MIDDLE EAST: Seeking a Settlement

Having won peaceful assurances from the leading Middle East antagonists, Egypt and Israel, U.N. Peacemaker Dag Hammarskjold continued his circling of Israel's troubled borders. Discreet in public utterance, candid in private negotiation, he sought to win cease-fire agreements from Syria, Lebanon and Jordan. As he flew to Cairo at week's end for further talk with Egypt's Gamal Abdel Nasser, it appeared that an armistice may be the best that Hammarskjold can get, though a settlement is what he hopes for, with a stable peace a more-distant dream.

Led by Syria, Israel's northern and eastern neighbors insisted on qualifying their armistice pledge:...