Word: mitla
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...biggest problem outstanding, as Rabin and Kissinger met at week's end at Schloss Gymnich, a guesthouse outside Bonn where Rabin had been installed by his West German hosts, was control of the Sinai passes. Egypt has insisted all along that Israel must completely withdraw from the Mitla and Giddi passes (see map), the most strategic points on the peninsula. Israel has similarly insisted, for internal politics as much as for anything else, that its defense requires a military presence in the passes. Jerusalem suggested a partial pullout and electronic surveillance on either side, a proposal Sadat rejected...
Dinitz carried with him the details of what Washington believes are the final Egyptian proposals for a second-stage Sinai deal. He also brought a special hint from Washington: if Israel agrees to U.S.-backed Egyptian demands that it withdraw its forces completely from the strategic Mitla and Giddi passes and the Abu Rudeis oilfields, then Israel may be able to count on continued American military, economic and political support...
...chief obstacle to solving the deadlock remained the status of the Mitla and Giddi passes in the Sinai. The passes are the only viable routes through the Sinai mountains for armies moving either toward the Suez Canal or away from it toward the Israeli border. Israel, which controls the passes, has offered to pull back to their eastern end, where it maintains electronic listening equipment to monitor Egyptian troop movements. Egypt's Sadat, on the other hand, demands that Israel pull out of both passes completely. He has threatened not to renew the mandate of the United Nations peace...
...other mountain peaks in the Sinai would serve just as well as monitoring stations, and Israel could successfully halt an Egyptian attack even if it had to give up the passes. But the Israeli General Staff wants to keep the passes. Guiding newsmen on a tour of Giddi and Mitla last week, Colonel Simcha Maoz of the General Staff pointed out that any Egyptian armor allowed through the passes could outflank the mammoth Israeli base at Bir Gafgafa, 15 miles to the north...
...Rabin were talking about. At one point, when newsmen in the midst of a Washington drizzle asked him about progress, Ford looked at the sky and said straight-faced, "It's a nice day." Privately he and Kissinger tried to convince Rabin that Israel should give up the Mitla and Giddi passes in the Sinai as well as the Abu Rudeis oilfields as part of a disengagement agreement. If Israel agreed, the U.S. was likely not only to be more generous with military and economic aid, but to put its endorsement on any agreement. Appearing before the House Committee...