The Brother who kindly drew my attention to this book commented that once he had started reading it he could not put it down. Arab Reach is indeed that kind of gripping work. The material in the book deals with two main facets of the Arab ‘Jihad’ (Holy War) which was declared against Israel in the wake of the Yom Kippur War.
The main object of the Jihad, which was declared and is coordinated by Saudi Arabia, is the liberation of Jerusalem. Those two facets are, firstly, the growing influence of the Arab lobby in Washington from 1978, so that Israel no longer has a monopoly of the manipulation of U.S. policy in the Middle East; secondly, Hoag Levins considers, region by region, and in some cases country by country, how the Arabs have invested their enormous profits from oil since 1973. He shows that the astonishing penetration into the industries and financial institutions of the Western World and Latin America means that the Arabs can effectively manipulate the Middle Eastern stance of virtually every Western government.
On the way, many interesting and little known facts about the history of the last decade are uncovered, illustrating to the student of prophecy that God’s hand is still at work among the nations, controlling their affairs in relation to His purpose with, and ancient promises to, His chosen people Israel.
While the Arab lobby has been building up in Washington since 1978, it was not until 1981 that it left a significant mark, successfully persuading a majority in Congress to vote in favour of supplying AWACS (Airborne Warning And Control Systems) to Saudi Arabia, thus effectively giving the Saudis regional organisational and operational superiority in any future Middle Eastern war. This diplomatic victory was achieved by using the oil weapon: “In the final week before the Senate cast its historic vote on AWACS, the American Petroleum Institute reported that the incoming flow of oil to the United States dropped by 25%” (p. 21); clearly a hint of what the Arabs could and would do to the U.S.A. if the Senate would not cooperate. On the day of the vote 23 of America’s top corporate executives were on a fact-finding mission in Riyadh (no doubt an angelically controlled ‘coincidence). From there these executives, from companies like IBM, TWA, American Airlines and Proctor & Gamble, sent the ‘Riyadh Telex’ to each U.S. Senator stating that the blocking by the Senate of the sale of AWACS to Saudi Arabia would “substantially impair U.S. ability to protect its legitimate interests in the Middle East” (quoted on p. 21). In face of this response to what had clearly been threatened, the sale went ahead.
The same section of the book details how, from June 1982, a close relationship between Mrs. Nancy Reagan and the wife of the Saudi ambassador to the U.S.A. has been fostered, a contact which was to be significant during 1982 when the P.L.O. were besieged in Beirut, and the Saudis interceded on their behalf in Washington. Levins also reveals that the sacking, for sacking it was, of General Haig as U.S. Secretary of State was a direct result of Haig’s violently pro-Israeli views, which were not approved of by the Saudis in Washington. “Haig’s abrupt departure sent seismic shocks through Israel’s political and military establishments and resulted in a ceasefire which did not ultimately hold, but which did break the momentum of the siege”
It would be interesting to know the ethnic background of the author, Hoag Levins. Judging from his name and picture on the book’s dust jacket he could be a Jew or an Arab. Either way, he does write objectively most of the time, providing a catalogue of facts, rather than a commentary on these facts. Just once or twice, however, he seems to betray a slight anti-Jewish feeling, such as in his rather oversimplified analysis of why the Arabs object to Jewish settlement in the land of Israel: “Two emotional currents. . . served as common links between even the bitterest Muslim rivals: an overwhelming sense of Islamic identity capable of transcending all ideological disputes, and a visceral disdain for what is today the last remaining vestige left by the receding tide of European colonial powers Israel” (pp. 35,36). Whilst serving as a reminder of the power of the Islamic religion in the Arab world, this analysis shows either an ignorance of or a willing disregard for the roots of Arab-Israeli hatred in Old Testament times. The result is that Islam is presented as a worthy ideological philosophy, whereas those who are privileged to know the Truth can see that it is but a relatively modern tool used by the Almighty in His inscrutable providence to work out recent developments in a conflict which dates from the time of Abraham.
Thus when Levins relates the “last military jihad for Jerusalem (which) began shortly after noon on October 6th1973” i.e. the Yom Kippur War and the subsequent non-military jihad declared by the Saudis, and employing the oil weapon, he does not set these events in their full historical context. Nonetheless, his treatment of the 1973 war is absolutely fascinating, opening up many details which were certainly unknown to the reviewer.
