Assignment Cairo Recollections of a Reporter

Six days after arriving in Egypt on an Israeli Arkia aircraft, I left Cairo bound for London by British Airways. Was as sorry to leave Egypt as I had been pleased to arrive there on that historic first Israeli flight with fellow Jewish Telegraphic Agency reporter David Landau and scores of other Jerusalem-based journalists.

The warmth and affection with which Egyptians at all levels embraced their guests was overwhelming, making even the five-hour ordeal of the initial accreditation procedures bearable. Our hosts drew no distinction between Israeli reporters and correspondents of non-Israeli Jewish papers.

On my departure, elaborate security checks delayed the aircraftï¿??s departure by more than a half hour. The vigilance, caused by fear of terrorist attacks in protest at the Israeli-Egyptian peace talks, had been intensified following the mysterious murder of David Holden, a prominent British newspaperman, two weeks earlier.

SPECTACULAR SECURITY PERCAUTIONS

The Egyptian authorities had already expelled hundreds of Palestinian students. The most spectacular security precautions were near the Mena House Hotel, venue of the Israeli-Egyptian discussions, in the shadow of the Great pyramid, southwest of Cairo. The streets surrounding the hotel, as well as the nearby hotel where non-Israeli journalists were accommodated, were lined night and day by hundreds of fierce looking black helmeted police, carrying assault rifles and fixed bayonets.

More armed police sat in fox-holes behind the Great Pyramid. In addition, there were plainclothesmen, peasant militia guards and army officers at every check-point, forbidding entry to anyone without the necessary identity card. Low flying helicopters frequently clattered over the hotel and surroundings.

Nevertheless, Israeli and other journalists had little difficulty in traveling through Cairo unaccompanied. It was when they spoke to ordinary people in the streets that they realized the grassroots enthusiasm for President Anwar sadatï¿??s peace initiative.

The yong generation, which does not remember a Middle East without Israeli, really seems to accept her as a familiar and natural part of the region. However, everyone I spoke to insisted that the Palestinian problem must be solved in a way consistent with Arab, and therefore, Egyptian honor.

PRESSURE FOR PEACE

It is therefore premature to assert that the Israeli-Egyptian peace talks cannot fail and that the practical negotiations are a mere formality. There will also be very though bargaining over the details of Israeli withdrawal with Egypt initially insisting on total evacuation to the pre-1067 lines.

But the mood in Cairo indicated that Sadat is under at least as much pressure as the Israeli leader from his own population to bring about peace. The whole of Cairo is festooned with banners and placards praising Sadat as the hero of peace and welcoming the Mena House conference.

Although I saw no banners mentioning Israel by name, there is no doubting the Israelisï¿?? popularity there. The rapturous reception for the Israeli delegation outside the Adly Street Synagogue on Dec. 16 was a foretaste of what can happen if Sadat wins an ï¿??honorable peaceï¿?? and finally accompanies companies Premier Menachem Begin of Israel through the crowded streets of Cairo. That indeed is why Beginï¿??s Christmas Day talks took place in Ismailia well away from the Egyptian capital.

If Sadat is disappointed by Beginï¿??s peace offering, and calls his own peace initiative a failure, there will be less frustration among his people than if he and Begin had appeared together on the outskirts of Cairo itself.