Abortive Peace Efforts • 337for the replacement of Israel with a secular, democratic, nonsectarian state
of Palestine.
Early in 1968 the Israel Defense Force, stung into retaliatory action by
Palestinian raids and bombings, attacked the Jordanian village of Karamah,
some 25 miles (40 km) west of Amman. Israel reportedly lost six jet fighters
and twelve tanks in the battle before both sides accepted a new cease-fire.
Many of Jordan's casualties were Palestinians from Fatah, whose role in re¬
sisting the IDF gave new luster to Arafat and his backers. Certainly Fatah
outshone the regular armies of Egypt, Syria, and Jordan. Young men in the
refugee camps and in many Arab cities and villages rallied to Fatah. Even
King Husayn announced, after an IDF raid across the Jordan River, "We are
allfidaiyin now." Foreign journalists flocked to interview Arafat and to visit
his training camps. Some, impressed by his zealous nationalism, extolled his
vision of a liberated Palestine that would be secular and democratic, a state
where Jews, Christians, and Muslims might live together in peace, in con¬
trast to the "unholy land" of Zionism (Israel). Skeptics asked whether any
existing Arab state was secular, democratic, or capable of preserving con¬
cord among the various religious groups living within its borders. The
Palestinians admitted that many Arab leaders were reactionary, bigoted per¬
haps, and tied to landholding or bourgeois class interests; but the fidaiyin
were young, well educated, and free from these ties to the past. Even though
some of these same reactionary and bourgeois groups were helping to fi¬
nance Fatah and the PLO, their aim of creating a secular democratic state in
Palestine was sincere, at least so long as they had no power.
ABORTIVE PEACE EFFORTSMeanwhile, Washington tried to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict in a dif¬
ferent way, through an accord among the major outside powers. President
Johnson, Secretary of State Dean Rusk, and other American officiais
hoped somehow to reach agreements with the Soviet leaders, as well as
with those of Britain and France. The US hoped that the USSR might in¬
fluence the leading Arab states, whereupon the Americans would use their
leverage on Israel, probably by selling or withholding advanced weapons,
to bring about a peace settlement based on Resolution 242. They hoped
the Soviets wanted to stop pouring weapons into Egypt, Syria, and Iraq,
arms that might never be paid for and that required large training mis¬
sions. In truth, Moscow sold mainly defensive arms to Egypt and Syria,
urging restraint on their governments. If Soviet forces used naval and air