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Cairo's semiofficial newspaper Al Ahram had some extraordinary news for its readers last week. "The battle is still going on," it proclaimed. "Victory is ours." In Damascus, yellow sandbags were piled high around government buildings to protect them from attack, and signs on many walls promised: WE SHALL DESTROY THE ENEMY. The Arabs clamored for a change in the name of the American University in both Beirut and Cairo to Palestine University, and Algeria compiled a list of "pro-Zionist" movie stars—including Sophia Loren, Elizabeth Taylor and Harry Belafonte—and banned their films. On the banks of the Suez Canal, Egyptian commandos slipped across the canal nightly to harass the Israelis until finally, at week's end, they precipitated a pitched battle with Israeli forces.
Though it recently suffered one of the worst military defeats in modern history, the Arab world does not seem to have awakened to the reality. Instead of trying to salvage what they can, the Arabs are busy blaming just about everybody but themselves for the fact that great gobs of their territory lie in Israeli hands. They are irritated with Russia for suggesting that they will have to be more reasonable as a condition of more economic aid. They are dismayed as they listen day after day to Israeli politicians talk of imposing ever tougher terms for a settlement. They curse the U.S. and Britain.
Last week they reacted with deep bitterness to the United Nations' failure to pass any resolution asking for an Israeli pullout from the conquered territory. The Palestine Liberation Organization even suggested that the Arabs set up their own rival U.N. with Red China, and Damascus radio said: "To hell with the U.N." More than a month after the war had ended, none of this brought the Arabs any closer to solving their basic problem in the war's aftermath: how to come back from defeat and live with a stronger Israel that is clearly here to stay, whether they like it or not.
Privately Disgusted. Amid all the fantasies, delusions, threats and confusions, the most realistic—or least unreasonable—voice that emanated from the Arab world was that of Jordan's King Hussein, whose country fought the hardest and lost the most in the war against Israel. Hussein offered no alibis, made no excuses, used no intemperate language. He is privately disgusted at the postwar performance of his fellow Arabs: their invective, their whining—they considered it unfair of Israel to have used pilots who spoke Arabic to confuse their foes—and their wild threats to fight again tomorrow. "It is apparent," said Hussein, "that we have not yet learned well enough how to use the weapons of modern warfare."