Israeli officials are hoping that Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger’s shuttle effort due to start this weekend in Aswan, Egypt can proceed unaffected by the terror raid on Tel Aviv, Clearly, a main purpose behind the attack was to thwart, or at least impinge upon the Secretary’s efforts–but the Israeli government was quick to declare that its decision to look for peaceful progress through negotiations “would not be deflected,” Reactions in the same tone were quickly heard, too, from Kissinger himself and his entourage, now in Britain.
Thus, all eyes turned naturally to the third partner in next week’s talks, Egypt, which could conceivably, if it so wished, still exploit the terror attack to ruin the chances of fruitful negotiations under the shutting Secretary’s auspices.
Israeli officials were pained at the unrelieved joyous gloating expressed over the attack by the Cairo press. But the press, though strictly controlled, is not yet the government, and observers here pointed out that so long as the Egyptian government refrained from specifically condoning or supporting the attack, the pre-negotiations atmosphere need not be irreparably spoiled.
INSISTS EGYPT NOT INVOLVED
Military intelligence chief Shlomo Gazit, in his Tel Aviv press conference this evening bent over backwards to avoid pointing any sort of accusing finger at Egypt, Egypt “would have to be crazy,” he said, to lend the PLO a submarine with which to launch the seaborne attack. (There had been earlier, unconfirmed reports, that the terrorists had gained access to the waterfront after being brought to the seacoast in a submarine.) Egypt, moreover, he pointedly stressed, had no record of direct military support for the Arab terrorist actions.
In fact, Gazit went on, the terrorists had plainly sought to “frame” Egypt–and thereby torpedo next week’s talks–by scribbling “Egyptian” inscriptions on their craft and demanding that they be flown to Cairo, Gazit’s unmistakable implication was that Israel would continue believing that Egypt was not involved in the attack, and that it still wanted the Kissinger talks to proceed, unless official statements made authoritatively in Cairo led inescapably to another conclusion.
Some independent analysts here have advanced the thesis that the terror raid, so plainly intended to thwart the second-stage settlement, might well have precisely the opposite effect. The U.S., Israel, and perhaps Egypt, too, would be keen to show that their diplomatic and political postures were not to be dictated by the PLO terrorists–but by their own considered perception of their national interests.
Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, according to their theory, might well see the PLO act as a challenge to him which he must face up to boldly–by insisting on going ahead with the policy line upon which he has decided.
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