Word: cairo
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...raging rhetoric and rodomontade that are customary between Arabs and Israelis sometimes signify more bark than bite. Last week, as Cairo and Jerusalem were engaged in an elaborate game of diplomatic bluff, the rhetoric exploded again. Negotiations over a second-stage disengagement in Sinai hit snags that on the surface at least indicated the possibility of deadlock. But even as Israeli Premier Yitzhak Rabin was dismissing Egyptian proposals as unacceptable last week, he was also insisting that the talks must continue...
With Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and U.S. Ambassador to Cairo Herman Eilts acting as intermediaries, Israel two weeks ago had presented to Cairo its own proposals concerning a further pullback in the Sinai. The interminable negotiations center around the strategic Mitla and Giddi passes in the desert. In its latest offer, Israel agreed to let U.S. electronic technicians operate the key listening post at Umm Khisheib above the passes. But Jerusalem proposed additional Israeli posts near by and insisted upon keeping Israeli troops on the eastern rims of the passes as a defensive measure...
Back to Washington last week, for transmission to Jerusalem, came an Egyptian counterproposal. Offering a map for the first time, Cairo reportedly accepted in principle the presence of Israelis at the eastern edge of the passes, although not in the same places that Jerusalem suggested. The lines drawn by the Egyptians came so close to the big Israeli airbase at Bir Gifgafa that Rabin, even before he consulted with his Cabinet, appeared on Israeli television to dismiss Cairo's suggestions out of hand...
...Cairo interview with TIME Correspondent William Marmon, Foreign Minister Ismail Fahmy accused the Israelis of bad faith: "They are always like this. They want to bargain-on every level and in every direction. They link everything to what they can get from the U.S. and this is blackmail. They know they must be out of the passes, but they want a price. They are trying to gain time. They are looking at the internal situation in the U.S. trying to figure out if Ford is the strong man, if Kissinger can last, if the Congress will respond to their tactics...
...Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser demanded a similar pullout of U.N. forces for their own safety in the face of "Israeli aggression" and Egyptian defensive moves. The late Secretary-General U Thant complied. Eighteen days later, the Six-Day War erupted. The Israelis were betting that Cairo would back down, partly because of fail-safe ambiguities in Fahmy's letter, partly because they are convinced that Egypt is not remotely prepared for another war. Jerusalem even suspected that Fahmy was a straw man setting up the issue so that Sadat could knock it down...