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Essential to French success in Algeria is destroying the F.L.N.'s prestige. The recent rebel decision to "increase mobility" by cutting down the size of its units was widely interpreted in Algeria as a sign that the F.L.N. was in trouble. F.L.N. Colonel Si Nasser retorted that "however determined [French] operational forces may be, they must first make contact with us and force us to fight." The French point happily to the defensive tone of "force us to fight." In an effort to isolate the rebels, the French have increased their artillery firepower along the Tunisian border to the point where it is almost impossible for the rebels to get supplies and men across without enormous losses.
So many times did previous French officials overoptimistically declare that the war was in its "last quarter-hour" that now, when optimism is plainly more justified, it is more soberly put. But time is proving De Gaulle's greatest ally in Algeria. Faced with increasing military pressure and declining Moslem support, the F.L.N. seems uncertain whether to respond with heightened terrorism or to try political persuasion of its own. With fanfare this week, the rebels released a young Frenchwoman, Marie-José Serio, whose mother had made a direct appeal to the F.L.N.'s sense of humanity. But at the same time, they shot dead a captured Moslem whose sister-in-law, Rebahi Khebtani, is one of the three new Moslem women Deputies in the French Assembly. She was unaware of the shooting as she rose in the Assembly in Paris that evening, but her personal tragedy made her remarks all the more eloquent of the change in Algeria: "A year ago I still wore the veil. It is true that thousands of us joined the maquis, and others helped them. But it was because there had been a series of faked elections, because the Moslems lacked everything: schools, hospitals, maternity centers. It was Papa's Algeria, with its parade of corruptions. I am one of those who never despaired in France, in De Gaulle who restored our confidence . . ."