MIDDLE EAST: The Palestinians Become a Power

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President has been severely criticized by Arab radicals for his policy of seeking negotiations, and his relations with Kissinger may have become a little discouraging. Sadat can scarcely afford to get too far out in front of his Middle East allies. Small wonder that he cabled Kissinger last week to suggest an urgent meeting between them.

The Soviets had reason to be delighted. Kissinger has been able to shut them out of Middle East negotiations by holding talks bilaterally rather than at the formal Middle East peace conference in Geneva, to which Moscow is a party. But one implication of the Rabat decision is that the Arabs want the P.L.O. to be a participant in any peace conference.

Not that the Israelis are likely to go to Geneva to face the P.L.O. Declared Israel's afternoon daily Yediot Aharonot: "War in the region may be considered a danger of the very near future . . . The Geneva conference is dead." Hatzofeh, the daily newspaper of the National Religious Party, which last week agreed to join Premier Rabin's shaky, labor-dominated coalition government, headlined: THE ARABS HAVE OPTED FOR THE SWORD. A bit more calmly, government officials described the summit results as "not good" and negotiations "at an impasse." Rabin said: "There is no one to talk to about peace on the eastern borders. We will not negotiate with the terrorist organizations."

The Israeli frame of mind was not helped by the evidence that the commandos have not abandoned terrorism as a tactic. Just as the Rabat summit ended, three fedayeen were caught crossing into Israel from Lebanon; they were shot to death after an exchange of fire with Israeli soldiers. The Israelis reacted predictably by dispatching a fleet of small warships up the Mediterranean coast. The boats stood three miles offshore from a Palestinian refugee camp at Rashidiyeh in Lebanon and bombarded it, killing five Palestinians and injuring 20.

Wounded Wolves. Israeli fears about the future were magnified by the fact that Arafat was anything but gracious over the Rabat decision (see interview page 31). "Victory is close at hand," he told the summit session. "This enemy, this military gang [meaning Israel] is a pack of wounded wolves. They are preparing for a fifth war, and we must get ready for it." Syrians whom Washington constantly suspects of trying to sabotage the Kissinger peace negotiations echoed Arafat's warlike words. They indicated that Damascus would probably approve another six-month tour for United Nations troops that separate Syrians and Israelis along the Golan Heights. "We'll need six months to get ready, unless Israel agrees to withdraw from the Golan Heights," said one Syrian diplomat cryptically. At week's end there were reports in Jerusalem about an increased military buildup along the Heights.

To emphasize their hard front against Israel, delegates to the summit agreed on an annual military subsidy for Egypt, Syria and Jordan—the so-called Arab confrontation countries—as well as for the P.L.O. Saudi Arabia and other oil-rich nations will give Syria and Egypt $1 billion a year to spend on arms, while Hussein will get $300 million annually. The P.L.O. will receive $50 million a year—considerably more money for arms than most revolutionary organizations in recent times have had. Said one