Water Fight

First there was the War of Independence, then the Sinai war, the Six-Day War, the war of attrition, the Yom Kippur War--and now the water war. Last week, when Soviet minesweepers intruded into Israel's waters in the Gulf of Suez, Israeli Hornet patrol boats confronted them. What could the Russians do to rid themselves of the pesky Israelis? The Soviet captain finally decided on an unusual tactic: he had his crew fire water cannons at the Israeli boats, causing them to duck out of range. But they remained on station, and the Soviets finally left the same day. Israel has complained to the U.N. for weeks about territorial violations by Soviet sweepers and helicopters, and is keeping in touch with Washington on the spraying incident. Clearly in no mood to take a hosing from the Russians, Israeli Defense Minister Shimon Peres observed: "Our boats, being used to fire, will not give up in the face of water."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.