A Jumble of Reactions

A mix of muted hope, anxiety and sharp anger

The Israelis may have been joyous at the White House, but at home they betrayed a certain ambiguity about the treaty. Some 70,000 sang and danced in Tel Aviv's Malkhei Yisrael Square on the night of the treaty signing, and similar festivities took place throughout the country. Still, the mood of the celebrations was more restrained than free spirited as Israelis looked ahead apprehensively to arduous negotiations with the Palestinians about how much autonomy their old enemies should have on the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip. And, as the Israelis realized, the hard-won peace with Egypt would not deliver them from the high taxes, the steepening inflation and the ever present army reserve requirements that they have faced in the past.

In the radical Arab states, the signing touched off mass demonstrations. Half a million Iraqis took to the streets of Baghdad, while demonstrators in Damascus carried black flags and banners denouncing the Egyptian "treason." In west Beirut, shops were closed in protest. In the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza, Palestinian residents went on strike, businesses were shut down for the day and schools were ordered closed for another week by the military government. Bethlehem Mayor Elias Freij declared the occasion "a day of shame for Begin, Sadat and Carter," and Ramallah Mayor Kharem Khalef called it "a day of mourning in the history of the Palestinian people."

Throughout the world, pro-Palestinian demonstrators conducted a campaign of violent protest. In Bangladesh, students stormed the Egyptian ambassador's residence and held him at gunpoint for eight hours. In Paris, a bomb exploded in a Jewish student restaurant, injuring 26, and two explosions in Israel killed one bystander and wounded 28. Still another bomb damaged the Israeli mission in Ankara. Even in Peking, a band Palestinian students marched on of the Egyptian embassy, smashed windows, tore down a portrait of Sadat and injured several Chinese soldiers.

In Western Europe, most governments applauded the signing. West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, no admirer of Jimmy Carter called it "an achievement of historic significance." But beneath the surface, Europeans worried about the treaty's consequences. The British feared that the treaty's vagueness over autonomy for the Palestinians could lead to an explosion within the Arab countries and seriously undermine moderate political forces there. The Common Market nations, which get 68% of their oil from the Middle East, gently tried to dissociate themselves from the treaty, fearing that open enthusiasm could make enemies among the Arab oil producers. Reported TIME Rome Bureau Chief Wilton Wynn: "There is a distinct lack of dancing in the streets here. Europeans don't want to be caught, along with Carter, on the Israeli-Egyptian end of the pole, with Arab oil on the other end."

Europeans--as well as Americans--had good reason to worry about what would happen to the supply, and price, of oil. Meeting in Geneva, the OPEC nations raised the price of crude oil by 9%--and that was the good news. The bad news was that they agreed to allow members to add whatever surcharges "they deem justifiable." Saudi Oil Minister Sheik Ahmed Zaki Yamani, who had argued in vain against the surcharge, predicted that the move could cause a "free-for-all" in the world oil market.

The Saudis also tried to play a moderating role, with only limited success, at the meeting of Arab states in Baghdad last week to discuss what action to take against Egypt, the U.S. or Israel after the treaty signing. Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud remained impassive as the P.L.O.'s Yasser Arafat argued for an economic boycott of both Egypt and the U.S. Declared Arafat: "l don't just want to cut off the tail of the snake, I want to crush its head. The U.S. is the head and Sadat the tail."

Prince Saud was even more incensed when Libyan Strongman Muammar Gaddafi, issuing a statement in Tripoli, denounced Sadat as a traitor and added that "the real cause" behind Sadat's behavior was "the hypocrites and chameleons who nurture treachery and finance it." That sounded like an attack on the Saudis, who are giving at least $1.5 billion a year in aid to prop up Egypt.

In the end, the Saudis, along with their moderate allies from Kuwait and the oil sheikdoms along the Persian Gulf, succumbed to radical pressure. They were able to head off a retaliatory program directed at the U.S. But after the P.L.O., Syria and Libya stalked out of the meeting to underscore their demands for drastic action against Sadat, the moderates joined in the unanimous approval of a political, diplomatic and economic boycott that will virtually expel Egypt from the Arab world.

Under the agreement, the countries will withdraw their ambassadors from Cairo and cut off diplomatic relations with Sadat's government. Egypt's membership in the Arab League will be suspended, and the organization's headquarters will be shifted from Cairo to Tunis. Technical and financial assistance to Egypt will be canceled. A ban on petroleum shipments to Egypt will be imposed. It was unclear, though, how all this would affect bilateral agreements like Saudi aid. In any case, it is likely that Arab heads of state will soon confer to determine exactly how the anti-Egyptian boycott will be carried out.

The immediate prospect for the Middle East is more Palestinian terrorism, more internal conflict within the P.L.O. and more pressure on the Arab moderates, notably Jordan's King Hussein, who is currently siding with Syria and the P.L.O. against Egypt. The only real solution to the region's prevailing instability lies in reaching some kind of settlement of the Palestinian problem in the West Bank and Gaza. But the negotiations toward that end, even if they eventually succeed, are certain to be slow and difficult.

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