Head of Egyptian Pro-peace Group Says Ties with Israel Will Continue After the Return of Sinai

The head of an unusual all-Egyptian group dedicated to fostering closer ties between Egypt and Israel told the executive committee of the American Jewish Congress he expects to see growing normalization between the two countries after the return of the Sinai next April.

Dr. Mohammed Hani ElKadi, a 36-year-old physician now visiting the U.S. to attend a writing seminar as a guest of the U.S. International Communication Agency, said membership in his Alexandria-based organization, the Israeli-Egyptian Friendship League, is growing despite intense pressure from other Arab countries.

At a press conference after the meeting, he dismissed speculation that relations between the two countries would break down again once the rest of Sinai was returned by Israel. “Such talk is totally unrealistic,” he declared. “Those who believe it do not know or understand what is going on. Israel and Egypt have a mutual need to get along with each other. We have tried war and hostility, and it doesn’t work. It has led to serious economic, social and political difficulties.”

ElKadi, who is also a novelist and journalist, pointed out that the Camp David accords, in fact, provide for American military gurantees in case either side reneges on the agreement. He told the AJCongress audience that active opposition to the peace treaty today is centered in leftwing and Moslem fundamentalist elements who constitute a minority of Egypt’s population.

SAYS SAUDI MONEY IS THREAT

Much of the financing for such groups comes from Saudi Arabia, ElKadi indicated. “Saudi money, in fact, is dangerous to Egypt,” he said. “It is luring many Egyptian doctors and other professional people to Saudi

Arabia, when they are needed in Egypt.” In addition to the brain drain, the Saudi funds are also buying the political allegiances of some Egyptians, ElKadi suggested. The Israeli-Egyptian Friendship League, which has a wholly Egyptian member ship, was founded in 1977, shortly after President Anwar Sadat’s dramatic journey to Jerusalem. ElKadi was the first Egyptian journalist to enter Israel after Sadat’s visit, arriving in the Jewish State three days after the Egyptian President. The physician met with Israeli leaders and was impressed with their enthusiastic response to Sadat’s peace gesture. Returning to Egypt he and several colleagues founded the Israeli-Egyptian Friendship League in Alexandria. ElKadi was chosen president.

While the League members initially met with a great deal of hostility from official and quasi-official Egyptian organizations, police agencies and leftwing groups, and were denounced as Israeli agents and spies, the atmosphere improved markedly after Camp David and the signing of the peace treaty, ElKadi explained.