Intransigence Renewed

Shortly before dusk the streets and bazaars of the Arab world fell suddenly silent. Just as the evening rush hour began, taxi drivers put up their occupe signs and pulled over to the curb, shopkeepers pulled down their shutters, and all of Araby tuned in to Radio Cairo. Gamal Abdel Nasser, still revered as El Rayiis (The Boss), was scheduled to speak for only the second time since the Arab-Israeli war in June.

Nasser did not let his listeners down. He was his old bellicose self. Occasionally belching gently from the effects of a heavy meal eaten just before he went on the air, he orated for two hours and 25 minutes. In that time, he managed to undo all the efforts of such moderate Moslems as Jordan's King Hussein for a negotiated peace with Israel. He said that Egypt would never allow Israeli shipping to pass through the Suez Canal, boasted that the Egyptian army, although "80% destroyed by the war," was now better prepared than ever for a fight, and, with the bravado of a man talking to himself in the mirror, promised to throw Israeli troops out of occupied Arab lands.

"What was taken away by force cannot be recovered except by force!" he cried. "We are committed to four principles: no recognition of Israel, no peace with Israel, no negotiations with Israel, and no interference in the Palestine issue, which is the legitimate case of the Palestine people."

Into the Hands. Nasser was, in effect, replying to last week's U.N. Security Council resolution, sponsored by Britain, which aimed at leading Israel and her Arab enemies in the general direction of peace. The resolution, passed unanimously after months of diplomatic haggling and name-calling, empowered the U.N. to send a special representative--Swedish Diplomat Gunnar Jarring, 60, now his country's ambassador to Moscow, was selected--to the Middle East to try to bring the Jews and Arabs to the conference table. It also asked Israel to "withdraw" from occupied lands, although in terms so general that even Israeli Premier Levi Eshkol said that "we can live with the resolution."

For all its emotional appeal to the Arabs, Nasser's intransigence played directly into the hands of the Israelis, who have been claiming all along that their national security would be threatened if they gave back the occupied Arab lands. The intransigence was all the more surprising in view of the fact that Russia, which has been Nasser's prime protector, had voted for the resolution--a sign, many had hoped, that the Arabs really did want peace.

Serious Action. There is, in fact, precious little sign that either side wants peace. Facing each other across the River Jordan, Arab and Israeli troops have been taking potshots at each other for weeks, and the Jordanian army has often provided covering fire for bands of terrorists fleeing across the river after raids on Israeli installations. Last week the exchanges erupted into serious action. Angered by Jordanian sniping at its patrols, the Israeli army unleashed an artillery attack on what it claimed were gunsites in the crowded Karama refugee camp north of the Allenby Bridge, killing 14. The next day, Jordanian tanks began shelling Israeli army positions on the West Bank, and the Israelis called for jets to silence the tanks. Six tanks and one Israeli jet were knocked out in the battle; the pilot and two Israeli soldiers were killed.

The guns are not likely to stay silent for long. The Palestinian terrorist organization El Fatah is operating with increasing effectiveness on the West Bank, planting land mines and ambushing small Israeli army units. The Israelis have never allowed such activities to pass without retaliation. Aware that the Eshkol government holds Jordan responsible for terrorist operations, Jordanian Prime Minister Bahjat Talhouni last week in Parliament warned his nation to be prepared for more bloodshed. Israel, he charged, might well launch a major reprisal raid into Jordan if the terrorism kept up.

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