Trial of the Jews in Egypt Considered Political Maneuvre

The trial of the 13 Jews in Egypt on trumped up charges is nothing but an attempt on the part of the Egyptian Government to divert attention from dissatisfaction prevalent in that country because of the arrest of leading members of the Moslem Brotherhood, the Washington Post says today in an editorial.

“The Cairo Government has raised something of a temptest in the Arab world by its arrests of the leading spirits of the Moslem Brotherhood,” the influential newspaper writes. “So there is a necessity to divert attention by acting tough with the Israelis. This view is strengthened by the show trial now going on of 13 Jews in Alexandria under trumped-up charges which, as in the case of the “Bat Galim,” have been exploded by revelations of forced confessions and torture and, in one case, a suicide.”

Speaking of the “Bat Galim,” the Israel vessel seized by Egypt, the newspaper says: “The fact that the Egyptians invented all sorts of fairy tales to justify detention argues that they realize they have affronted international law.” The editorial emphasized that the Egyptian charges were “exploded” by a United Nations on-the-spot inquiry “yet the Egyptians continue to hold the ‘Bat Galim.’ In so doing, they are in defiance once again of the United Nations which, through the chairman of the Mixed Armistice Commission, has ordered the release of the detained vessel.”

Urging release of the Israel freighter held by Egypt since September 28, the Washington Post said that the United Nations Security Council, “which has now been requested to call an early meeting to consider Egyptian delays and procrastinations and misstatements, should refuse to abet Egypt’s theatrics and its downright defiance of the international community.”