Middle East: Gunfire over Galilee

Over the Sea of Galilee last week, Syrians and Israelis fought it out for the second time in a month.

The latest incident involved an Israeli patrol boat, which came within 150 yards of the Syrian seacoast town of Musadiye. According to Syria, the boat fired toward shore. According to Israel, the Syrians fired first. Either way a flock of Syrian MIG-17s and MIG-21s came flying in from one direction and Israeli Mirage-Ills from the other, and before the two sides stopped shooting, one MIG went into the drink and another crashed in Syrian territory.

Still smarting from the U.N. Security Council’s refusal to censure Israel for last month’s attack, Syria’s Foreign Minister Ibrahim Makhous warned that his country would no longer bother with complaints to the Security Council, would instead “reply to each Israel aggression mercilessly within the occupied [Israeli] area.”

Israel bagged another Arab MIG during the week—this one without firing a shot. After sending a note to the Israeli air force earlier this month, Iraqi air force Captain Mounir Rowfa, 30, flew his MIG-21 from Al Rashid Air Force Base near Baghdad to an undisclosed Israeli airbase, and gave the West its first closeup look at the Soviets’ 1,200-m.p.h. fighter. Rowfa claimed that he had been planning his defection for months because of religious discrimination (he is a Catholic) and Iraq’s war against the Kurds.