362 • 18 WAR AND THE QUEST FOR PEACE
Policy Problems
New snags soon appeared. Israel was intensely suspicious of any conference
that the USSR would cochair with the US. Formerly, Kissinger's shuttle
diplomacy had kept Moscow out of the peacemaking process. Now Wash¬
ington seemed determined to invite the Soviets back in, embarrassing the
Israelis and even Sadat. Besides, the Arab states insisted on having Palestini¬
ans at the proposed meeting. If they were left out, some Palestinian group
or individual might try to block a process that was deciding their fate with¬
out consulting them. If they were included, would the PLO represent them,
in accordance with the 1974 Rabat summit resolution? Negotiating with
the PLO was totally unacceptable to Israel, which argued that Jordan was a
Palestinian state and that there was no need for another, especially one
whose covenant called for Israel's destruction. For their part, the Palestini¬
ans wanted the PLO to represent them, and all of the newly elected mayors
of West Bank towns backed the PLO. Few expected the PLO to recognize
Israel, but it wanted to speak for the Palestinians at the reconvened Geneva
Conference.
Political changes within Israel complicated Carter's plans. While his ad¬
ministration was seeking peace, Israel was holding a general election. The
Labor Alignment had been hurt by internal dissension between Prime
Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Defense Minister Shim'on Peres, government
scandals, galloping inflation, and mounting social problems. Israel's elec¬
torate turned against Labor. Some changed to a new party calling for peace
and major reforms, but more voted for the right-wing Likud. Its head,
Menachem Begin, managed to form a coalition with the National Religious
Party and thus became prime minister in 1977. For the first time, the post
was held by an Israeli not belonging to any of the labor parties. Begin's elec¬
tion seemed to be a giant step away from peace, as he hastened to assert that
the West Bank (which he called Judea and Samaria) was an integral part of
Eretz Israel (the Land of Israel) that had been liberated, not occupied, in
- Totally flouting the Fourth Geneva Convention, Begin urged Jews to
settle in strategic parts of that mainly Arab area. The Arabs called Begin a
terrorist; as former head of the Irgun, he had carried out the 1948 Dayr
Yasin massacre. It seemed unlikely that any Arab leader would talk to such a
chauvinistic Israeli. Yet, amazingly, there was one.
18 War and the Quest for Peace
Speaking before Egypt's Popular Assembly, Sadat declared that he was will¬
ing to go before the Israeli Knesset to argue his country's case for peace.
Questioned later by American television journalists, Begin said he would
