ABSTRACT
The Geneva peace conference opened on December 21 in an atmosphere of cautious optimism. Any discussion of the current prospects for peace between Israel and the Arab countries has to begin by rehearsing the history of the Middle East between the Six-Day War of June 1967 and the Yom Kippur War of October 1973. Efforts to reach a peace settlement in those seven years were protracted, highly complicated, and ultimately futile. After the 1967 defeat, Arab opinion, broken and dispirited, was ready to conclude peace at any price. With regard to Egypt in particular a peace conference may have been long overdue. The prospect of an imposed settlement by the superpowers to the detriment of Israel raises the specter of the infamous Munich conference of 1938. Egypt has assured its Arab allies that it will under no circumstances make peace with Israel unless Israel withdraws from all occupied Arab territories and unless the national rights of the Palestinians are restored.
