Word: mitla
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...Israel would give up the Mitla Pass and almost all of the Giddi Pass, retaining only some foothills at its eastern terminus (see map following page). The passes are the keys to the Sinai. North of them is soft sand; south of them are towering granite mountains. Any army that wants to move across the peninsula is almost compelled to go through the two passes, and Israel's General Staff has hitherto considered them indispensable to the country's security. Since the October war in 1973, Jerusalem has spent $60 million fortifying nature's own impressive defenses...
Though a rough truce line in Sinai has been agreed upon, this must still be drawn more precisely-practically rock by rock-before Kissinger can return to Washington with a signed pact. Also undecided is whether Egyptian troops would be allowed to follow the Egyptian flag into the Mitla and Giddi passes. Israel wants a guarantee that the passes be demilitarized if its forces pull out. Cairo is insistent that it owns the territory-"Sinai is ours, ours, ours!" proclaims an Egyptian officer-but seems willing to bend and accept demilitarization anyway. The Israelis, many of whom no longer regard...
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...
...results of recent talks in Bonn between Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and Israeli Premier Yitzhak Rabin (TIME, July 21). Egypt had hoped this latest in a long series of Sinai discussions would produce an agreement under which Israeli troops would withdraw to the eastern edge of the strategic Mitla and Giddi passes. Instead, Rabin asked for further "clarifications" from Cairo...
Rabin's don't-push-me attitude is obviously bolstered by Israel's national mood. Recent polls indicate that 60% of Israelis want to hold on to the Mitla and Giddi passes. Last week some of the 20,000 people at a rally sponsored by the right-wing opposition Likud Bloc stoned the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv to protest American pressure on Israel to make concessions. They carried signs with anti-Kissinger statements. Read one: "Dr. K.-we shall not win you another peace prize with our blood...