallace's fund-raising dinner and rally here July 27, Miami will have seen 'em all. The third-party presidential hopeful was preceded here by Democrats' Hubert Humphrey and Eugene McCarthy and Republicans Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and Nelson Rockefeller.

And, oh, yes, Mrs. Charlene Mitchell, the Communist Party candidate for President. So, Miamians have had a "preview" of the next President of he United States, or have they? A knowledgeable fellow remarked the other day that this is such a strange election year, the next President of the U.S. may not yet have been mentioned. All of which leads up to the almost unbelievable confidence the Wallace people have in their man that the former Alabama governor won't just throw the election of the next President into the House of Representatives but will himself win the presidency.

This is the belief of a Floridian who has always had the reputation of being a realist where politics is concerned C. V. Griffin, Howey-in-the-Hills citrus tycoon. Griffin's politics dates back to 1948 when he was a major contributor and supporter in the successful gubernatorial campaign of Fuller Warren. Warren and Griffin parted company early in the new Administration, which is recalled only to illustrate the point that Griffin is hard-headed when it comes to politics.

He left Warren's camp when the now Miami attorney refused to turn over to him certain authority. Down through the years, Griffin backed for president such Democrats as Harry Truman, Adlai Stevenson, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. But, Griffin, who, together with his long-time aide, author and former Democratic dinner official, Winston Pendleton, are here to help with the Wallace affair, says, in effect, the Democratic Party has left him.

He became disenchanted with the Johnson Administration a couple or so years ago over such issues as crime in the steets, the conduct of the war, government fiscal policy, etc. "I've been a Democrat all my life, but now," Griffin observed, then his voice trailed off as he lapsed deep into thought. Griffin reports that up to this time, Wallace has qualified to be on the general election ballots of more.than 30 states and predicts that by Nov. 5 "he will be on 49." At a civic luncheon in conservative Orange County the other day, Griffin said a poll showed 87 of, 91 of those present were, for Wallace. And at a growers association meeting, Griffin said 28 of 30 expressed their preference for Wallace.

"Gov. Wallace will carry Florida, there is no doubt about it," said Griffin. If by some miracle Gov. Kirk should wind up as the GOP vice presidential nominee, such Republicans as Congressman Edward Gurney and congressional hopeful Mike Thompson, who have been trying to disassociate themselves with the governor, might find it embarrassing. Nominees for lesser office usually find it advantageous to ride the coattails of the presidential ticket.

Kirk may have over-reached himself in his quest for the vice presidency, but he has compiled an awfully good come-from-behind record so far in his administration. i Such Floridians as Max Carey, Tony Pena, Johnny Weismuller and Ted Wil-, Hams have joined such other top sports personalities as Bart Starr, Wilt Cham- berlain and Whitey Ford in organizing the Athletes for Nixon Committee. Carey, member of the Hall of Fame and long-time resident of Miami Beach, says Richard Nixon is "not only a great sports fan, but a good all around man for the job." Attorneys in this area who are spearheading the organization Lawyers for Nixon include George H. Salley of Miami, Gaylord A. Wood Jr.

and R. M. Gardner of Fort Lauderdale, and Thomas S. Hodson of Homestead. to aid the Israelis.

But your alliance with Israel is still a bar to complete trust." Mohammed Hassanein Heykal, editor of the authoritative Cairo newspaper Al Ahram, declared that "by taking Israel's side, the United States has forfeited world leadership; the Americans have no real friends left in the Arab world." The support of American Jews for Israel, incessantly emphasized in the Arab press and on radio and television, is extended to a blanket belief in general American support for that country. In this context Arabs repeatedly charged: AMERICAN SUPPORT of Israel will continue because no American politician will risk losing "the Jewish vote" by altering it. AMERICANS HAVE no right to critcize Arabs for accepting Soviet military aid In view of their financial and military help to Israel. NEWSPAPERS, magazines, television and radio in the United States are "Jew- ish-owned" or "Jewish-dominated" and show a bias against the Arabs in the number and prominence of reports from Israel compared with those from Arab nations. INFLUENCED BY Zionism, Americans consistently have discounted the rights of the Palestinians and, through the United Nations, have tried to bribe Arab refugees into silence.

