Dancing an Uncertain Tango

Egypt and Israel keep working at their trial-and-error friendship

One year ago, a blue and white flag embossed with the Star of David was hoisted above a sandstone villa in a broad-avenued residential district in Cairo. Simultaneously, the red, white and black Egyptian flag was raised over a newly opened embassy in Tel Aviv. After three decades of war, Israel and Egypt had at last embarked on a peaceful reconciliation and, as a first step, exchanged ambassadors. Since then, the attempt by the two erstwhile foes to become good neighbors has unfolded like an uncertain and at times highly awkward tango.

Throughout, the Israelis have tended to embrace their new partner with the ardor of a zealous suitor. The Egyptians, however, have responded by blowing hot and cold. Explains Israel's Ambassador to Egypt, Eliahu Ben Elissar: "We were ready to dance in the streets when the Egyptian flag was raised in Israel. But the Egyptians had not spent their lives dreaming of seeing the Israeli flag in Cairo. That was the beginning of the asymmetry, and it has continued to this day."

Despite inevitable frictions, both sides can point to significant achievements as a result of normalization of relations. Six round-trip airline flights a week now connect Cairo and Tel Aviv--three by El Al and three by Nefertiti Airways, a makeshift airline designed to protect EgyptAir from possible boycotts at Arab airports. Numerous accords have been signed in commerce, technical-exchange, land transport and cultural-affairs programs. Israel has sold Egypt $12 million worth of goods, ranging from bananas to iron ore. Egypt, in turn, has sold Israel $500 million in oil--a quarter of its production--and has picked up another $15 million from tourism. Egyptian agronomists are soliciting Israeli help for advanced irrigation projects. President Anwar Sadat has offered a reciprocal arrangement for the future, to bring "the sweet waters of the Nile" across the Sinai to Israel's Negev desert.

After the relaxation of travel restrictions, 30,000 Israeli tourists seized the opportunity to visit Egypt. By contrast, only 1,500 Egyptians, including official delegations, journeyed to Israel. One reason for the lopsided traffic: the comparative prosperity of Israelis, who are avid travelers. Ostracized by much of the Arab world, Egyptians on the whole have been more circumspect and slower to warm to friendly relations. The choice of Ben Elissar, 48, a close political ally of Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and a former high intelligence official, to be Israel's first Ambassador to Egypt seemed hardly reassuring at the outset. Eventually, however, Ben Elissar, with his trim pharaonic beard, became a familiar figure in Cairo. Gratified by the change, he observes: "An Israeli in Egypt is not considered today with the same curiosity I sensed a year ago, when people looked at you and seemed to ask, 'Are you on the side of the angels or Satan?'

On his side of the fence, Egypt's Ambassador to Israel, Saad Mortada, has found the adjustment somewhat easier. A close confidant of Sadat, Mortada, 57, is a gregarious partygoer and a serious student of Hebrew. Even so, he is always accompanied by two Israeli security agents. Recently he was forced to cancel a trip to the Sinai resort of Ophira--which is supposed to revert to Egypt next year--because militant Israeli residents warned that they would protest his visit.

For all their growing, trial-and-error friendliness, both sides acknowledge that as long as fundamental issues like Palestinian autonomy remain unresolved, any ambitious partnership, such as a military alliance, is out of the question. "The Israelis cannot expect too much too soon," cautions an Egyptian foreign ministry official. "It is one thing to see the Jerusalem Post and Hebrew books on sale in Egyptian kiosks. It is quite another to think about strategic cooperation."

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