The Mood in Cairo

...During a visit in late January, Faisal gave Egypt a gift of $100 million to purchase needed foodstuffs...

...They insist, however, on the return of their land...

...The following recently made the rounds: A worker seized Sadat by the arm while he was walking through the streets, showing himself to the masses...

...He sees no insoluble problems between Egypt and Israel, and stresses Egypt's urgent need to tackle its economic difficulties...

...Professor M., young, urbane, Western-educated, widely published abroad, talks quietly and knowledgeably about the subject...

...He contends that the Arab governments whittled the Palestinian issue down to size at last October's Rabat summit conference by recognizing the Palestine Liberation Organization as the representative of the incipient Palestinian state...

...The streets of Cairo are filled with men Egyptians' inherent fatalism, ex-in uniform...

...Egyptians say the October War was something special for the Arabs: "For the first time in centuries, we looked at the backs of our enemies...

...Although Sadat tried to disengage himself, the man held on until Sadat agreed to help...

...Pressed a bit more, Professor M. states that U.S...

...Dr...

...Political jokes, bitterly anti-Nasser and mockingly anti-Sadat, had been the staples of any conversation before the October War...

...Nevertheless they want to go to America...

...University professors are generally anxious to exchange views with their Western counterparts...

...For him, it is an "alien implantation" that will never be accepted as part of the Middle East until it becomes less Western and more Eastern...

...The obvious bureaucratic corruption here also comes as a shock to Western businessmen...

...No Egyptian could participate without the government's official sanction, they declare, and even if it were interested, the government could not support such a direct exchange without approval from the Palestinians and the other Arab regimes...

...They then proceeded to the nearest government food shop, where the President said to the store manager: "Give me some sugar...

...The euphoria of the immediate post-October War period has been punctured by rising prices, shortages, disappointment over the slow trickle of foreign investment capital, and uncertainty over the future...

...W. is a respected government official with many achievements to his credit in the field of social policy...

...Mafeesh...

...support for Israel is not simply a result of domestic pressures but also a part of the American strategy to forestall the rise of a unified "Arab nation...

...Faisal, one is told, does not want to build up Egypt, fearing it might try once again, as it did under Gamal Abdel Nasser, to topple the Arabian monarchy and establish itself as the leader of the Arab world...

...Give me some tea...

...The Palestinians may be weak, but they are 'the spoilers...

...W. observes, "Sadat knows that unless there is peace, Egypt cannot hope to attract Arab or Western capital on a scale which holds out hope for the country's economic and social development...

...Iran, on the other hand, would like to offset its Persian Gulf neighbor, Saudi Arabia, with a strong Egypt, and to see the center of Arab power in Cairo, not Riyadh...

...Moreover, he says, the Egyptian leader cannot be secure in power as long as the Palestinian question festers...

...He goes on, however, to say that real peace can develop only when Israel drops its religious character and becomes a secular state...

...Uncertain about the future, Mrs...

...Mafeesh...

...Yet he emphasizes that Sadat cannot make peace alone, independent of the other Arab governments...

...Nonetheless, when asked about the possibility of their participating in a Pugwash-type meeting-informal, anonymous and unpublicized-they draw back...

...no lasting settlement is possible without them...

...My young son will soon be of school age," she says, "and good schools are few in number...

...So the Saudis are prepared to subsidize a war with Israel, but not industrialization or reconstruction of the canal cities, preferring an Egypt that is impoverished and dependent...

...They are also unwilling to invest unless they can control the labor supply in the free-trade zones that are to be set up around Port Said and the other canal cities...

...In exasperation, Sadat turned to the worker and asked: "Tell me, exactly how do you manage to spend your $30...

...For the first time, he declares, the Arabs seem ready to accept the existence of Israel...

...But with economic expectations unfulfilled, political lines hardening and arms levels rising, they claim to see the growth of another pre-October 1973 situation-untenable and explosive...

...That is his dilemma...

...Alvin Z. Rubinstein, professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania, has recently returned from a journey to Egypt...

...Informed that the Russians and Chinese met under similar circumstances in the '50's and '60's, the professors shrug and insist the Mideast is different...

...But our Arab brethren are tightfisted when it comes to sharing their unearned wealth with us...

...By law, Egyptians have virtual immunity from being fixed, a condition that gives pause to anyone interested in efficient operations...

...Rich Arabs build luxury apartment houses in Cairo, but invest most of their wealth in the West...

...Conversations in this city invariably come to a hurdle that seems insurmountable: how to devise a real peace with Israel and not merely a breathing space...

...Both are well-educated and hard-working...

...On the other hand," Dr...

...Mafeesh...

...There is none...

...Hotels are packed with tourists, and with businessmen hungry for contracts but hesitant to commit themselves for fear of another war...

...Educated Egyptians say they bear little animus toward the Israelis, and, indeed, their caustic comments these days are reserved for Saudi Arabia's King Faisal and the Persian Gulf sheiks: "We fought, lost thousands of lives, and by so doing made it possible for them to quadruple the price of oil and become fantastically rich overnight-without lifting a finger...

...H. and her husband are planning to emigrate...

...Basically, President Anwar el-Sadat's economic liberalization has benefited only the middle class-the technocrats, intelligentsia, businessmen, and propertied stratum, who enjoy their affluence with far fewer constraints than during the Nasser era...

...The man praised the President for leading Egypt to victory, but complained that it was impossible for him to go on any longer-he earned $30 a month, had a wife and six children to feed, and was desperate...

...They are not eager for another round of fighting, agreeing that the main losers would be Egypt and Israel...

...Mafeesh...

...The government, concerned about labor unrest, is reluctant to change the statute-one of the hallmarks of Nasser's Socialism...

...To an American, tre pressed with a certain nonchalence, is maddeningly frustrating...

...Egypt has too many people and too few possibilities...

...Egyptians note that this is a "pittance" compared with the $1 billion credit the Shah of Iran-no Arab-left after his January visit...

...And they agree, in principle, that a dialogue between Israeli and Arab intellectuals would be a step toward establishing a network of communications on various problems...

...Although Egypt remains a tightly controlled society, Cairenes talk more openly than before the October War about the various dimensions of the Middle East tangle...

...Now they are rare, and tend to focus on economic woes...

...Give me some rice...

...The pressure grows each year...

...they have their own apartment, a car and most of the luxuries that comprise a good life in Egypt...

...If no one believes that a renewal of hostilities is in the country's interest, neither does anyone feel it can be prevented...

...Give me some cooking oil...

...Times are getting harder and it is increasingly difficult to manage on what one earns, or even on what two earn...