Anti-Americanism in the Middle East already has spread southward Into Islamic countries in Africa and eastward to Pakistan, they emphasized. They voiced concern over its possible future effect on access to oil. The oil reserves of all Moslem countries are estimated at 72 per cent of the world total. The situation, in the view of one experienced Western diplomat, poses a purely pragmatic question for the United States. "Some time," he said, "some president of the United States will have to review the entire American policy for the area, specifically considering whether the cost to the United States of support for Israel is worth the economic and political losses in the Arab world." This is the last of three articles by a correspondent of the New York Times who spent 13 weeks in the Middle East, visiting Israel and a dozen Arab nations.

interests in favor of those of Israel. King Faisal of Saudi Arabia stressed this point in a interview. But he also criticized the United States for ignoring its "true friends" in the Arab world while trying to appease its enemies, Socialist regimes such as Egypt's. The United States had been a principal supplier of arms to Jordan. King Hussein was believed in Jordan and elsewhere to be a respected spokesman for the Arab cause in America.

Arabs expected that the United States would move rapidly to make up Jordan's serious arms losses in the 1967 war. However, although the Soviet Union began re-equipping the United Arab Republic In July, 1987, It was not until March, 1968, that the. first American arms were dispatched-to Jordan. "Is this the even-handed approach that Ambassador Goldberg talks about?" A Jordanian official asked. As the chief United States delegate to the United Nations, Arthur Goldberg frequently emphasized that the American approach to the Middle East situation would be nonpartisan.

Now that American arms are reaching Jordan, anti-Americanism there has diminished slightly. But in the words of one American diplomat, "Our prestige is lower than it has been for 10 years." He Said that the delay on arms and the conviction of American diplomatic support for Israel had been exploited by the National Charter Group, which urges an "Eastern" rather than a "Western" policy upon King Hussein. "The United States can compensate for its support for Israel by helping Arab countries to modernize, to fight poverty," said an Arab leader. "We understand the American position better than we did, we know now that you did not send planes imperialist, pledged to support Israel, the Arabs' enemy, under any conditions. A senior Egyptian official summarized the contrast as the Arabs see it.

"You weren't 'hungry' for things like the British and French," he said. "You came to help. Now you have planted your own colony, Israel, in pur midst." The conviction that the United has failed to persuade Israel to withdraw her forces from uccupied Arab territories is an important, immediate factor in the anti-Americanism. In fact, the State Department has urged Israel, the United Arab Republic and Jordan to negotiations that would bring about withdrawal under the United Nations Security Council resolution of Nov. 22, 1967, which coupled a call for withdrawal with the recognition of secure boundaries for all Middle Estern nations.

But most Arabs seem to believe that the United States has been thoroughly pro-Israel. At the same time, Soviet propaganda emphasizes the identity of the United States with Israel, linking the two governments as the leaders of a new imperialism that seeks to keep the Arab nations in economic and political subjection to the West. The final element in Arab anti-Americanism is the belief among countries that considered they had a special relationship with the United States Saudi Arabia is the most notable example that the administration in Washington has neglected their GEORGE BALL, left, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, had occasion this week to confer in Israel with Moshe Dayan, Israel's Defense Minister. High-Level U.S.

Envoys Study Arab-Israel Mood By TERENCE SMITH The New York Timu News Service JERUSALEM A cluster of high-level American envoys, official and unofficial, have been in Jerusalem this week looking into the Israeli attitude toward negotiations with the Arab states and searching for a way to break the stalemate in the Middle East. The two most prominent visitors have been George W. Ball, the United States representative at the United Nations, and McGeorge Bundy, the former presidential adviser who is president of the Ford Foundation. Between them the two men have met virtually every political and military leader of significance in Israel in the last three days. Bundy, who insists he is here on Ford Foundation business, holds no official government position at the moment, but he is regarded as one of President Johnson's principal advisers on the Middle East.

Just after the six-day war last year, he was appointed to head a special presidential commission on the problems of the area. The simultaneous presence of Ball and Bundy in Israel appears to be a coincidence of scheduling, but their visits reflect an intense American concern over the deadlock and a fear that the mission of the special United Nations envoy, Dr. Gunnar Jarring, will collapse unless some breakthrough is made. "In effect, the Americans want us to stop insisting that Jarring act as a marriage broker and let him function as a mediator between us and the Arabs," a key Israeli official said. "They want us to give him something that he can take to the Arabs as an indication of what our position might be in formal negotiations." Art Buchwald Uncivilized Europeans Refused Me A Gun niM wmmmmmmmmmmmmmm "In my country," I blasted, "the National Rifle Asioclatlon tells Congress what it can or cannot do," "Quelle chance," the dealer said.

