The Wrong Passengers

It was a cloudless evening late last week when Iraqi Airways Flight 006 lifted off from Beirut International Airport bound for Baghdad. Aboard the Caravelle jet were 74 passengers and eight crew members, none expecting much more than a smooth hop to the Iraqi capital. Suddenly, Israeli Phantom jets pounced, ordering the helpless captain to fly instead to a military airbase near Haifa. He obeyed. As he told Beirut Control: "I don't want a repeat of the Libyan thing," in which Israeli jets last February shot down a Libyan airliner over the Sinai, killing 108 of the 113 aboard, after the captain refused orders to land. Within minutes, the Caravelle was down in Israel, where a carefully prepared team of interrogators awaited the arrivals.

After the plane landed, recalled one passenger, the doors burst open and Israeli troops boarded. They ordered the passengers to put their hands over their heads and exit one at a time, men first, and proceed to a small hall for questioning. When the grilling was over and the Israelis were satisfied no commandos were onboard, refreshments were passed around. "Every one of them spoke Arabic," marveled one woman. "It was amazing." Apparently she had never heard of Oriental Jews.

Evidently, the Israelis had hoped to bag Dr. George Habash and three aides in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, whom Israeli intelligence believed were on the flight. They were not. After carefully interrogating everyone aboard, the Israelis allowed them to reboard, and the Caravelle returned to Beirut less than three hours after taking off. Among the passengers were the Iraqi Planning Minister and an Iraqi ambassador, who were treated with proper diplomatic deference.

There were conflicting reports as to just what had tripped up the Israelis. One account said that they had confused the flight with another Iraqi plane scheduled to leave Beirut at about the same time. Another was that due to a long delay in taking off from Beirut, Habash finally decided not to wait and canceled his reservations.

That mistake was painfully reminiscent of the most recent Palestinian outrage, which occurred only a few days before at Athens International Airport. In that incident, two young members of Black September attacked with guns and grenades a line of passengers waiting to board a New York-bound flight. They had planned to strike at passengers bound for Tel Aviv aboard TWA Flight 806--but by the time they attacked, the Tel Aviv passengers were safely aboard their jet. When the ordeal was over, two Americans and an Austrian lay dead, and 55 were wounded.

In the past, Greek authorities have been lenient with captured terrorists. One reason: the presence of large Greek communities in Arab countries. But to the Greeks, increasingly angry over the terrorist habit of using Athens as a convenient hunting ground (six incidents in five years), this most recent atrocity was the breaking point. The two captives --Shaif al Arid, 22, and Tallal Kantourah, 21, both from Jordan--were quickly indicted for premeditated murder. They face the death penalty, which in Greece is by firing squad.

No punishment awaits the Israelis who forced down the Iraqi jet. Premier Golda Meir is on record as saying that < "Israel is fighting terrorism practically all over the world." Indeed, according to a new and questionable Israeli law, the takeover of the Iraqi aircraft could be construed as legal (see box).

Since Palestinian commandos began their long series of skyjackings in July 1968--when an El Al jetliner was seized and diverted to Algeria by Habash's men--Israel has retaliated in many ways, most notably with a massive raid on a commando headquarters in Beirut last April. Never before, however, has Israel been moved to resort to skyjacking--until last week. It was an ominous escalation of the fight between Israel and Arab terrorists.

As far as Israeli officials were concerned, the seizure of the Iraqi Caravelle was intended to drive a fresh point home. A high-ranking Israeli intelligence officer summed it up this way: "From now on, Arab terrorists will know they are not safe even in Arab air." More thoughtful Israelis were not nearly so brash. "No matter how you describe the incident," said one, "it still comes down to air piracy."

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