After the worst flare-up of shooting across its placid waters since last October, the Suez Canal last week seemed more than ever a permanent casualty of the Arab-Israeli war. Even the brief hopes that 15 trapped freighters might finally be freed after eight months of captivity flickered rapidly away in a three-hour gun duel between Egyptian and Israeli forces. By the time the truce was restored by the U.N.'s blue-helmeted observers, the Egyptians had not only suspended their efforts to release the rusting ships but declared that they would do nothing at all to reopen the canal until...
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