Of all the territories seized by the Israelis during the six-day war, the one that lends itself most to negotiation is Jordan's West Bank. The vast majority of its 900,000 Arabs remained there instead of fleeing, and the land they live on is fertile enough to support them. Moreover, many among them are not only capable of, but desirous of, coming to terms with Israel. Since the West Bank was part of Palestine for much longer than it has been part of Jordan, its people have neither a deep loyalty to the Hashemite kingdom of Jordan nor a consuming hatred of Israel.
Until the war, their cause and that of the other Palestinian Arabs scattered through the Middle East had been led by Ahmed Shukairy, the leftist, demagogic boss of the Palestine Liberation Organization. But Shukairy, who fled from the front even before the first shots were fired, was so thoroughly discredited that Palestinians no longer want anything to do with him, and the Arab states have cut off the P.L.O.'s $15 million yearly subsidy. Shukairy's fall created a vacuum of leadership, which is now being filled by West Bank Arabs who hope to get the best deal they can from Israel.
Call for Peace. The new leaders are the mayors and politicians who remained in their posts when the Israelis marched in. Where Shukairy had been fanatic, they are pragmatic. Where Shukairy had depended on other Arab states to "drive the Israelis into the sea," the new men call for a purely "Palestine initiative"—the essence of which is to make an acceptable peace with Israel. "The Israelis have all along offered the Arab states peace," says Aziz Shihadeh, 50, a lawyer in the occupied town of Ramallah. "They have been offering it to the wrong people. We, the Palestinians, are the only ones who can negotiate."
Most active of the new pragmatists is Sheik Mohammed Ali Ja'abari, 60, the mayor of the ancient city of Hebron in the hills southwest of Jeru salem. A former Minister of Justice under Jordan's King Hussein, Ja'abari has spent the past two weeks trying to organize a conference of prominent Palestinians to determine just what form peace negotiations should take, and what they should lead to. His compatriots still disagree about whether to hold out for full independence, try to become part of Jordan again or accept Israeli citizenship in return for full local autonomy and Israeli economic aid. No date has yet been set for the conference, but Ja'abari expects it to appoint an Arab Palestinian to begin negotiations with the Israeli authorities.