France's government-owned Renault Co., world's No. 6 automaker, last week canceled its contract with an Israeli firm to assemble its cars in Israel. Reason: fear of an Arab boycott. To the Israelis it was an old story, but a particularly galling example. Obviously De Gaulle's government had consented to the move, and Israelis thought they knew why: subordinating all else to an Algerian solution, De
Gaulle was doing all he could to mollify Arab states that might be useful intermediaries with the Algerian rebels. Events had moved a long way since France and Israel, out of common enmity toward Nasser,...