Word: canallers
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...soared. But last week, on the third anniversary of the war, their mood was souring into one of gloom and uncertainty, and they were beginning to wonder whether they had really won a war, or merely the opening skirmish of a war. Frontier terrorism, constant clashes on the Suez Canal and anxiety about Soviet intentions have created a profound political and psychological malaise...
Events surrounding the anniversary week only deepened the gloom. In two skillful ambushes along the canal, 120 Egyptian commandos killed 13 Israeli soldiers. It was scant comfort that Israeli jets replied with six days of intensive bombing, including one 14-hour dawn-to-dusk raid, or that they shot down three Egyptian planes to bring their kills since 1967 to 101 (v. losses of nine). Near the Jordan border, Arab guerrillas fired Soviet-supplied, 220-mm. Katyusha rockets into the dusty town of Beisan on three occasions, killing three ten-year-old girls and wounding 36 people, mostly children...
...Gandhi's state visit pointed up the fact that Mauritius-situated some 2,400 miles south of the Indian subcontinent and 1,400 miles off the coast of East Africa-has become an object of interest to the great powers. The closing of the Suez Canal in 1967 forced merchant shipping back onto the round-Africa routes to Asia, turning Mauritius into a regular port of call...
Many Westerners consider it unlikely that the Soviets really intend to invite Israeli attacks by moving so close to the canal. Normally, the SA-3s and their systems are housed in two low, rectangular, 40-ft.-long buildings that hold missiles, computers, radar and other electronic controls. One radar system, which requires a 65-ft. tower, is code-named "Squat Eye" by NATO; another is called "Low Blow." Both are fully visible from the air, and also are detectable by electronic reconnaissance. Yet neither Israeli recon flights nor U.S. electronic snooping devices have so far uncovered evidence of missile sites...
Finally, there is no tactical reason for the Russians to risk installing SA-3s along the canal. They have accomplished their objective−neutralizing Israeli raids into Egypt, building up Egyptian defenses and binding the Arabs even more closely to Moscow−with the missiles that are already in place in the interior of Egypt. To send SAMs or pilots to the 25-mile strip west of the canal, over which Israel has proclaimed air superiority, would be to risk a military confrontation that Russians are not believed to want...