Word: suez
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Sadat interpreted the negotiations as primarily involving a second-stage military disentanglement. He wanted major pullbacks of Israeli forces in the Sinai, which would allow Egypt to reopen the Suez Canal. Israel was willing to withdraw from the strategic Giddi and Mitla passes in the Sinai (see map page 14) and also from the Abu Rudeis oilfields, which have been pumping Egyptian oil for Israel since they were captured in the 1967 Six-Day War. In return, however...
Israel indicated willingness to pull back in the key Mitla and Gidi passes of the Sinai-not to the eastern rim as Egypt wants, but at least far enough back to put the Suez Canal out of range of Israeli artillery. In return, Jerusalem wanted the Egyptians to reduce the size of their armed forces, which would have allowed the Israeli government to cut military enlistments by six months and thus demonstrate signs of peaceful progress to civilians at home...
...Britain faces a divisive three months before the vote during which pro-Market industry and antiMarket unions will line up on different sides. Laborites will fight Laborites, and many British families will be more politically divided than they have been since the Suez Canal crisis of 1956. In short, Wilson may have worked out a formula for saving his own political neck-at the cost of hopelessly dividing the party that elected him as its standardbearer...
...from the Mitla and Giddi passes and surrendering the Abu Rudeis oilfields in the Sinai desert. But the Israeli government is prepared to make less extensive territorial withdrawals in exchange for symbolic tokens of Egypt's peaceful intentions, like its allowing Israeli cargoes to pass through the reopened Suez Canal. One sticking point is Israel's insistence that any further disengagement deal be spelled out in a specific document; Sadat may be reluctant to sign for fear of criticism he might get from other Arab powers. Another problem is that Israel, which has expensively fortified its present positions...
...both Sadat and Rabin, however, success for the Kissinger talks should appear far more attractive than the alternative. If Kissinger fails, the odds are high that the two nations will drift into another war of attrition, similar to the one that racked the Suez Canal area in 1969 and 1970. Horrible as the casualties of last week's raid on Tel Aviv were, they are insignificant compared with the casualties that would have been likely to result from such a war-if the Palestinian act of desperation had succeeded...