It is, of course, common knowledge that in the early days of the war Israel suffered considerable reverses. Levins makes it clear that Israel was virtually defeated. At the height of Israel’s extremity, Prime Minister Golda Meir was faced with a proposal from Moshe Dayan that Israel should surrender. She “indicated to her aides that she would commit suicide rather than surrender (and) she ordered that Israel prepare for a nuclear Masada’ an atomic holocaust which would consume Israel as well as the surrounding Islamic capitals and oil fields”
The assembly of Israel’s atomic bombs during the early days of the war (they were previously kept ‘disassembled’ in remote areas under the disguise of textile factories) soon became known to the U.S.A. via their Blackbird spy plane, and to the U.S.S.R. via their Foxbat spy plane. In response, between October 13th and 16th Russia shipped nuclear weapons from Odessa on the Black Sea to Alexandria in Egypt. The stage was set for a Middle East nuclear conflict. The U.S. Administration, knowing of these developments, concluded that the most likely way to prevent this horror was to supply Israel with a vast conventional armoury as quickly as possible, thus enabling Israel to defeat the Arabs without using the nuclear option.
Interestingly, at the very time when quick decisions were needed in the U.S., the Nixon Administration was embroiled in the Watergate affair and had neither the time nor the will to have long debates about foreign policy. Thus the airlift of huge amounts of the U.S.A.’s latest and best conventional weapons to Israel began. “During the next thirty-four days the gargantuan American Starlifter jets and other cargo planes made 569 flights to Israel, off-loading entire armies worth of supplies and weaponry” (p. 52). Within a few days Israel turned the tide against the Arabs and by the end of the airlift was threatening both Cairo and Damascus.
It seems as though we can perceive the hand of the angels at work in these incidents. It was not merely coincidence that just at the tinen Israel needed this help on a scale which untler normal circumstances would only have been granted after long consideration by the U.S. Administration, circumstances were not normal and help for Israel was immediately forthcoming. It might be objected that if angelic manipulation of international affairs was needed to ensure aid for Israel in this war against the Arabs, then why did the angels allow the Arabs to attack Israel in the first place? The answer is surely that the Yom Kippur War, like the other Arab-Israeli wars, was a Divinely-ordained opportunity for Israel to repent of her godlessness and turn to the God of her fathers in time of need. As yet, however, Israel has failed to learn that lesson.
Once Israel was back on the offensive against the Arabs the danger to international peace was then that the Arabs, and Egypt in particular, might feel constrained to use nuclear weapons against Israel to stave off complete defeat. It is probably not widely known how close the world came to a nuclear holocaust in October 1973. At first America was unable to restrain Israeli advances. By October 25th, as Egypt, with Soviet backing, threatened to use their nuclear weapons, the “United States ordered its forces around the world to mobilize for nuclear war. The action was taken so quickly that not even America’s closest allies were informed. Some 2.2 million American military personnel were mobilized . . . By October 26, under the enormous international political pressure created by the nuclear emergency, the Israeli advances into Egypt stopped” (pp. 56,57). The lesson is clear for us all to learn. It is on Israel and her conflict with her neighbours that the destiny of mankind depends. The nations have repeatedly had their attention drawn to Israel, Yahweh’s witnesses, and must surely now be without excuse, so that when the judgements of the Lord are poured out upon the nations, they will be fully deserved.
The remainder of the book details the consequences of that Arab defeat in 1973, the use of the oil weapon, and arising from it the secret intervention, here unearthed in part by Levins, by Arab investment in the economics of the Western World. The detail is fascinating and, without our knowledge of the hope of Israel, would be frightening. The reviewer can highly recommend the book to all brethren and sisters, as it gives a wonderful insight into a crucial aspect of recent world events which, under God’s hand, are’ awing the nations to Armageddon.
In conclusion I would like to quote a quite remarkable passage from Arab Reach which underlines a truth that Christadelphians have for so long preached: that the focal point of the destiny of our world is in God’s chosen city of Jerusalem. Remember, though, that these words were written by an American journalist. As such, they show that God is truly revealing His purpose with the earth through Israel, yet men fail to perceive it.
“This epochal event in October 1973 would bring the world to the brink of nuclear holocaust and ultimately wrap the fate of the United States and the West around the ancient stones of that city both Israelis and Muslims are determined to control no matter what the price, that city which has become the pivot on which the tortured history of the twentieth century now hangs: Jerusalem” (p. 44).
Review of “The Early Earth” by John Whitcomb (1972)