News stories from Sunday November 20, 1977
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- A dismal economic outlook for the United States and other Western industrial countries was reported by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. A staff report prepared for a series of meetings of representatives of member countries in Paris this week says that failure faces the joint strategy agreed on at President Carter's summit meeting in London last May for restoring economic and political stability in the West. The area, the report says, will fall back toward recession next year, with growth rates declining and unemployment rising. [New York Times]
- Private meetings on energy legislation planned by congressional and other government officials this week are expected to make faster progress than five weeks of open conferences did. The main issues are the same: The price of new natural gas, whether the intrastate gas market should be federally regulated, and President Carter's proposed crude oil tax. [New York Times]
- The National Women's Conference overwhelmingly approved a strong and specific resolution on behalf of minority women's rights at a meeting in Houston attended by 2,000 state delegates. The resolution, a substitute for one that had been prepared on the minority women's rights issue by the National Commission on the International Women's Year, deals individually with problems faced by Hispanic, black, American Indian, Asian-American and Alaskan native women, as well as decrying the "double discrimination" against them. [New York Times]
- "Peace with justice," is sought by the Arabs, President Anwar Sadat of Egypt said in his address to the Israeli Parliament. This, he said, would depend on Israel's withdrawal from occupied Arab land, including East Jerusalem, and the recognition of the rights of the Palestinians. He pledged that a peace settlement would include the recognition of Israel's right to exist within secure boundaries. "If you want to live with us in this part of the world, in sincerity I tell you that we welcome you among us with all security and safety," he said. He was followed by Prime Minister Menachem Begin, who implicitly rejected the return of all the territories occupied in the 1967 war, and ignored the Palestinian issue entirely. [New York Times]
- President Carter reacted to President Sadat's and Prime Minister Begin's speeches with the observation that they had made "a contribution to the cause of peace." But it was apparent that the administration was concerned that Mr. Sadat might leave Israel without any visible change in either side's position. There was also concern that instead of advancing prospects for peace, Mr. Sadat's visit might backfire and increase tensions. [New York Times]
- President Sadat was accused by the Palestine Liberation Organization of a humiliating surrender before the Israeli Parliament and it called on Arab countries to subject him to "maximum sanctions and complete isolation." The Syrian-backed guerrilla organization Al Sa'iqa responded to Mr. Sadat's speech in Jerusalem by urging the Egyptian army to overthrow him and calling for his assassination. [New York Times]
- Greece's Prime Minister Constantine Caramanlis won a mandate from the voters to continue running the country, but his party's majority was sharply reduced. With 30 percent of the votes counted, it had 43 percent, enough for a majority in Parliament under the proportional representation system. The anti-Western Panhellenic Socialist Movement of Andreas Papandreou won second place in an upset over the party of George Mavros. [New York Times]