Page 4-Saturday, December 3, 1977-The Michigan Daily

Eighty-Eight Years of)
420 Maynard St., An
Vo. LXXXVIII, No. 71
Edited and managed by students a

Ot Why F
By IAN LUSTICK
CAIRO - Why has Etyptian President An-
n Arbor, Ml 48109 war Sadat risked his standing in the entire
Arab world to visit Israel?
News Phone: 764-0552 While the historic visit itself was con-
ceived only recently, it is fact climaxed a five-
t the University of Michigan year-old policy to turn Egypt away from an
unending military build-up for a new Mideast
war and towards massive economic develop-
ment of one of the poorest nations in the
Soworld.
CLOSELY LINKED to' this shift was
Sadat's policy to decouple Etypt from the
4o ONISoviet Union, once its chief arms supplier,
and link up with the United States, Israel's
chief ally.
Today, as a result of this two-pronged
campaign, Egypt has three inescapable vest-
iEb ed interests in lasting peace:
" Thanks to its repture with the Soviet
Union, Egypt is too weak militarily to wage a
new war with Israel.
" The area where Egypt has made its big-
gest economic effort - the Suez Canal and its
surrounding cities - would be the prime tar-
get in any new war.
" The Egyptian public for months has been
exposed to an intensive media campaign that
has transformed the rhetoric of internal and
foreign policies from themes of war to themes
of economic progress and peace with Israel.
The most indicative fact, Egypt's present
military weakness, is a direct result of Presi-
dent Sadat's 1972 decision to expel Soviet ad-
.~!,,visers and - just last year - to cancel
Egypt's "Treaty of Friendship" with the
U.S.S.R. The move was recently character-
ized by one high-ranking Egyptian official as
a calculated attempt to prove to the U.S. and
Israel that Egypt is not cntemplating war
and does not threaten Israeli security.
By so doing, this official added, Sadat
/ hopes to mobilize American support for a
peace agreement with Israel that would in-
clude return of the territories occupied in
June 1967.
"SADAT HAS BURNED his bridges to the
Soviet Union, but it is not correct to say that
he is stuck with the Americans. He has stuck
himself to the United States," the official
said.
Indeed, Egypt receives virtually no arms
or spare parts from the Russians at present.
Soviet advisers, technicians and bases are
gone.
Although Sadat is now turning toward
America and its Western European allies for
arms, he knows that Egypt cannot threaten a
major war against Israel unless its military
machine is rebuilt by the Soviet Union. For
to o risk y only the Soviets are capable, politically and
logistically, of resupplying Egypt in the midst
of a hot war with Israel.
this, every detail needs to be spelledI
out, and every safeguard taken to in- WITHOUT CONFIDENCE that immediate
sure the rights of all. replenishment of arms and ammunition is
Also lacking from the bill is any kind repeat of itsEattack sonOct., 93ntemplatea
of protection for innocent persons who.
might speak to the suspect under sur- Egypt's commitment to peace is also evi-
veillance on the bugged telephone. Are dencedby the enormous investment the coun-
suchto e cosidredtry is making in the reconstruction and de-
such persons to be considered guilty velopment of the Suez Canal area.
simply because they spoke to a suspec-
ted narcotics dealer? The three cities along the canal - Suez,
Ismailia and Port Said - were all but
But the even more frightening fault destroyed between 1967 and 1973. More than
of this bil is what it might lead to. If 500,000 bombs and mines in addition to a score
this bill succeeds, how long will it be of sunken ships blocked the canal, although
before some legislator proposes they have now been cleared away and the
wiretaps for gambling suspects, then canal is in full operation.
murder and larceny suspects and so MOST OF THE AREA'S more than half
on? Who knows where it will all end?
And how many innocent people will be
denied their right to privacy along the Editorials whic
way? sensus opinion of t
This bill represents a precedent thata
is simply too dangerous to set. The state

Senate should recognize the dangers,j mit them.
and vote against the measure.

