--Vol, XVI, No, 26
DR. MARIO ROSSI VISITS THE CENTER
On Wednesday afternoon, April 26, interested students and members of the
faculty filled South-Hall (101) to hear Dr. Mario Rossi, distinguished journalist
and authority on Near-Eastern affairs, deliver a short lecture on" The
Palestine Problem". At the present time, Dr. Rossi is correspondent for
"The Christian Science Monitor" assigned to cover the United Nations Headquarters
in New York City for that publication, Previous to this position with the
"Christian Science Monitor", Dr. Rossi served on the staff of the Office of War
Information in New York. He was also attached to the overseas staff of "Nation"
magazine as its foreign correspondent in the Near East; and, for a time, he
employed his acute and analytical understanding of Near Eastern problems as a
radio news commentator..
Dr. Rossi began his lecture by attaching the term "superficial" to the
concept of the Arab-Israeli dispute that most of us gain through our newspapers*
Actually the true nature of this problem dis deeper and far greater ' in
significance than a series of border incidents during a non-workable truce.
Dr. Rossi pointed to the centuries of domination through conquest and colonization
suffered by these Arab nations as the main contributing factor to the lack of a
national identity essential among the masses of any nation desiring economic
improvement through a healthy nationalism. As undisputed proof of this
frustrating lack of. putionlidentity, DrA Rossi revealed that not one of these
young nations can boast a culture of its one. True, he continued, there is an
"Arab" culture but there is not, for example, a Syrian culture or a Trans-Jordanian
culture. And it is the rise of this nationalistic culture within a nation which
acts as the catalyst in achieving any degree of the economic and administrative
self-sufficiency associated with progress. True, cultures do not rise overnight.
They are the product of the energy and imagination of countless individuals
covering many generations and many occupations. The Arab nations are not
ignorant of this fact; nor are they ignorant of their need for economic and
educational aid from outside. there shall they find such cooperation? The
obvious answer is among the highly developed nations of the "Test. However this
"obvious" answer ig also an obvious blister . For it is from these same highly
developed nations that they so recently shed their ancient shackles of colonialism
One can sympathize wigh theirfear of any re-establishment of foragn
administration under another disguise. And as if this problem was not enough,
right in the midst of this troubled scene, the peacemakers of World War Two
carved the nation of Israel.
Into the middle of the Arab world canes the state of Israel« The promised
land of Judaism -The seat of Zionism. and Zionism itself but the living essence
of nationalism, Is it any wonder that the presence of strong alien nationalism
amid the frustrated Arab states led to conflict? With Dr. Rossi's explanation,
the violent headlines reporting the uneasy truce in the Holy Land takes on life,
and shape and dimension.
Dr. Rossi expressed hope in the U. N. as the lone agency capable of providing
not only the needs of the Arab nations, without the "strings" the Arabs fear in
accepting aid from the West, but, also, capable of successfully acdiateing between
these two conflicting factions in the Near East. It is common knowledge that
failure of the UN to cope satisfactorily with the situation to date, has been the
success of the Russian plan to embarrass the West in on of its most important
spheres of influence by her obstructionist tactics in the Security Council. Even
in the face of this staggering obstacle, Dr. Rossi believes the Palestine
problem not only can be solved by the U. N., but, most important, it can be
solved peacefully.
HAZLETON COLLEGIAN
Meekly Newsletter Edition
The Ilennsylnavia State University Center
Highacres, Hazletthn, Pennsylvania
April 30, 1954