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Shops will be built eventually, along with a refrigeration plant, laundry, bakery, and five additional hotels. There is talk of constructing a shopping center under a Buckminster Fuller geodesic dome which would be air-conditioned to offset temperatures that reach 125°. Another problem to be overcome is the water shortage. Yehoshua Shapiro, the Caravan Hotel manager, who wears a jacket, tie and cuff links in spite of the heat, says: "We get our water by tank truck from a military desalination plant down the road. If the tanker breaks down, we're in trouble." Even so, Shapiro intends to settle permanently in Sharm el Sheikh. So do many of his staff. When I asked my waiter what was missing, he thought, smiled and answered: "Pollution." -
I flew back to Tel Aviv with Dov Friedman, manager of the local office of Israel's Egged bus cooperative. Friedman, who recently planted the settlement's first two trees, was returning for a brief visit with his family. "Strategically, this is Israel's neck," said he, offering a typical Israeli view on the importance of the place. "If we ever leave, the Arabs will choke us. If we decide that we have got to keep Sharm el Sheikh, it is only logical that we populate and develop it. That's our way."