(10 of 10)
In the Middle East, political prospects are always hazardous to predict. Nonetheless, cabled TIME Correspondent Gavin Scott from Cairo: "As long as diplomacy remains credible to Egyptians, Sadat's authority will remain unchallenged. His turn to the West, balanced by effusive May Day thanks to the Kremlin and motions toward Arab federation, is highly popular. Educated Egyptians have no taste for falling under the political influence of Moscow. Tentative as they are, the signs of rapprochement with Washington are gratifying." Now it remains to be seen whether Sadat will give Washington comparable cause for gratification by sincerely pressing the pursuit of peace.
* Egypt's Arab character actually is limited, even though the country's official language is Arabic and its formal religion Islam. Bedouin Arabs constitute a sizable minority, but so do Copts and Nubians. Ethnically the predominant Egyptian is a Mediterranean rather than Arabian man, and he has changed surprisingly little since pharaonic times.