Peace-Keepers

U.S. troops arrive in the Sinai

Wearing flamboyant orange berets and somber brown camouflage uniforms, the 676 members of the 82nd Airborne Division bounded down the ramps of the two blue-and-white El Al jumbo jets. After a 14-hr, flight from Fort Bragg, N.C., they were emerging into the 80DEG temperature of the Sinai Peninsula--and spearheading a new role for the U.S. in the Middle East. There was a brief delay when it was discovered that the soldiers, like careless tourists, had forgotten to fill out Israeli immigration cards. Finally, clutching their M-16 rifles, the men set off on a nine-mile march within view of the majestic rust-colored Sinai mountains to their new home, a base camp just south of Na'ama Bay.

The U.S. troops were the largest contingent of the roughly 2,600-member Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) that will police a 300-mile-long zone between Egypt and Israel starting April 25. On that date, Israel will fulfill a key provision of the Camp David peace agreements by returning the remaining 7,490 sq. mi. of the Sinai that it has occupied since 1967. Even as troubles flared in the West Bank, and as Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak continued to dodge an invitation from Prime Minister Menachem Begin to visit Israel (with a mandatory stop in Jerusalem, which Mubarak wants to avoid), the formal peace process between Egypt and Israel was moving ahead on schedule.

The remainder of the MFO troops arrived at week's end. They came from ten other countries, including Colombia (500 troops), The Netherlands (105), France (42), Italy (90), Uruguay (70) and Fiji (500). The men will be commanded by Lieut. General Fredrik Bull-Hansen, a lanky Norwegian who was first exposed to the complexities of the Middle East while serving in a force that supervised the Israeli-Egyptian cease-fire of 1949.

Symbolized by the long column of American infantrymen marching through the desert, the U.S. presence is expected to bolster the latest peace-keeping effort. In addition to providing a total of 1,100 troops, Washington is picking up 60% of the $225 million cost of the first year of the mission. The U.S. force should also reassure the Israelis, who strongly pressed for it. They still recall that an earlier peace-keeping group that did not include Americans was expelled by Egypt's late President Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1967, helping to set the stage for the Arab-Israeli war that followed less than a month later. The 82nd Airborne is not likely to be dislodged that easily from its new Middle East mission.

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