News stories from Saturday November 19, 1977

Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:

A fanfare of trumpets, a military salute and a warm welcome from Israel's principal political leaders greeted President Anwar Sadat of Egypt when he arrived at Ben-Gurion International Airport in Israel for a historic visit. The highlight of his visit will be an address tomorrow before the Israeli Parliament on Middle East peace issues. [New York Times] Cairo seemed transfixed by President Sadat's mission to Israel. A sense of awe seemed to overcome a perplexity or anger at the idea of the President addressing the Parliament of a country with which the Egyptians are still technically at war. This awe, mixed with exhilaration, was apparent as the people of Cairo watched Mr. Sadat's arrival in Israel on television. [New York Times] Sadat's mission "is one of those historic events that cannot be permitted to fail," said former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in an interview in Washington. He had telephoned this weekend Prime Minister Begin and President Sadat. Nothing will be quite the same again in Middle East diplomacy, Mr. Kissinger said. [New York Times] The Arab world waited skeptically to see if President Sadat's visit to Israel would produce any gains for the Arab cause, particularly concessions on the Palestinian question. In Arab eyes Mr. Sadat has put his position of leadership on the line. "Nobody can forgive the biggest Arab leader for meeting the biggest Zionist terrorist," unless he brings back a Palestinian state, said a Palestinian at a demonstration in Beirut against the visit. [New York Times] Rosalynn Carter, Betty Ford and Lady Bird Johnson led thousands of American women who brought their battle for equality to Houston where they met to establish a national agenda on issues affecting their health, homes, jobs and institutions. The 2,000 delegates to the National Women's Conference expect to leave Houston this week with a national plan of action to present to President Carter and Congress. Mrs. Carter said she had been sent as a "personal emissary" by the President. [New York Times] Eavesdropping on American telephones will be made more difficult for the Soviet Union, other nations or businesses under a directive approved by President Carter. Federal research on how to improve telephone security will be increased. Virtually all government telephone messages in Washington, New York and San Francisco are being routed through underground cables and private industry is being encouraged to develop and use more secure telephone equipment. [New York Times] Racially integrated schools in New York City is a dream that has been largely abandoned even by desegregationists more than 20 years after their efforts were begun. Segregation has become entrenched -- nearly half the city's schools are more than 90 percent non-white -- and the causes are said to range from neighborhood housing patterns to ineffective government policy, from economics to racism. The school hierarchy believes that there "aren't enough whites" to make integration effective. [New York Times]