Geneva recedes, and a U.S.-Israeli showdown looms
The Geneva Conference on Middle East peace, which was recessed in 1974, has since assumed the mystique of some diplomatic Camelot: in Geneva, some day, somehow, Israelis and Arabs will shake hands, sit down together and hammer out a permanent agreement ending 29 years of constant tension and frequent all-out war. That vision had taken hold in many capitals, notably Washington. But last week, as Secretary of State Cyrus Vance concluded his eleven-day swing through six Middle East states,* a Geneva Conference was clearly impossible by...