The U.J.A.'s Ultimate Trip

Shortly before noon one day last week, startled soldiers of the battle-tested Egyptian Second Army intercepted an Israeli bus that had broached their perimeter near the Suez Canal. While troops in command cars trained machine guns on the vehicle, an Egyptian colonel boarded it and discovered that his men had just captured, of all people, 28 prosperous young American business and professional men who were on a United Jewish Appeal fund-raising tour.

To spur U.J.A. donations in the U.S., Israeli officials had sent the "young leadership group" on a supposedly routine bus trip through the captured Sinai territory that Israel is about to relinquish. After a picture-taking session at a United Nations checkpoint, however, the bus strayed too far down the Ismailia-Tassa road and into Egyptian hands.

It was hard to decide whether captors or captives were more flustered. The U.J.A. fund raisers were kept aboard their bus for two hours by Egyptian soldiers while the colonel tried to decide what to do with his catch. Finally, he decided that the group should go to army headquarters in Ismailia for interrogation and asked them to blindfold themselves with handkerchiefs or coats. "Most of us used handkerchiefs," said Howard Stone, a full-time U.J.A. official in New York City. "It was easier to peek that way." Cracked one American as the bus drove off: "Now remember, you are only required to disclose your name, last year's gift and this year's pledge." Others started whistling Let My People Go.

At Ismailia, the Egyptians confiscated the prisoners' cameras and film and subjected them to a thorough grilling. Somewhat to his surprise, Stone was asked detailed questions about the table of organization of the hard-sell U.S. organization as well as on U.J.A. techniques for fund raising and the uses to which its gifts are put. Stone told as much as he knew, but that was not enough. At one point, Stone said later, his Egyptian interrogator pulled a dossier on the U.J.A. but of a desk drawer and demanded petulantly: "O.K. Let's go through this again, and get it right this time." The Egyptians also inquired about the mood of Israel, but the prisoners had difficulty describing it. They had arrived there only 24 hours earlier, many for the first time.

After seven hours of detention, broken by a snack of cheese and jelly sandwiches and Pepsi-Cola, the prisoners were released with apologies for having been inconvenienced. Recrossing the Suez Canal, they were airlifted to Tel Aviv by the Israelis for a reunion with anxious wives. The trip continued with a visit to the Golan Heights, but already it was obviously a vast success. After all, by now just about everyone who visits Israel on similar junkets gets a VIP excursion to the Golan Heights or the Jordan River or Sharm el Sheikh. But, except for last week's 28 lucky fund raisers, how many can come home with the exquisite one-upmanship of the ultimate trip: "How I was captured by the Egyptians during my U.J.A. tour of Israel"?

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