Al Ahram Says Clash with Israel Inevitable

Al Ahram, the authoritative Cairo newspaper, will say tomorrow that the scheduled establishment of the federation of Egypt, Libya and Syria comes at a time when another military clash with Israel has become inevitable, according to a dispatch received here from Egypt’s Middle East News Agency. The influential editor of Al Ahram, Mohammed Hassanein Heykal, writes in a commentary that the “forthcoming battle” with Israel will come about in four successive steps: “Diagnosing the stage, defining the possible tasks of this stage, formulating the strategy to achieve the objectives of this stage, and finally setting the practical lines and specifying the responsibilities which will guarantee accurate and complete implementation.” Heykal said the Middle East was now in a state of “controlled tension”–a situation in which “we definitely have no interest.” Egypt, he continued, “may be the only party whose interests are harmed by it,” while Israel “has an interest” in it because “this is better than peace, which it will not obtain on its own terms.” The United States, Heykal contended, also has “an interest” in a tense Mideast, because “even if it cannot find a U.S. solution to the crisis it certainly does not want war to be the alternative.”

Mideast observers here saw in the reported Heykal commentary an Egyptian attempt to attribute to the U.S. and Israel a position that the Soviet Union is believed to desire. It is widely believed that the Kremlin wants “controlled tension” in the Mideast in order to further its own interests there. Observers also felt that Heykal was seeking to play down the possibility of Egypt’s shooting across the Suez Canal in the near future and breaking the de facto cease-fire. But the possibility of Egypt’s being vague and yet threatening, as a psychological tactic, was not ruled out by observers. Last Friday, Heykal reported that Egyptian President Anwar Sadat had set Monday as the “final date” for settling the impasse with Israel, but that day came and went without distinction. (In Damascus, Syria, last night, the final round of top-level talks on the proposed Arab federation opened with a 90-minute meeting of Sadat, Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi of Libya and Premier Hafez al-Assad of Syria. The latter remarked: “The Arab masses are attaching strong hopes to this great, historic meeting. They aspire for a strong Arab nation.” Observers in Israel said that the federation will not pose a more significant military threat to Israel than the three separate countries do now, and that the primary advantage of the federation to the Arabs will be of a psychological nature.)