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Not Negotiable. Given the despair and disrepair of the Arab world, there seems to be little chance that it will seek peace with Israel for some time to come, no matter how hard King Hussein urges such a course. Some Arab leaders are clearly interested—Tunisia's Habib Bourguiba has been talking about recognizing Israel for years—but as far as Hussein is concerned the ones who count most are the ones who did the fighting, and that unfortunately includes Nasser and the truculent Syrians. It has not quite sunk in yet that there will soon have to be a reckoning of the price of defeat; somehow, they seem to have hoped that the United Nations, or the Russians, or even their own refusal to admit defeat would save them from facing up to it.
All Arab leaders, Hussein included, demand that Israel withdraw from the conquered territory before any steps toward negotiation are taken, and most of them still refuse to sit down at the bargaining table with the Israelis no matter what. "Our minimum requirement," says Hussein, "is that there must be a return to conditions that existed before the 4th of June"—the day before the war started. That specifically includes the Old City of Jerusalem. "Jerusalem," says the King, in a phrase borrowed from Tel Aviv, "is not negotiable. If they do not give it up, we will have to take it away from them." Still, if Hussein got back the west bank, he might agree to go along with a plan to internationalize the Old City, as the Vatican is asking, if it comes down to a choice of that or continued Israeli con trol. Once the Israelis leave the occupied territory, says Hussein, "everything is negotiable."
Not an Inch. As it is now, Israel holds almost all the cards. There was once a time when the Israelis would have done almost anything to entice the Arabs to talk peace, but their terms have been getting tougher in the face of the Arabs' continued intransigence. Israel will not move back an inch, says the government, until the Arabs show their willingness to begin negotiating directly with it. Even then, the Israelis say that they will demand three irreducible conditions in any final peace settlement: Israeli retention of a united Jerusalem, free passage through the Gulf of Aqaba and the reopening of Egypt's Suez Canal to Israeli ships.