Bounded by the Mediterranean and Red seas and the gulfs of Aqaba and Suez, the Sinai peninsula is a generally desolate stretch of sand dunes and granite mountains that is twice the size of Maryland. The desert is more hospitable to scorpions and camels than to men. Apart from Bedouins who wander the dunes and camp in the scattered oases, and soldiers who cautiously patrol old battlefields, Sinai's inhabitants hug the coastlines. Yet for all the peninsula's vast emptiness and apparent lack of natural wealth, Israel appears to be determined to hold on to a third of the 24,000-sq.-mi. area, which...
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