Emboldened Arabs

Separated by only four miles of water, the Israeli town of Eilat and the Jordanian town of Aqaba face each other across the shimmering tip of the narrow Gulf of Aqaba. Because the two seaports are so close, an uneasy cease-fire prevails in the immediate area between the Arab and Israeli forces. Last week the truce was shattered.

Swimming by night through the clear water, Arab frogmen, who most likely were members of the Egyptian navy's commando force, silently attached magnetic limpet mines to the hulls of two Israeli ships in Eilat harbor, then slipped away. A short time later, an explosion shook the 13,732-ton Zim Line freighter Dahlia, but its double hull prevented heavy damage. The other victim was an ancient 2,000-ton excursion boat named Hey Daroma, which had to be beached to keep it from sinking.

Rising Aggressiveness. The attack on Eilat fitted into the month-long pattern of heightened Egyptian aggressiveness that Gamal Abdel Nasser calls "the war of attrition." As the seaport for Israel's trade with Asia and much of Africa, Eilat is highly important to the country's economic wellbeing. The Egyptians also launched several daylight commando raids against Israeli troops on the east bank of Suez. There was also renewed hostility on the part of Syria. The Israelis reckoned that it was intended, at least in part, to embolden the Al-Fatah guerrillas, who after a two-week period of relative amity clashed once more in Lebanon with units of the Lebanese army.

Curiously, Israelis have responded only rarely in the past month to the many Arab raids. Last week, for example, they hit back hard only once, sending a large force of fighter-bombers to pound Arab gun positions near the Jordanian town of Salt. Middle East watchers were puzzled at the Israeli restraint. One reason may be that Premier Golda Meir is preoccupied with setting up a new Cabinet. On the other hand, some Arabs tend to see a cunning plot in Israel's lack of response. According to this script, the Israelis are carefully setting up a "fourth-round trap," feigning anguish now to justify a preemptive strike later.

Meanwhile, American hopes for a Big Two peace plan have dimmed. In a series of 31 meetings over the past nine months, Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin and U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Joseph Sisco reached an understanding on some points, including the necessity for a direct and binding agreement between the parties and recognition of each other's right to exist in peace and security.

In its latest draft, the U.S. also agreed to an Israeli return to the pre-1967 borders with Egypt, but made this point conditional on the two countries involved working out mutual arrangements that would cover the Gaza Strip, Sharm el Sheikh, and the establishment of demilitarized zones in certain border areas. Dobrynin's failure to respond to Sisco's proposal unfortunately seems to indicate that Moscow is unwilling to override Nasser, who has violently attacked the U.S. proposal and renounced the possibility of a political settlement. While the Big Two talks are now on the verge of failure, Britain and France are pressing for resumption of the Big Four talks in New York to take up the problem of Jordan. The U.S., which has always regarded Nasser as a key to a Middle East settlement, is skeptical. Nonetheless, it will probably go along.

* The owner-master of Hey Daroma is Ike Aharonowich, 45, who became famous during Israel's battle for independence as skipper of another old ship, Exodus.

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