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"Whatever they may say in Tripoli," reported TIME Correspondent William Stewart, "the mood in Cairo is still upbeat. Last week Sadat told a visiting delegation of 50 Bedouin chiefs from Sinai that during next year's Feast of Sacrifice, "we shall pray together in the heart of Sinai—there will be no more defeats, no going back. I shall pursue this call for peace.' (During this year's feast, Sadat prayed at Jerusalem's Al Aqsa mosque.) Sadat's office is inundated with pledges of support from around the country. In the streets of Cairo, in restaurants and hotels, Egyptians speak openly and warmly about his quest for peace. Sadat's mission is popular, and he knows it. The President, moreover, remains convinced that other Arab leaders will see the light. Tahsin Bashir, Egyptian Ambassador to the Arab League, last week told an audience at the American University in Cairo: 'Other forces in the Arab world will gradually, perhaps reluctantly, also take risks to free themselves from dogma. What he [Sadat] has done is irreversible.' "
Other than declaring that it will send delegates to the Cairo summit, Israel has not indicated its next moves. Privately, many Israeli officials were delighted by what they believed was U.S. discomfiture at the rapid pace of developments and by a muting of Washington's role as mediator. The Israelis suspect that the new direct contacts between Cairo and Jerusalem make them less susceptible to pressure from Washington to negotiate on what they consider to be unfavorable terms at Geneva.
Some Israelis, in this period of national exhilaration, were already speculating about what only a few weeks ago would have been totally impossible dreams: a peace treaty involving Egypt, Jordan and Israel that would shut out the P.L.O.; perhaps even a new economic and political alliance in the Middle East that would unite Egypt's markets and manpower, Israel's expertise and technology and Saudi Arabia's oil money. Curiously, the Syrians also had the same dream—but in the form of a nightmare. Last week Damascus officials were worried that a peace agreement might lead to a predatory kind of Zionist expansionism, with Israel seeking Middle East markets for consumer goods produced by cheap Arab labor.
Whatever thoughts he might have had privately, Begin in his public statements did little to encourage the dreamers. During a Knesset debate last week over the proposed Cairo summit, he took a hard line on territorial concessions in exchange for peace. Said Begin: "We do not accept the demand for June 4, 1967, lines [referring to Arab insistence that Israel surrender land captured during the Six-Day War], nor the demands for the establishment of a so-called Palestinian state, nor the repartition of Jerusalem." Begin also took a passing swipe at Israelis who feel his government owes Sadat some concrete token of friendship. "There is no doubt," the Premier observed, "that the greatest achievement is that we really said seriously to each other, 'No more war.' "