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J

t
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f

rj
ypt fee
million inhabitants were forced to leave, but
since the 1973 war Egypt has invested over $1
billion of carefully accumulated development
funds in the rebuilding and repopulation of
this area.
Projects now underway and slated for
completion by 1980 will involve the expediture
of another $1.3 billion.
In Ismailia and Suez huge new housing
projects, complete with supermarkets, post
offices, schools and other facilities, have pro-
vided homes for the refugees and for thou-
sands of new residents. The attractive chis-
eled stone facades of "Feisal City" and
"Sabah City" in Suez and of "Sheik Zayat
City" in Ismailia stand in sharp contrast to

ds peace
of the Egyptian economy, because each of
these projects would most likely be destroyed
in the course of a new war.
AND THEY ARE, in effect, concrete sig-
nals to Israel that Egypt is ready for a per-
manent end to the state of belligerency.
This is clearly reflected in the fact that
Israel's annihilation is no longer used rhetori-
cally to inspire greater efforts or excuse
present hardships. Such slogans have been re-
placed by repeated and explicit references to
the signing of a peace agreement with Israel
following the return of the territories occu-
pied in June 1967.
Rather than generalized support for the
traditional Palestinian slogan of a single Arab

Wiretap lavw

FTHEIR ZEAL to see criminals con-
victed, police officers and legisla-
tors must be ever-conscious of the
rights of the innocent, which often get
lost in the shuffle.
Such is the case with a bill currently
before the Michigan state Senate that
would permit wiretapping in the stalk-
ing of major narcotics dealers. Al-
though, there are certain appealing as-
pects to the bill - more hard-drug pea-
dlers would be apprehended - the
potential dangers far outweigh the
good.
One significant problem is that wire-
- taps might be approved on the basis of
insufficient evidence. Although the bill
stipulates that any tap must be ap-
proved by the state attorney general
and at least two of the three members
of an appeals court, it sets no guidelines
as to what grounds are considered suf-
ficient to allow taps; the decision is left
up to the judge, and that could lead to
abuses. With a situation as delicate as

t
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f

the dreary pattern of public housing in other
parts of Egypt.
THE POPULATION of the canal area now
exceeds its pre-1967 level, and the waiting list
for entrance into the more than 85,000 new
and restored housing units averages about six
months.
Aside from housing, work is well under-
way on a series of tunnels that will pass un-
derneath the canal and link Egypt directly
with the Sinai peninsula. Oil refineries have
been put back in operation and new factories
of various kinds are being built to provide
employment for the area's new inhabitants.
All along the canal Japanese and British
technicians are supervising a huge dredging
operation designed to widen and deepen the
canal and allow it to be used by today's fleets
of supertankers. In the southern sector of the
canal alone this project involves the expendi-
ture of $320 million over a four-year period.
IN ADDITION to these undertakings a
"free zone" for commerce and investment
has been created in Port Said,aon the Mediter-
ranean endof the Suez Canal, and two others
are planned for Ismailia and Suez.
All in all, if the expansion of Egypt's oil
production in Sinai and in the Gulf of Suez is
included, Egypt's economic stake in con-
tinued peace with Israel is enormous.
Indeed, the importance of this activity far
exceeds its contribution to the strengthening

state in all of Palestine, Sadat's government
is emphatic in its call for a separate Pales-
tinian entity alongside Israel, to be linked in
some intimate but unspecified-way with Jor-
dan.
SADAT'S LENGTHY ADDRESS on the
25th anniversary of the Egyptian Revolution
in late July included not a single mention of
Israel. In the past such an occasion would
have been used to inflame the masses against
Israel and rally their support for another war.
Instead he dwelled on the correction of
what he said were political abuses by the late
Gamal Abdel Nasser, provided a description
of Egyptian economic accomplishments,
problems and plans, inveighed against the
Soviet Union and cirticized the Qaddafi
regime in Libya.
Overall, Sadat's political campaign has
meant that the prestige and reputations of
thousands of Egyptian politicians have
become attached to the drive toward a peace
settlement with Israel. Not only Sadat, but
these elites as well, thus have vested interests
in achieving peace and in demonstrating its
benefits.
Ian Lustick is assistant professor of
government at Dartmouth, where he
specializes in Mideast affairs. He is
author of an upcoming book on Arabs in
Israel, and is a frequent contributor to the
Pacific News Service.

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he Daily's editorial board. All other editorials,
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