Armies
battle
on
historically
strategic
Sinai
desert
The desert of Sinai has been the focus of worldwide attention the
past few weeks with the outbreak of war once again between Egypt
and Israel. With the present cease fire and the upcoming negotiations,
it looks as if the Sinai will remain at the center of world politics for
some time to come. For many, the Sinai is but a mythic Biblical place
where Moses and the Israelites wandered in the wilderness and were
given the Ten Commandments. Why should such an in
conspicuousplace bring the world to the bink of war? The answer lies
lost in countless centuries.
By RON EBER
For the Emerald
(Ron Eber, a graduate student in Urban planning, was a Sinai
guide with the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel, during the
Spring of 1973.)
Sinai today is as it has always been, a vast desert with great ex
panses of sand, tall red mountains, narrow gorges, and sprinkled
occassionally with lush green oases. It has not changed since the
earliest of times, except for a few paved roads along the camel routes
and the technological rubble that modern warfare has strewn across
its landscape.
Only 125 miles across, Sinai’s northern plain is the land bridge
connecting the African and Asian continents. Throughout history it
has been of strategic import. There is but one settlement, El Arish (the
J
Drawing by Marci Ridout
place of booths), with a population of 30,000 Bedouins, which serves as
their chief market place. From here the landscape is rolling dunes of
clean sand with a narrow fringe of green palms along the coast ex
tending from horizon to horizon and backed by the blue
Mediterranean.
This stretch of palms is civiliation’s most ancient pathway. Known
as “the way of the sea” and later called the Via Maris by the Romans,
it was the first trade route between the Old Kingdom of Egypt and
Mesopotamia. Along this route the Pharaoh’s sent their armies and
traders east to bring back the riches of Asiz and used its vast stretches
as a buffer against invaders.
South of the Via Maris is Sinai’s other major crossroad. First
developed as the way across Sinai to the Gulf of Aqaba by the Egyp
tians and Nabatians, it became the Darb el Haj (the way of the
pilgrims) with the rise of Islam in the seventh century, and the major
land route from Northern Africa to the Moslem holy places of Mecca
and Medina in Arabia. This route rises from the coastal strip at the
city of Suez into the barren hills and through Mitla Pass to central
Sinai. Not only the scene of battle in the past 17 years between Egypt
and Israel, the remains of Saldain’s Date Palm Fortress, Qala at
Nakhl. which stood against the Crusaders, guards athe pass from a
high butte nearby.
Not too far wouth of the Darb el Haj are the ancient Egyptian
turquoise mines at Sara bit el Khadim. Long the main source of
beautiful jewelery for the Pharaohs, the miners built a temple in honor
of Hathor, Mistress of the Turquoise, overlooking the central tableland
of Sinai. Here the canyons about with hieroglyphics and quiet trails
become clogged with the porters who carried the tons of supplies to the
miners 3500 years ago. Scratched on the walls in nearby caves is an
alphabet, developed by these same porters, copied from hieroglyphic
symbols that is considered one of the earliest forerunners of the
Hebrew, Greek and English alphabets.
Sinai’s most notable footnote in history is the Exodus, led by
Moses with the Children of Israel, out of Egypt into the wilderness in
roughly 1250 B .C. Although scholars are in disagreement as to which
way they left Egypt, most feel they went into the high rugged
mountains of southern Sinai. Here is the essence of Sinai. Its deep, red
granite mountains and narrow gorges give it a grandeur unmatched
and an incomparable beauty that is awe inspiring.
No one can be certain as to which mountain is the real biblical
Sinai, but deep in these canyons the Byzantine Emperor, Justinian I,
built a monastery for his church’s monks, in 557 A.D. It stands at the
foot of what they believe to the “the” Mt. Sinai and on the spot of the
Burning Bush. The Monastery of Saint Catherine remains today a
“Shangri-la in the desert.” It is a place untouched by time and con
tains art treasures that have survived no place else on earth.
In no other place have I been so refreshed as when hiking these
fabled canyons, catching ancient panoramas, experiencing the bare
rock with lost pools of water and sharing the coolness of green palms
hidden in the mountain labyrinth. Seeing this place of beauty and
history in the midst of war is shattering, yet in light of its past, un
derstandable. But understanding is shallow in such a place. While
there, I drifted back through centuries knowing I had come to the first
wilderness. Etched deep in my consciousness was the time I had
wandered here before. A place of refuge and meaning, then, it must
become so again. It is wrong for such a place to bring us to the brink.
Its message was clear when it echoed forth from its canyons “Thou
Shalt Not Kill.” One can only hope it will be heard once again by its
ageless and seemingly tireless warriors far to the north.
