ZE'EV CHAFETS
Israel Correspondent
Despite the massacre,
Israeli leaders are apparent-
ly determined to go ahead
with plans to work toward
an Israeli- Palestinian
negotiation in Cairo. For
REUTER J im Hollande
T
el Aviv — In Israel,
when national tragedy
strikes, the radio
plays sad songs. The usual
fare of American soft rock
and Europop is replaced by
Hebrew ballads that evoke a
sense of solitude and
community in this bitterly
divided, deeply united coun-
try.
This week the sad songs
have been for the victims of
last week's terrorist attack
on a busload of Israeli
tourists, some 65 kilometers
north of Cairo. A white
Peugot 505 ran the bus off
the road and masked men
sprayed it with fire from
automatic weapons and
grenades. The massacre left
ten dead and 17 wounded,
making it the worst assault
on Israeli civilians in Egypt
since the two countries es-
tablished diplomatic rela-
tions in 1979.
On Monday morning, an
Israeli airforce Hercules
brought back the wounded.
As they were carried off the
plane on stretchers, wrapped
in army blankets, politi-
cians, pundits and ordinary
citizens were already trying
to make sense of the attack,
and to determine what it
will mean for peace efforts
and Israeli- Egyptian rela-
tions.
Credit for the attack was
claimed by the Islamic Jihad
Temple Division, the same
mysterious, extremist group
that took responsibility for
running an Israeli passenger
bus off a cliff last year and
setting fire to the Carmel
forest near Haifa. Observers
here believe that the group
had two targets: To under-
mine efforts to bring about
negotiations between Israel
and Palestinians, and to
strike at the anti-
fundamentalist regime of
Egyptian President Husni
Mubarak.
"The Egyptian officials
have cooperated with us to
the fullest extent," said
Israel's ambassador to
Cairo, Shimon Shamir.
"They know that we are in
the same boat on this. The
terrorist attack was against
us, but it was also against
the Egyptian government."
survivors
man with white bag, right, and woman in light sweater ____ are embraced by relatives upon return.
Will Massacre Slow
The Peace Process?
The attack on Israeli tourists in Egypt this
week was aimed at Palestinian negotiations
and the regime of Husni Mobarak.
eign Minister Moshe Arens
said that there was "no
reason to postpone" an up-
coming meeting in Washing-
ton with U.S. Secretary of
State James Baker and
Egyptian Foreign Minister
Ismat Abdul Magid. At that
meeting, modalities for the
Israeli-Palestinian con-
ference are to be discussed.
On February 7th, the Cen-
tral Committee of the Likud
was scheduled to hold an
emotional debate on
whether the party should
remain committed to talks
with the Palestinians. That
meeting has been postponed
because of the massacre, but
the hawkish wing of the
Likud , led by Commerce
and Industry Minister Ariel
Sharon, is already pointing
to the attack as an example
of the Arab unwillingness to
make and keep the peace.
"People who try to compare
what is happening in this
region with events in the
rest of the world should real-
ize that in the Middle East,
nothing has changed," said
Sharon.
On the other side of the po-
litical spectrum, doves called
"The terrorist
attack was against
us, but it was also
against the
Egyptian
government," said
Israel's
ambassador to
Cairo.
upon the government not to
give the terrorists a victory
by allowing the massacre to
delay diplomatic efforts. "It
is no accident that this
murderous attack took place
in Egypt, since Egypt is the
main country trying to lead
the way to peace," said a
statement by the Citizens
Rights Party. Minister of
Science and Technology Ezer
Weizman, who recently
caused an uproar by admit-
ting that he had met with of-
ficials of the PLO, compared
the peace process to a ship.
"The attack was like being
hit by a torpedo," he said.
"Now, the basic question is,
how do we keep sailing?"
Weizman and his fellow
doves also maintained that
the attack must not be
allowed to harm bilateral re-
lations. "Israel should work
to strengthen contacts with
Egypt, since the goal of the
terrorists was to weaken
them," said Labor's Minister
of Education Yitzhak
Navon.
Some hawks, on the other
hand, scored Egypt for fail-
ing to protect Israelis, or to
live up to parts of the Camp
David Accords. Likud Min-
ister David Levy, who is
allied with Ariel Sharon,
criticized President
Mubarak for the Egyptian
leader's chilly attitude
toward Israel in general and
the Likud in particular.
"I'm sorry that it took a
massacre to get Mubarak to
place a telephone call to
Prime Minister Yitzhak
Shamir," Levy said.
The right wing Tzomet
Party went farther, charging
that Cairo bears a share of
the guilt for the bus attack.
"The Egyptian government,
which has allowed brutal at-
tacks on Israel in its nation-
al media, cannot be absolved
of the responsibility for the
murder," said a Tzomet
spokesman.
Tzomet also called on
Israeli tourists to boycott
Egypt. Since the estab-
lishment of diplomatic rela-
tions in 1980, nine Israelis
have been murdered on
Egyptian soil. In October
1985, seven tourists, four of
them children, were shot to
death by a deranged Egyp-
tian soldier at Ras Burka in
the Sinai Peninsula.
"There is no reason to
travel to Sinai or to the rest
of Egypt," said Nimrod
Perry, whose ten year old
daughter was killed at Ras
Burka. "Going there is
crazy, and Israelis who do
have to understand that
they may have to pay with
their lives. There is a notion
here on the part of some poli-
ticians that tourism should
pave the way for peace, and
maybe it makes sense in
historical perspective, but
not for individuals."
Some Israelis apparently
agree. Following the inci-
dent, many travel agents
who book tours to Egypt re-
ported cancellations. On the
other hand, Avi Nissimoff,
who heads Israel's Egged
Bus Tourism division, re-
ported that on the day after
the attack, a group of 70
Israelis left for Cairo along
the same route used by the
ambushed bus.
Whatever their political or
practical reactions to the bus
massacre, most Israelis
believe that it will not be the
last such outrage.
"Terrorism is nothing new,"
said President Chaim Her-
zog. "It began with the
earliest Jewish settlement of
the land of Israel, and it has
followed us like a heavy
cloud ever since. Acts like
the bus massacre are carried
out by people who hate
Israel and despise peace." ❑
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
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