World: THE PAINFUL PRESIDENCY OF EGYPT'S NASSER

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eventually would force the Arabs to come to their own terms. It is a hubris that they have earned by successive conquests of arms, and it envisions the downfall of Nasser, long their most implacable enemy, as part of the final process. It may be a shortsighted view: there is no surer way to a lasting truce than forging it with the strongest of one's opponents.

Nasser remains that—the only man who can make peace for all the Arabs and who as well can just possibly curb the fedayeen before it is too late. He too still nourishes his myths and his illusions, but the lessons of Israel's prowess have not been lost on him. Given a protective push from the big powers, and a little give from the Israelis, Gamal Abdel Nasser might yet provide Israel—and the world—with the means to a Middle East solution.