A BLEAK PROSPECT

Ever since the adoption of Security Council Resolution 242 in November 1967 - the first serious attempt since 1948 to establish a framework for the settlement of the Arab Israeli conflict - all peace initiatives have been punctuated by long ritual pauses to take account of elections in the United States and in Israel. It has become conventional wisdom that it is no use expecting American or Israeli Administrations to respond to international pressures or themselves to adopt enlightened policies while they are wrestling with their recalcitrant domestic constituencies, be it in the apparently interminable preliminaries to American presidential or mid-term elections or in general elections in Israel.