Seeking Peace Amid New Sounds of War

Therg were several nagging omens as Secretary of State Henry Kissinger flew from Washington last week for a seven-day journey of mediation through the Middle East, his sixth such trek in the past two years. Kissinger reached Cairo on the first leg of his flight to seven capitals (the others: Damascus, Amman, Jerusalem, Riyadh, Algiers and finally Rabat) during the Moslem penitential month of Ramadan. The Secretary of State was unable to meet with fasting President Anwar Sadat until after sundown; Kissinger thus had to while away several hours sightseeing. As he flew out of Cairo, a Secret Service agent's submachine gun--an Israeli-made Uzi--fell from a luggage rack aboard Kissinger's Air Force 707 and fired, wounding the agent slightly and setting off a momentary terrorist scare.

In Israel, Kissinger's plane was scheduled to land at Tel Aviv's Ben-Gurion Airport a half-hour before the Jewish Sabbath was over. Israeli protocol officers advised the blue and white jet to circle somewhere until the holy day officially ended at 7 p.m.

They were omens of larger troubles ahead: it is an unmistakable fact that the mood on both sides in the Middle East imbroglio has shifted noticeably since Kissinger negotiated disengagement in the Sinai and on the Golan Heights earlier this year. The momentum for peaceful settlement has somehow ground to a halt. The belief--or hope--that "Dr. Henry" could work miracles has to a large extent vanished.

Replacing it is a new and gnawing feeling that the region may be heading to war once more.

No Gains. Virtually no diplomatic gains have been made since Kissinger's springtime successes. The United Nations peacekeeping forces--6,700 in the Sinai and 1,200 on the Golan--are still in place. But their six-month tenure has to be renegotiated shortly, and the Syrians may make this an exasperating process. Syria, Egypt and Jordan demand the return of all territory captured by Israel in the '67 war. Israel in turn demands pacts of nonbelligerence. The Palestinian issue still is unresolved. In both Israel and Egypt, the mood ranges from gloomy to disillusioned.

Oratory on either side has turned bluntly threatening. In an interview for French television, Sadat warned that "either Israel comes to reason in the Geneva talks or we shall be returning to war again." Lieut. General Mohamed Abdel Ghany Gamassy, Sadat's chief of staff, told TIME Correspondent Wilton Wynn in Cairo last week that Egypt's armed forces are in better shape now than before the October war.

"We are across the canal with our main forces lined up behind on the West Bank. Which is better, to be in close contact with the enemy or on the other side of a water barrier?" Warned Gamassy:

"Another war will be much more costly than the last one in all respects. For instance, we are rebuilding the cities in the Suez Canal Zone. If the Israelis bomb those cities, we will retaliate."

Talk in Israel was equally defiant. Reviewing the Israeli position in advance of Kissinger's visit, Premier Yitzhak Rabin told the Israeli Parliament that his government was carrying out "a combination of two efforts, preparation for the possibility of war and a drive toward peace." Preparations for war include a call-up of army reserve mechanics to get all mobile equipment in combat shape and a review of all men under the age of 54 who had previously been disqualified from service for medical reasons.

The grimmest sign of all, however, reported TIME'S Jerusalem correspondent Marlin Levin, is open discussion, by both military and political leaders, about the possible necessity of a preemptive strike against Arab armies. The rationale for such an attack would be to cripple Arab forces for five to ten years.

West Bank. War is not inevitable, of course, and some of the belligerent talk might have been timed to catch Kissinger's ear. Both sides were ready to hear the Secretary's proposals and make their own. Rabin last week told the Knesset that "the government has not defined the extent of territorial compromise in various sectors, but it has laid down that in return for peace we are prepared for territorial compromises." Specifically, as a starter, Rabin suggested the return of the West Bank city of Jericho to Jordan in return for a nonbelligerency pact. He was promptly challenged by religious Jews who marched 5,000 strong into biblical Judea and Samaria for a sitdown strike. The Israeli army managed to hold back all but about 300. One group of religious youths, led by Rabbi Moshe Levinger, made their way into a 500-ft. gorge beside an old Turkish aqueduct to squat there until the army or hunger forced them out. "It is our right as Jews to live here," said Rabbi Levinger. "No secular govern ment has the right to give away what the Torah has said is ours."

Sadat's most fascinating proposal, during meetings with Kissinger that lasted from sundown until nearly mid night at the presidential Nileside mansion, was a fresh solution for the cloudy problem of who speaks for Palestine, Jordan's King Hussein or the P.L.O.

Under Sadat's latest plan, Hussein would negotiate with Israel for the return of the West Bank, but the King could not occupy it militarily until a plebiscite was held among Palestinians to decide which government they preferred. Sadat had discussed the idea with P.L.O. Leader Yasser Arafat, and will bring it up again at an Arab summit in Rabat next week.

Second Round. Kissinger arrived with new proposals of his own. One sug- gestion was what he described as "sequential negotiations" in which Israel and Egypt would take the lead in be ginning the second round of peace talks this year. Jordan and Israel would commence talks after that, either simultaneously or after the Egyptian talks con cluded (estimated deadline: in about six months). Since both sides agree that the U.S. is still the essential mediator, and since the Arabs still resist face-to-face meetings with Israel, American negotiators also propose talks among sub-ministers -- with Assistant Secretary of State Joseph J. Sisco representing the U.S. -- until decisions are near enough for foreign ministers to return to the dis cussion. Kissinger also prefers three-way negotiations in Washington. If they return to Geneva, he apparently fears, Soviet pressure there on behalf of the Palestinians might disrupt progress.

Kissinger smiled broadly and voiced optimism as he left Cairo, but U.S. officials hedged on what progress was being made. During his visit to Egypt last summer, President Nixon magnanimously announced that the U.S. would provide nuclear reactors to both sides as a peace offering, along with a special grant of $250 million to Egypt to help its sagging economy. So far both gifts have been snagged: the reactors cannot be provided until a complicated question of inspection is resolved, while foreign aid allotment has been stalled by a foot-dragging pro-Israel Senate. "If Kis singer cannot deliver even on those pe ripheral matters," one Sadat aide told TIME'S Wynn last week, "can we ex pect him to deliver on the really big issue, the peace settlement?"

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