Middle East: A Bitter Exchange

MIDDLE EAST

“Revenge this!”

The cry broke out in an angry crowd surrounding Israeli Chief of Staff Yitzhak Rabin in Jerusalem, and it thundered across Israel like the wrath of Jehovah. The talk in the streets and in newspaper editorials was of vengeance, and Israeli leaders promised to wreak it. A 2,500-ton Israeli destroyer had been sunk by Egyptian rockets, with the loss of 49 lives, and there was no doubt in either Egypt or Israel—or, for that matter, anywhere else—that retaliation was not far behind. The only questions were when, where and how much.

Extraordinary Accuracy. The answers were quickly delivered, in the biggest outbreak of violence since the end of the war. Less than 67 hours after the destroyer Elath went down, Israeli gunners opened up from positions on the west bank of the Suez Canal. Their weapons were heavy mortars, their tactics a technique known as a rolling barrage, their target Port Suez—and the refineries that produce all of Egypt’s cooking and heating gas and 80% of its oil.

The attack began with a few rounds on the city of Suez itself. Then, with extraordinary accuracy, the Israelis zeroed in on the $30 million Nasr (Victory) Oil Co. refinery two miles inland, and the equally important Suez Oil Processing Co. another mile behind. Apparently operating from blueprints, they lobbed shell after shell into the two major plants, hitting their oil storage tanks, pipeline complexes and coking and cracking units with every incoming shell. U.N. truce supervisors immediately appealed for a ceasefire, but the Israelis ignored them. A second appeal was referred to Jerusalem, where the government pleaded ”technical difficulties” in contacting the mortar units at the front.

When the firing finally stopped, after three hours and eleven minutes, Egypt had only one small oil refinery left—in Alexandria, 175 miles away. The two Suez plants were virtually demolished. Fireballs from exploding oil tanks could be seen 25 miles away, their light turning the desert night into vivid day for a radius of five miles around, their heat felt half a mile away. Egypt, its economy already in ruins as a result of the June war, had been dealt a staggering blow.

Green Flash. Such was Israel’s answer to the sinking of the Elath—an act that had given Egypt particular, if short-lived, pleasure. For more than a day, the destroyer had been zigzagging back and forth in the bay of Romani, a niche in the Mediterranean at the entrance to the Suez Canal. In the knowledge that it was being tracked by radar from nearby Port Said, it alternately sped up and slowed down, darted from time to time into Egyptian territorial waters and then backed out again. It did almost everything but stick out its tongue.

The Elath was no stranger to the Egyptians. On July 12—a month after the war had ended—she had sunk two Egyptian torpedo boats in a battle in precisely the same waters. Her appearance again made the Egyptians nervous. On the direct orders of Gamal Abdel Nasser, two more torpedo boats roared out of Port Said harbor to give battle. Each of them was armed with four Russian-made Styx missiles, self-guiding naval weapons that have been in Egypt’s arsenal for four years. Within 20 minutes, the boats had the destroyer in sight. It was 5:26 p.m., and the sun hung orange in the west. Aboard the Elath, sailors on deck saw a green flash of light and then the white trail of a missile streaking toward them. They tried to shoot it down with machine guns while the ship made a sharp and desperate turn to get out of its path; the missile followed the turn and slammed into the Elath amidships. A second missile destroyed the engine room.

Paralyzed and on fire, the destroyer radioed for help, but before it could arrive the Egyptians launched two more rockets. The Elath, biggest and best warship in the tiny Israeli navy, went down shortly after 8 p.m. It was the only notable military defeat that Israel has suffered in 22 years of fighting with the Arabs.

The Arab world, long humiliated and starving for any kind of victory over Israel, reacted with nervous jubilation. Crowds gathered at the docks in Port Said to cheer the returning torpedo boats, and Nasser ordered their crews decorated “in appreciation of their gallantry.” The Jordanian newspaper Al Destour crowed that “there is nothing more splendid than victory over a cunning enemy.” Editorialized Beirut’s Al Moharrer: “We can now say that the Israel army is going to suffer a defeat that will make the world forget the Arab defeat of last June.” But in Cairo, the virtually official newspaper Al Ahram did anything but crow over the attack. “There is certain to be retaliation,” it warned.

Unprepared & Impotent. The sinking of the Elath and the shelling of Port Suez were by far the bloodiest disruptions of the cease-fire gained by the U.N. Security Council last June. As usual, the Security Council was caught unprepared and appeared impotent: called into emergency session, it spent 30 hours arguing and consulting before it could agree on a resolution that did nothing but call on Egypt and Israel to “cease immediately” all firing. By then, the firing had long since ceased.

The council did, however, agree in principle to an appeal by Secretary-General U Thant for an increase in the pitifully small U.N. truce-supervision team that operates along the canal. Subject to final approval by Russia—which sent seven warships on a “courtesy call” to Egyptian ports to dissuade Israel from further attack—the number of U.N. observers will be raised from 43 to 90, their outposts will be doubled in number and they will be allotted four helicopters and four patrol boats to allow them to investigate truce infractions at sea.

All this, of course, will not bring peace. Despite the insistence of Israel and most Arab states that they are ready for some sort of settlement, the latest exchange of destruction was proof that the temper of the disputants remains hostile and obdurate.