Chinese balance
practical, theoretical
political goals
By ROBERT ELEGANT
(C) 1973, The Los Angeles Times
And SERGE ROMENSKY
Agence France-Presse
HONG KONG — China has welcomed
the simmering down of the Middle East
conflict and the postponement of Secretary
of State Henry Kissinger’s visit to a more
tranquil time, according to diplomatic
sources in Peking.
“The Chinese are pleased by the winding
down of the war,” explained a senior
diplomat, “though they don’t like the way
it’s ending. By the same time token, they’d
rather receive Kissinger when the Mideast
fracas has cooled down. It would have
been a strained meeting at just this time.”
The Chinese have found themselves in
an awkward position, caught between
their ideological protestations and their
practical interests. Publicly, China has
denounced Washington and Moscow for
ending the "just war” by joint action in the
United Nations
In theory, they should have been happy
with a war that might destroy Israel,
which they describe as an imperialist
small power. But, in practice, they
abhorred the prospect of greatly enhanced
Soviet influence in the Middle East, as a
result of an Arab triumph with Soviet
backing.
Peking did not want a truce “imposed”
by the two superpowers because it
weakens China’s aspiration to emerge as
the leader of the Third World of poorer,
underdeveloped nations.
Besides, any and all U.S.-U.S.S.R.
cooperation is contrary to China’s in
terests. Peking wants to keep Moscow and
Washington as far apart as possible. Only
thus can the United States be an effective
counterweight to a hostile Soviet Union. >■
Conflicting interests impelled China to
abstain on the Security Council vote on a
Middle East cease-fire. And the Security £
Council heard some of the most vitriolic j
name-calling in its history — between the
Chinese and the Russians. x
China’s solitary abstention in the
Security Council vote on the joint Russo
American Mideast resolution underscores x
its determination to stay aloof from the
“superpower game,” experienced ob
servers are saying here. x
The Peking view — and the Chinese
delegate to the Security Council did not fail •
to point it out — was that the jointly ?
proposed resolution was a striking
demonstration of Soviet and American
“collusion.”
Delegate Huang Hua declared, before
abstaining from the vote, that the
resolution would tend to impose “neither
war nor peace” on the Arab people — in
other words, that it would solve nothing.
His warning was also to be found in
Peking’s constant raiteration that the
Arab countries could only reestablish their :■
usurped rights by acting together and
independently of the superpowers.
Foreign observers noted that the
Chinese position, notably as it was outlined
in the early stages of the conflict in a $
message from Prime Minister Chou En
Lai to Egypt’s President Anwar Sadat,
appeared to have been favorably received
in Arab diplomatic circles here.
Meanwhile in Uganda
From Wire-Servic Reports
Oct. 9—Uganda has sent an un
disclosed number of troops, to assist
the Arabs in the Middle East War,
President Idi Amin announced
today. Addressing a mammoth
Independence anniversary parade,
Gen. Amin announced that a whole
mechanized battalion had volun
teered to fight in the Middle East
and there were many volunteers
from other Army, Air Force and
Navy units.
The Ugandans who had gone to the
Middle East had agreed to die for
African freedom and their names
would go down in the history of
African liberation, Gen. Amin
declared
Oct. 10—President Idi Amin
threatened to break off diplomatic
relations and imprison all American
citizens in Uganda if the United
States enters the Middle East war.
Amin specifically mentioned that
he would imprison American Charge
d’Affaires Robert Keeley. He said
the Americans would stay jailed
until American forces were with
drawn from the Middle East.
The Ugandan president added that
all Americans, except American
Jews, were still free to come to
Uganda as tourists.
Oct. 11—Ugandan President Idi
Amin has told the Soviet Am
bassador that if Hitler had not
burned 6 million Jews, the present
problem in the Middle East would be
in the Soviet Union and the whole of
Europe, including Britain.
He added that Israeli action in the
Middle East had convinced the
world that he was right in stating
some time ago that Hitler was “right
to burn 6 million Jews in Europe
during World War Two.”
People the world over, he went on,
now agreed with him that the
Israelis were criminals.
He then appealed to the Soviet
Union to supply sophisticated
warplanes like the Mig 23 as well as
missiles to the Middle East countries
to help them counter “Zionist
aggression."
Oct. 24—Ugandan President Idi
Amin said that God had directed him
in a vision today to send messages to
Israel and Arab countries urging
them to cease fire immediately.
Addressing a mammoth crowd
celebrating United Nations Day, he
said he had already sent telegrams
to United Nations Secretary-General
Kurt Waldeheim, to Israeli Premier
Golda Meir and to all Arab leaders
bringing them God's message.
He said his vision was similar to
the one he had in 1972 after which he
ordered all Asians to quit Uganda.
After disclosing his vision, President
Amin declared the rest of the day a
public holiday.