Middle East Land for Peace?

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That planned voyage, called el awda (the return), was supposed to recall the experience of Jewish Holocaust survivors who sought to enter the port of Haifa in British-controlled Palestine aboard the refugee ship Exodus in 1947. The P.L.O. effort, several weeks in the planning, was basically a theatrical gesture. But it promised to be an effective public relations ploy and infuriated the Israelis, who vowed to prevent the ship's arrival in Haifa. About 18 hours after the killing of the Fatah trio, a magnetic mine attached below the waterline of the Sol Phryne exploded, causing no injuries but leaving a 3 1/2-ft. by 1 1/2-ft. gash that disabled the vessel and prompted the P.L.O. to postpone el awda indefinitely. Israel officially denied complicity in the car bombing but hardly bothered to conceal its role in disabling the ferry.

The fate of another voyage, Shultz's latest round of peace negotiations, remained almost as problematic. Though it has always been taken for granted that the U.S. would participate in the Arab-Israeli peace process when it resumed, Washington has spent years largely on the sidelines and will be playing catch-up ball for a time. As Shultz last week set out for Moscow, where he was to meet with Soviet officials before moving on to the Middle East, the Secretary professed to be unperturbed by Shamir's lack of enthusiasm or any other unfavorable Middle East portent. Said Shultz: "The thing is to get going at it."