Egypt: Koran v. Socialism

After Syria's breakaway last September, the three-year-old United Arab States consisted only of two members—Egypt and tiny, backward Yemen. Last week, Nasser kicked out Yemen. With Egypt thus turned into a federation of one but still clinging to the now meaningless title of United Arab Republic, Nasser promised new glories for "Arab socialism," started off by lavishly insulting his old Arab enemies and generally agitating the Middle East.

Pugnacious Poem. The tie with Yemen had been bizarre from the first. Nasser had hoped to reform the Stone Age kingdom and make it part of a Pan-Arab nation; Yemen's wily old...