Israel’s Ambassador to Egypt, Eliahu Ben-Elissar, is getting the cold shoulder from Cairo’s diplomatic and social set in sharp contrast to the genuinely warm reception the Egyptian military has given a visiting Israeli General, Dan Shomron, commander of the southern front.
Shomron, who commanded the famous Entebbe rescue operation in July, 1976, is a member of a large Israeli military delegation headed by Deputy Defense Minister Mordechai Zipori. Today he was the guest of the Egyptian Second Army and its commander, Gen. Ibrahim el-Auodi, who was Shomron’s antagonist on the field of combat in the Yom Kippur War. Shomron became the first Israeli officer to visit on Egyptian army unit in field deployment.
Ben-Elissar, on the other hand, has had little social contact with Egyptians since he presented his credentials to President Anwar Sadat last month, according to Sami Greenspan, the Yediot Achron of correspondent in Cairo. Prime Minister Mustapho Khalil has not yet found time to receive him. He is not invited to parties and Egypt’s social elite refuse to meet with him beyond the minimum requirements of protocol, Greenspan reported.
According to Greenspan, Ambassador and Mrs. Ben-Elissar had to call off a party they planned to give this week when 15 prominent Egyptians declined their invitation. The invitees included junior officials, newspaper editors and literary figures.
Ben-Elissar has yet to be interviewed by a leading Cairo newspaper. Al Akhbar sent a reporter but the story has not appeared. Greenspan observed that the Egyptian press marked Ben-Elissar’s arrival in Cairo three weeks ago with a flurry of critical articles referring to the Israeli envoy’s hard-line statements on Jewish settlements in the occupied territories.
But the “social boycott” does not extend to the Egyptian man-in-the-street, Greenspan, himself a native of Cairo, reported. Wherever the envoy goes he is greeted with smiles, handshakes and even kisses for himself and his wife, Nitza.
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