Word: suez
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...Voice. Johnson unmistakably supported the Israeli cause, although he shrewdly avoided crowing over the Soviet-Arab defeat. Specifically, he put the American imprimatur on Israel's premises for peace: Arab recognition of Israeli statehood, an end to the state of belligerence that has existed since 1948, free use of Suez and the Strait of Tiran, direct Arab-Israeli peace negotiations. Yet he also skirted the role of Israeli advocate. "Certainly," he said, "[Israeli] troops must be withdrawn...
...eloquent Foreign Minister Abba Eban. Israel's prime demand, he said, is Arab acceptance of its right to exist. And Israel is pressing for direct peace talks with Egypt, Jordan and Syria, the Arab nations whose armies it defeated. It also demands the right of passage through the Suez Canal and the Gulf of Aqaba...
...first is the Suez Canal, now blocked at both ends by scuttled Egyptian ships. Though Cairo says that they will not be removed until the Israelis retreat, the fact is that the Egyptians need the earnings of the canal ($250 million a year) as much as other nations need the passageway. Egypt's economy is a shambles, and the war has gravely worsened it. The nation has a foreign debt of more than $1 billion, an annual trade deficit of $500 million, and more than half of its cotton crop-its principal export-is mortgaged to Communist-bloc nations...
...Egyptian people had not yet been told of the extent of the debacle. There were no announced casualty figures, no lists of wounded or missing, no mention of the fact that Israel held the east bank of the Suez. Egyptian officials evacuated part of the population of El Qantara, site of a bridge across the canal, to prevent townsfolk from seeing the stream of ragged, bandaged soldiers dragging homeward. But the troops returned with tales, and the marketplaces of Cairo buzzed with rumors. In the streets of Cairo, people spat on their own army officers...
...line. Lady Bird tugs L.B.J. out of the light, but he returns. The Israelis are not going to give up easily what they have won, he says; they have always talked about Jerusalem, the west bank of the Jordan, the Syrian heights, Aqaba. Would they reach Suez? The President did not feel that anything would stop them. Good night, Dan. Good night, Mr. President...