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Washington is also annoyed with Israel for waging a vigorous campaign against the U.S.-Russian talks aimed at achieving a proposal for a settlement. As it happens, the talks so far have been totally futile. Next week U.S. Secretary of State William Rogers and Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko, due in New York for the opening of the U.N. General Assembly, are scheduled to meet to discuss the Middle East. Even if Washington and Moscow were to devise a peace formula, Israel steadfastly refuses to recognize any settlements arranged by outside parties. "Tell Washington that we will never go along with this," Mrs. Meir says. For its part, Israel would like Washington to pressure Moscow to talk the Arabs into meeting Israel across a table. But the Arabs refuse until their territories are returned—and would probably still refuse even if Israel were to comply.
Shopping for Weapons
With the outlook for peace bleak, Mrs. Meir will visit the U.S. next week —at the same time that Nasser will be in Moscow, ostensibly for a medical examination. Her principal reason for coming is to call at the White House with a shopping list of U.S. weapons. Israel's government negotiated almost three years ago for the purchase of 50 Mirage fighters from the French, only to have Charles de Gaulle personally embargo the deal. Initially, it was expected that the new Pompidou government would lift the embargo, but apparently it intends to maintain it.
Deprived of the French jets, Israel worked out a deal to purchase 50 F-4 Phantoms from the U.S. The first of the planes began arriving two weeks ago —much to the anger of the Arabs. Arguing that the only way to preserve peace in the Middle East is to make certain that Israel is stronger than the Arabs, Mrs. Meir plans to ask Nixon for another 25 Phantoms, some A-4 Skyhawks and more Hawk ground-to-air missiles. It may take some time, but the State Department and Pentagon are expected to approve the request.
With or without the additional planes, Israel is certain to step up its anticipatory counterattacks, particularly to relieve the pressure on the so-called Bar-Lev defense line near the Suez Canal. One object of last week's raid, for example, was to provoke Nasser into shifting southward some of the 80,000 men he has along the canal, but he is unlikely to do so. Thus more Israeli attacks can be expected south of Suez. Eventually, the Israelis might also bomb the big industrial center of Helwan, 15 miles south of Cairo, where they could inflict damage to Nasser's economy without hitting population centers. The Israelis do not want to gobble up more Arab land. "Our strategy is not to cross the Suez Canal and head for Cairo," says Dayan. "It calls for holding the Jordan River line, but not for occupying Amman, Damascus or Beirut."
It has been said