Word: nasserism
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Last week Rogers' gamble returned at least a preliminary payoff. In a Cairo speech and in a private note to Washington, Egypt's President Gamal Abdel Nasser responded to the U.S. proposals. Washington had deliberately urged the Israelis to withhold their reply in order to give Nasser, fresh from 19 days of talks with his Soviet patrons in Moscow, time to react to Rogers' offer. To the delight of U.S. officials, Nasser's speech was relatively devoid of anti-American polemics and cautiously favorable. His note was even more accommodating, so much so that it placed...
Major Initiative. Nasser himself had supplied some of the impetus for the latest try at peacemaking. Last May Day, in a long speech on Arab struggle against Israel, Egypt's President inserted a warning that the opportunity for a U.S. rapprochement with Arab nations was rapidly fading. The warning worked on the State Department. Rogers persuaded President Nixon that "a major political initiative" ought to be made to get the antagonists "to stop shooting and start talking...
...factor that encouraged Rogers, paradoxically, was the increased Soviet involvement in Egypt. Russia's growing military presence since .last March was a source of U.S. anxiety, to be sure, but the Secretary reasoned that it enhanced Nasser's self-confidence. As Rogers put it: "In all my experience as a lawyer, I have never found anyone who likes to bargain from weakness." Conversely, he figured, the Soviet involvement might force the Israelis to realize that they might not be dealing from a position of strength forever...
...interpreted as a sign of weakness? President Nixon issued a strong warning about the danger of a potential U.S.-Soviet collision, and pointedly contrasted the aggressive Arabs with the peace-loving Israelis. Rogers cringed at the harsh rhetoric and so, obviously, did the Egyptians. In his speech last week, Nasser specifically protested the Nixon charge and offered to negotiate as proof of his peaceable intentions...
...reject the Rogers proposals, which include a 90-day ceasefire, Israeli withdrawal from occupied territories and Arab acceptance of Israel's right to exist within recognized borders. There were rumors, in fact, that the Soviets had stressed the importance of a political solution, and had actually prevailed on Nasser to accept the essence of the Rogers proposals-a ceasefire and negotiations. The Israelis, however, saw no evidence that Nasser had experienced such a change of heart. In an interview last week with the Paris magazine L'Express, Premier Golda Meir said: "They say Nasser cannot accept public negotiations...