Open Borders

A promising start at El Arish

AJ thousands of Egyptian bystanders cried "Shalom, shalom," three Israeli warships, proudly flying the Star of David flag, last week made a peaceful passage through the Suez Canal. When the 600-ton landing craft Achziv, Ashdod and Ashkelon passed Ismailia, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, in an admiral's white summer dress uniform, stood on the balcony of his holiday villa to salute them. Coming as it did only days after Israel returned the Sinai town of El Arish to Egyptian authority, the trip symbolized the determination of the two ancient enemies to make their peace treaty work.

Yet another emblem of that will was a mutual agreement by Sadat and Israeli Premier Menachem Begin to declare the borders between the two countries officially open. That decision was reached by the two men during a 15-min-ute private session in El Arish at a refurbished villa that only days before had been the headquarters of local Israeli water authorities. The border opening will not mean instant normalization of relations: details still need to be worked out concerning what ground rules will govern the initial visits. In return for Sadat's agreement to open borders, Begin freed 16 Arab prisoners "whose release would not impair Israel's security." Begin also announced that he would go to Alexandria in the first week of July to discuss "matters of common concern" with Sadat.

The Egyptian President candidly admitted that some of his aides did not agree with the border-opening decision, which according to the treaty could have been delayed until January 1980. "The Ministry of Foreign Affairs was opposed to the idea, but I had given a promise to Begin," Sadat told reporters. "So it became a matter of my Ministry convincing me or vice versa, and believe me I convinced them."

Although not yet on "Anwar" and "Menachem" terms, Begin and Sadat appear finally to have melted the frost that until now has characterized their personal relations. In El Arish, they joked with each other to such an extent that at first they seemed oblivious to the presence of U.S. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, who in turn seemed happy to be left out. "I was delighted," he said later, "to see how their personal relations are so much better now that they can relax in each other's company." Sadat and his wife Jehan that day had marked their 30th wedding anniversary. Commenting on the President's spifTy appearance in his admiral's uniform at an earlier ceremony in El Arish, Begin joshed: "Your wife must have fallen in love with you all over again." Begin gave Sadat a volume of sayings on peace by Jewish sages, printed on special paper "that will last 1,000 years, so future generations can read about the peace we now celebrate."

In Cairo this week, Israeli Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan and Egyptian Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Boutros Ghali will begin negotiating details of the border opening. For normalization to take full effect, Egypt's new People's Assembly, to be elected this month, must revoke 30 years of legislation that made it a crime for Egyptians to deal with Israelis. Sadat's aides are convinced normalization of relations is their trump card in the next stage of talks, on autonomy for the West Bank and Gaza. Says one Egyptian diplomat: "If we make significant progress in the autonomy talks, then you can expect to see Egypt speeding up the process of normalization. If the Israelis become difficult in the autonomy talks, then we will be tough on normalization."

There is no doubt those autonomy talks will be demanding. Begin has already told Vance that Israel remains adamant on three issues: 1) no solution if it compromised Israel's security; 2) no separate Palestinian state; 3) no return of East Jerusalem to Arab sovereignty. But Begin also said, "The last thing we want is to embarrass Sadat." On everything else that comes up in the negotiations, the Premier promised "we can and will help him."

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