Premier Yitzhak Shamir has struck back at President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt for his criticism of Israel’s handling of disturbances in the administered territories and his charge that Israel violated the Camp David Accords when it annexed East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights.
The Prime Minister’s Office noted in a sharp response Sunday that neither Jerusalem nor the Golan Heights were part of the 1978 Camp David agreements. And an angry Shamir took up the verbal battle directly before an audience here Monday.
Shamir declared that Egypt was hypocritical in criticizing Israel for harsh measures because when Palestinians demonstrated on the Egyptian side of Rafah, the town bisected by the Israeli-Egyptian border, the Egyptian soldiers “didn’t wait around … they started shooting.”
He also contended that Mubarak was mistaken in calling for Israel to abrogate the Jerusalem and Golan moves. “That has nothing to do with Camp David,” Shamir said.
He noted that the Egyptians under the late President Anwar Sadat were prepared to negotiate over the Camp David autonomy proposals after the controversial Jerusalem and Golan laws were passed.
The Jerusalem Law declared that united Jerusalem was Israel’s capital. The Golan Law applied Israeli law to the Golan Heights, captured from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War.
Shamir’s response came as concern was growing in Israeli circles over Egypt’s increasingly strident criticism of the situation in the territories. Israeli correspondents in Cairo reported Monday that the mood there has worsened perceptibly in the last two days.
One journalist noted that pro-government news media are openly discussing the possibility of a rupture of diplomatic relations with Israel as Palestinian fatalities mount in the territories.
Maariv reported, meanwhile, that Egypt for the first time officially announced the arrest of an Egyptian citizen accused of spying for Israel. The suspect, a teacher, allegedly transmitted intelligence of utmost importance to the Israeli military establishment.
Maariv noted that until now, only opposition newspapers have reported the exposure of spy networks in Egypt working for Israel or the United States.
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