As the clash of world forces grows more and more intense, Americans find themselves increasingly concerned with developments in the border regions most exposed to totalitarian penetration or actual invasion. The storms changes now taking place in Iran have compelled us to see the Middle East as perhaps the chief of those danger spots.

In Egypt or Syria or Iraq, no less than in Iran, we find a reckless xenophobia, tinged with theocratic fanaticism and so absorbed in its quarrels with waning imperialisms, that it opens the door to Soviet aggression. We find, beyond that, the same terrifying social and economic inequities as are responsible for the bitterness and instability that weaken Iran so dangerously today.

In this bleak regional picture we can see only one hopeful spot. That is Israel, where political and economic democracy function; where extremes of wealth and poverty do not exist and a modern, industrialized society is coming into being; where religious and minority rights are observed; where the population is ardently devoted to the state, each individual citizen feeling a sense of personal participation in its creation and a sense of personal responsibility for its security and preservation. Here, in other words, is a natural ally of Western democracy, a “beachhead,” if one may use the metaphor, for the strengthening and defense of freedom in a shaky and exposed area.

It is because of this larger, potential significance of the State of Israel, that we urge an affirmative attitude to the proposals before Congress for a grant-in-aid of $150,000,000 to Israel. Israel, faced with the gigantic task of absorbing hundreds of thousands of homeless and unwanted Jews, must condense decades of economic expansion into a few years. It is taxing itself and Jewish sympathizers throughout the world to the limit. If it is to be able to function as the center of democratic strength it shows every sign of becoming, it needs the type of economic aid we in this country have been giving to free peoples throughout the world. We believe, with Sens. Douglas and Taft, sponsors in the Senate of the aid for Israel act, that grants to Israel for increasing its productive capacity will “promote the security and general welfare of the United States and Israel . . . thereby furthering the basic objectives of the Charter of the United Nations.”