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At week's end Israel's latest answer was an almost final no, and the latest What If still loomed. In a remarkably strong statement issued at Thomasville, President Eisenhower once again urged Israel to withdraw, noted that Israel had received "the maximum assurance that it can reasonably expect at this juncture, or that can be reconciled with fairness to others." Meanwhile, the U.S. had answered a bigger question: What if armed Communism tries an overt gunpoint grab in the Middle
East? In voting out the President's Middle East resolution (see below), a Senate committee, echoing the President and the House of Representatives, replied: If the victim calls for help, the U.S. will fight. With that aggression-deterring answer shielding the Middle East, Dulles & Co. can go on dealing with lesser What Ifs—and inching toward the goal of order.