Abstract

New Realism in the Near East

The Middle East of 1960 is taking shape. It is going to be very different from that with which people have become so familiar. The change is not immediately apparent to the naked eye, for it is taking place, not in the landscape of the region, but rather in the minds of those, who are shaping its future. Its change to realism: A new division is in process of creation to replace those, which so long served the politicians and publicists of the area. Instead of the old Arab-Israeli, Iraqi-Egyptian, or the Christian-Moslem divisions, there is now a simpler and more fundamental parting of the ways: the new thinkers and the old. As far as the Arabs are concerned, the essence of this new thinking is the refreshing realism with which it is geared to the tremendous economic and intellectual advances which have been made in recent years.