Middle East: The Innocent Dead

To discourage Gamal Abdel Nasser from continuing his "war of attrition," Israel has been bombing targets deep inside Egypt since the beginning of the year. Though the raids are directed at military installations, there has always been the possibility that Israeli napalm or antipersonnel bombs would cause civilian casualties. Two months ago, an Israeli pilot mistakenly hit an industrial plant at Abu Zabal, killing 80 workers. Last week another mix-up occurred. While it caused fewer deaths than at Abu Zabal, it is likely to do far greater damage to Israel's image.

Differing Versions. According to Cairo, Israeli pilots flying U.S.-built Phantom jets bombed a schoolhouse near the Nile Delta, killing 30 pupils ranging in age from six to twelve years. Israel admitted the bombings, but the two sides differed greatly in their accounts of what had happened. The Egyptians escorted foreign newsmen to a hospital to view the dead, as well as 31 wounded children. But they declined to let the reporters see the school, insisting that the road leading to it was impassable. Cairo reported that the two-year-old school, situated in a region known as Bahr el Bakr, or River of Cows, was hit by five bombs and two rockets. The Egyptian government blamed not only Israel but also the U.S. for supplying the attacking Phantoms. Said the Cairo daily Al Akhbar: "The war criminal is not [Israeli Defense Minister] Moshe Dayan or [Premier] Golda Meir but Richard Nixon."

Israel insisted that the bombed building was part of a military installation that included trenches and camouflaged vehicles. Officials cited news reports from Egypt that some of the students had been dressed in paramilitary uniforms at the time of the attack. "If the Egyptians involved young people in military operations or put them in the vicinity of specific military targets," said Foreign Minister Abba Eban, "then these tragic events become inevitable."

The Goldmann Affair. Despite such protests, the bombing was clearly a propaganda setback for Israel. So was the fallout from an incident that occurred earlier in the week that the Israelis called "the Goldmann Affair." Dr. Nahum Goldmann, 74, is a Polish-born Zionist leader who maintains that for the sake of peace Israel ought to be a small neutralized protectorate "of the whole of mankind," including Arabs. Through political contacts outside Israel, Goldmann apparently managed to interest Nasser in a meeting to explore possible peace terms. Nasser insisted, however, that Goldmann notify the Israeli government of what he was doing. Golda Meir and her Cabinet refused to give their blessing to a man whose views about Israel are diametrically opposed to their own. The Goldmann trip to Cairo was thus aborted, and the Israeli government came under unusual criticism at home for being too hawkish and rigid.