Still a Gap, But Narrower

Openly optimistic, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger jetted through the Middle East last week in quest of a new peace agreement between Israel and Egypt. In Jerusalem, Kissinger laughed off angry demonstrations as a minor and familiar inconvenience--"You forget that I come from Harvard and I'm used to them," he quipped--and spoke soothingly of the new rapport between Israel and the U.S. He met for five hours with Israeli leaders and then flew to Alexandria for talks with Egyptian leaders at President Anwar Sadat's summer residence overlooking the Mediterranean. Then Kissinger was off to Damascus to reassure Syria's President Hafez Assad that his claims were not being ignored. More intensive discussions with the Israelis and Egyptians are scheduled for this week.

Kissinger hopes to have an agreement in principle by next week, before he flies to New York to address a special U.N. session. "There is still a gap but it is narrower," he said in Alexandria. Sadat added: "Up to this moment, I am optimistic." If Kissinger's timetable is met, it would probably take a week or two to work out the wording. Egypt and Israel would then sign a formal document, probably in Geneva.

Listening Posts. The major compromises and concessions had been worked out before Kissinger left Washington: Israel is to give up the Abu Rudeis oilfield and the Giddi and Mitla passes in the Sinai; American technicians are to man listening posts between the two armies; the agreement is to run for three years and, while it will not include an Egyptian statement of nonbelligerency, it will amount to about that.

But a number of points remained to be ironed out. Among them:

> How many Americans would be involved and in how many posts? Jerusalem wants a U.S. presence at six posts, and is also demanding that Israelis be allowed to run the sophisticated, multi-million-dollar station at Umm Khisheib above the Giddi Pass.

> Where would each army be positioned and what would be the depth of the buffer zone separating them?

> Would the Israelis use an Egyptian road at Abu Rudeis to supply their troops, or would they finish a second road they are now building?

> When would the armies actually change positions? Egypt wants six months to carry out the accord, but Israel is asking for nine months. At best, the shifts would probably not be completed until early next spring.

There was also another question: how much aid, financial and diplomatic, would the U.S. give to Israel for granting concessions to Egypt? The Israelis were requesting a $3.25 billion package. The U.S. was prepared to offer $2 billion, a sizable jump over the $1.5 billion Kissinger was talking about a month ago--and more than eight times what Israel was getting only three years ago. Additionally, Jerusalem wanted assurances that Washington would consult and coordinate with the Israelis on Middle East policymaking.

In Israel and the Arab lands, the proposed agreement stirred angry opposition. The walls of Jerusalem were decorated with savage graffiti and posters calling Premier Yitzhak Rabin a "traitor" and Kissinger himself "Jewboy," for supposedly turning against his Jewish heritage. Assa Kadmoni, one of only eight men to receive Israel's highest award for valor in the October war, returned the medal to protest the compromise with Egypt. More than 200 right-wing demonstrators marched to Rabin's house in the Rehavia quarter. The next evening, when Kissinger was driven to the Knesset building for dinner with Rabin, 1,000 demonstrators tried to block the way. Police used water cannons and tear gas, but the crowd refused to budge, deflating the tires of police cars and paddy wagons.

Bitter Enemies. If Rabin was under attack, so was Egypt's Sadat, whose Arab allies accuse him of making a separate peace with the enemy. Yasser Arafat, chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization executive committee, warned of "violent upheavals at all levels" if Israel's withdrawal in the Sinai is not followed by further withdrawals from Jordan's West Bank and the Golan Heights in Syria. More ominously, Syria and Jordan announced the formation of a "supreme political command" to coordinate their stand toward Israel; until recently, they had been bitter enemies. The alliance is both a slap at Egypt and a possible threat to Israel.

Alarmed by the possibility that the Sinai agreement might yet founder, Cairo attacked both the Israeli right-wingers and the radicals on its own side. To assuage its critics, the Egyptian government also made known the fact that it had received two letters from President Ford. One promised to help secure a disengagement on the Syrian front this year; the other promised to take "Palestinian interests" into account in future negotiations.

Even if the Egyptians and the Israelis follow through to an agreement, Kissinger will still face another problem on Capitol Hill. "I think we will sell it to Congress," said a senior U.S. official of the agreement. State Department officials emphasize that the Americans involved would be civilians, that they would be strictly neutral and that there would probably be no more than 200 of them. There is talk in Israel, however, of using the Sinai agreement as a precedent and demanding an American presence on the Golan Heights and on the West Bank as well before Israel pulls back on those borders. "Of course it is a possibility," Israel's Foreign Minister Yigal Allon reluctantly admitted in an Israeli TV interview.

Congress is expected to accept a new American commitment in the end, but without enthusiasm. After the Viet Nam experience, many Congressmen will want to know just how big--and how far-reaching--that commitment will be.

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