"Please, lir, what can do for you?" "I want a gun to shoot surly cafe waiters." "Tres bien, fill out these papers. Then go to your local police station with all your identification and explain to them why you want a gun." "Good, and then I can have it?" "No, not yet. They will investigagc you for three months. After that they will send their recommendation to the main police station, which will investigate why the local police station gave permission to let you have the gun. This will take three more months.

If they agree, you can come back and buy the gun." "Six months to buy one lousy gun?" "That's for the gun. Buying ammunition requires another investigation." "Do you know if we had red tape like that in America that almost nobody would be able to own a revolver?" "That's why we don't sell too many ourselves," the dealer said. "Do you want to start filling out the papers?" "No, I don't, and if the French had any sense they'd permit Americans to buy hand guns just by showing their passport. How else can we protect ourselves from waiters while we're traveling abroad?" ORLD PARIS You would think after all the United States has done for Europe, the least the Europeans could do is make it easy for an American to buy a gun. But such is not the case.

In spite of their great claims to being civilized, the Europeans are still living in the Dark Ages when it comes to making firearms available to the public. I discovered this accidentally when I was overcharged by a waiter in a Left Bank cafe. He calimed it was an accident, but I knew he did it on purpose. The next day I went to a gun store near the Paris Opera and told them I wanted a revolver. "I am an American citizen," I said, "and according to our Constitution I am allowed to bear arms, any place, any time, anywhere.

Now be a good man and give me a gun." "We cannot sell a gun just like that, monsieur," the dealer said. "We hav regulations in France concerning guns." "That doesn't bother us in the United States," I said with a certain amount of pride. "Do you know last year we had over 5,000 people killed by firearms alone?" "Alas," said the dealer, sadly. "We only had 12. The rules here are too strict." "Don't you have a National Rifle Association?" "We have something like it, but parliament tells them what they can or cannot do." ROUNDUP IF The New York Times fifc Holdout By RFK Men Is Ignoring The Issues Housing Bill Over A Hurdle WASHINGTON (AP) -President Johnson's $5.4 billion housing bill apparently will come out of a Senate-House conference very close to the way he wanted it.

Conferees met for the third day yesterday without reaching agreement on all provi sions. But unofficial reports from the closed meeting indicated some of the sections deleted by the House are being restored, at least in compromise form, by the committee working to reconcile House and Senate versions. A major Johnson program dropped entirely by the House Banking Committee was one for the Housing Department to encourage the planning and building of whole new communities by guaranteeing bonds and making grants to help pay for basic services. Some form of this will be in the compromise bill, sources said. They said also the only major cut made in the bill on the House floor stands to be revised.

That was a $100 million slash of programs for interim facilities in areas being rehabilitated and for social services to tenants for public housing. House provisions, not matched in the Senate bill, to broaden both the borrowing and the lending authority of savings and loan associations were reported finding favor with the conferees. Still to be finally resolved is a limitation on the income of families that could receive interest subsidy under the bill's new program to make it possible for low and moderate income persons to buy homes. Both versions contain a limitation, but they arrived at by wholly different formulas, with the House's somewhat more restrictive. Johnson And Rusk En Route To Honolulu Saigon, Viet Cong Talks May Be Eyed Cambodia Seizes Patrol Boat, Holds 11 Yanks PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) The Cambodian navy seized an American patrol boat a mile inside Cambodian river waters and arrested 11 Americans and one South Vietnamese aboard the boat, the French-language newspaper Cambodia reported today.

The date of the capture was not given, but It was believed to be July 17. The report said the boat was armed With three machine guns and a grenade launcher, Philippines Step Up Crime Fight Reuters News Service MANILA The Philippine authorities have stepped up the nation's anti-crime drive, particularly against guns, as alarm grew over a rising wave of violence in which 43 persons were killed in a week. President Ferdinand Marcos has announced the provision of about $2.4 million to equip crime fighting organizations with the most modern weapons. N. Koreans Wound U.S.

Soldiers SEOUL (AP) An American soldier was shot in the head and wounded seriously today when his patrol encountered three North Koreans on the western front, a U.S. military spokesman said. A. U.S. spokesman said it was believed one of the North Koreans was hit, but he had no further information on the clash.

