Caving In

In Munich last week, a handful of German students gathered to hear a lecture on the "New Drama in Egypt." Instead of talking about drama, however, Egyptian Director-Actor Abbas Antar created it by dousing himself with gasoline, igniting himself with a match and screaming, "I am demonstrating for Nasser!"

As his fiery follower lay in a hospital bed last week, Gamal Abdel Nasser scored one of his greatest diplomatic victories by playing it cool. It began with an invitation to East Germany's Red Boss Walter Ulbricht to pay a six-day "friendship visit" to Cairo, beginning Feb. 26. Bonn's reaction was one of noisy panic at this threat to the Hallstein Doctrine, which decrees that any nation giving diplomatic recognition to East Germany must forfeit its ties with West Germany.

Forgotten Experts. Chancellor Ludwig Erhard called a Cabinet meeting to discuss Nasser's possible motives for flouting Bonn. They were already well known and centered on a 1960 meeting at Manhattan's Waldorf-Astoria between then Chancellor Konrad Adenauer and Israel's then Premier David Ben-Gurion. Adenauer, always sensitive about Germany's former crimes against the Jews, arranged to hand over $70 million worth of military equipment to Israel, with the approval--and possibly the urging--of Washington. The operation was so secret that Bonn's Foreign Ministry only discovered it by accident late last year.

By then Nasser had also got word of the deal. Suddenly all the West German loans for Nasser's five-year plan and all the West German experts working on his rocket program were forgotten. Out came plans to tweak Bonn's nose by accepting the long-standing East German wish to pay a visit to Cairo. At first the West Germans spoke indignantly of breaking relations with Cairo and suspending financial aid. Nasser was unimpressed. He summoned German Ambassador Georg Federer, called the Israeli arms deal "most degrading" and "disgusting," and declared: "We have received no aid from West Germany. You have taken part in some industrial projects, and we pay their costs in full. We have already repaid the larger part at 6% interest. Do you call this aid?"

Future Blackmail. Last week Nasser threatened not only to receive Ulbricht but to give East Germany formal diplomatic recognition as well. It was soon clear to Bonn's ambassadors in the Middle East that many other Arab states would follow Cairo's lead. With that, Bonn quickly backed down. An appeal for help went out to Spain for a mediator who could camouflage the defeat. Generalissimo Franco agreed to send his top troubleshooter, the Marques de Nerva, to Cairo. He swiftly reached accord with Nasser. West Germany promised an immediate cessation of arms shipments to Israel and an end to training of Israeli army officers. In return, Nasser promised only that he would not recognize East Germany "in the near future."

Though it had already received 80% of the arms delivery, Israel reacted angrily to Bonn's move, and Israeli newspapers charged that Bonn was letting itself in for more blackmail in the future. West Germany tried to assuage Israel by proposing some purely non-military agreements on such projects as desalinization of sea water. But no amount of soft soap could wash out Egypt's victory.

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