ABSTRACT
The minister was ready to admit that these riches risked becoming a source of embarrassment in the future. This dialogue, which is neither fictive nor symbolic, is an indication of predicament. Leaders and opinion alike are finding it hard fully to grasp what has taken place and what has happened to them. Arabs and Jews are both Semites, made to live at one and not to fight, still less to rally to opposing camps confronting one another on a world scale, who subordinate the interests of the Middle East to external interests and to the mathematics of a global diplomacy. Many are acquainted with Arab civilization, all dream of restoring peace, but for them the Arabs will still be 'the others' for a long time to come. The Israeli authorities are striving less to recruit collaborators than to urge Palestinians to administer themselves. The Sinai desert is the most favourable battlefield for Israeli army, the most dangerous for Egyptian army.