Aga Khan's Yacht Catches Fire Reuters News Service CAGLIARI, Sardinia The Aga Khan's 50-foot yacht, Silver Ahark, caught fire off the Sardinian coast today after an explosion in the engine-room. The captain and engineer the only two persons on board jumped into the sea and were rescued unhurt by a passing English yacht. Syria Head To Visit Castro Reuters News Service DAMASCUS, Syria Syrian head of state Nureddin AI-Atassi, has accepted an invitation from Cuban Premier Dr. Fidel Castro to visit Cuba on a date still to be fixed. Jordan, Israel Exchange Shots Reuters NeWi Service TEL AVIV, Israel Jordanian and Israeli troops exchanged shots across the Jordan'River in the northern sector of the Jordan Valley early today, ah Israeli Army spokesman announced.

He said Jordanian trpops began firing at an Israeli frontier police patrol in the region of Naharayim at about 5 a.m. local time (10 p.m. EDT yesterday). The Israelis returned the fire and the exchange lasted for about half an hour. and that his own candidacy "would not be in opposition to his, but in harmony." That same day, Kennedy said the "disastrous, divisive policies" of the Johnson Administration at home and abroad could be changed "only by changing the men who are now making them." Ironically, the refusal of the Kennedy forces to rally behind McCarthy can have no other effect than to make almost certain the nomination and perhaps the election of the No.

2 man in the Johnson Administration. It is understandable that men with deep personal loyalties to Robert Kennedy, or to his family, would have difficulty supporting anyone else, although some have switched to Humphrey. Moreover, in the hard fought primaries, McCarthy attacked Kennedy severely, defeated him in Oregon, ran only four points behind him in California, and stubbornly refused to step aside for his famous opponent. All of this rankles, and Kennedy's death makes the personal ill feeling hard to erase. But this does not fully explain the reluctance of Kennedy men to support a cause so close to that of their own champion.

Numerous conversations with former Kennedy backers who either support Humphrey or are now uncommitted suggest that the real trouble is McCarthy's lack of political orthodoxy. The willingness to break with the past not only past policies but past practices and attitudes that enthralls McCarthy's amateur army makes hirAsus- WASHINGTON Theodore C. Sorensen, the lawyer and speech writer who served both Kennedy brothers, said at a South Dakota political dinner last weekend that those who had supported Robert Kennedy should look for a new candidate and should not back either Eugene McCarthy or Vice President Humphrey. On the other hand, when Manhattan Borough President Percy E. Sutton transferred his allegiance from Kennedy to McCarthy, he said that although the "disenchanted, the disadvantaged and the alienated" Americans who had supported both men in the primaries "were not united on one candidate, they were united in one philosophy." Sutton's premise has not kept Soren-sen's view from prevailing.

One of the most bizarre phenomena of this remarkable political year is that only a few prominent Kennedy supporters like Sutton, Richard N. Goodwin and Eugene Nickerson of New York moved to the McCarthy camp after Kennedy's death. It was McCarthy and Kennedy together who so effectively opposed the war in Vietnam that President Johnson was forced to alter his policy and withdraw from the election campaign. And if McCarthy was first in that endeavor, it was Kennedy who most effectively dramatized the plight of the poor and downtrodden, for which the candidates indicted the Johnson Administration. When Kennedy entered the presidential race last March 16, he insisted that he would "take any step necessary to cooperate and work with" McCarthy, HONOLULU (AP) President Johnson's and South Vietnam's President Nguyen Van Thieu's formal talks apparently will em brace direct Saigon-Viet Cong negotiations and a total bombing halt in the North.

In advance of today's first formal meeting at the hilltop headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Command, Secretary of Defense Clark Clifford said he avoided those two topics during his Saigon visit earlier in the week "in order to leave that up to Thieu and President Johnson." Clifford talked to newsmen yesterday at Hickam Field as he waited with Johnson to greet Thieu's chartered airliner. Johnson, in welcoming the South Vietnamese leader, touched the peace search under way In Paris and offered these words of reassurance to his visitor: "Mr. President, our pledge to help your people defeat aggression stands firm against all Obstacles and against any deception." Thieu, dwarfed by the U.S. chief executive, responded by saying he looked forward to discussions of "accomplishments as well as problems that He before us." He said he hoped, for "steps toward peace and freedom from Vietnam and Southeast Asia." Only a few score uniformed military personnel and dependants, plus a small costumed delegation from Honolulu's Vietnamese colony, were allowed to witness the arrival ceremony.

Authorities obviously had taken pains to avoid any antiwar demonstration. Both Johnson (and Thieu were doing of their traveling around the island of Oahu by helicopter. who pect to more regular Democrats backed Kennedy..