The US effort to mediate an Arab-Israeli settlement by indirect negotiations failed, as it to go directly to the root of the problem, this was what was preventing peace. Firstly, Israel feared attack and even extinction by the Arabs whereas the Arabs feared the expansionist ideology of the Israelis'. Israel would not give up or risk its security by making concessions that would have only been matched by a few if any Arab states. Israel would not concede all or part of the Sinai, only to find for example there had been a coup in Egypt by militant officers, who sort to destroy Israel, and had gained the upper hand. Another example is that, if Israel withdrew from the West Bank, giving control to Jordan, only to find power did not revert to Jordan, instead to a small Palestinian authority that was hostile towards Israel. Israel was not prepared to take such chances, as they saw it.
During the 1960s the Arabs and Israelis would not be open to negotiations with each other.
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