World: MIDDLE EAST: THE WAR AND THE WOMAN

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countries is at stake. Some of them may also sense that they are serving rulers who use and abuse them. Unimaginative strategy is another problem. Nasser, for example, has stationed powerful forces along the Suez Canal and around Cairo, an in-depth defense reminiscent of the Soviet strategy in 1941, when the Germans were nearing Moscow. "What Nasser has bought," former Israeli Intelligence Chief Chaim Herzog said last week, "is the creation of a Moscow redoubt around Cairo. On this line, the Egyptians will fight. On the rest they will not. But Egypt will also have to import the snow to complete the strategy." The highly mobile Israelis have it within their power to offset such defenses by attacking the exposed flanks — which is precisely what they did last week.

The scope and ferocity of the week's operations seemed a sure sign that once again the Middle East's irreconcilable antagonists were inching toward the brink of war. In Israel there was grim satisfaction over the week's statistics — at least 150 Egyptians dead in the surprise raid, nearly a dozen planes downed. "A shocking blow to Egypt," said Defense Minister Moshe Dayan. "The ones to come will be bigger."

No Monopoly

Golda Meir made it clear that in deed there would be further blows, unless Nasser and his allies halt their bombardments and guerrilla raids. A war of attrition "can be a two-way street," she said in an interview with TIME. "It isn't something we wish for. But if it has to go on, if that's the position of the Arabs and they won't stop, it has to go on. We can take more than they believe we can take. And we can fight back."

Added Mrs. Meir: "We also have no alternative. There is nothing we can do about it as long as the Arabs won't have peace, as long as they won't even abide by the ceasefire, and if that's how they want it to be, we will live with it. And they'll know that we aren't the only ones that suffer. We have a duty to protect our people."

That duty can be onerous. Israel, with its small population (less than 3,000,000), simply cannot afford a war of attrition as easily as Egypt, with its 33.5 million people. Every casualty hurts. Last week, for example, the Premier's elation over the successful Gulf of Suez raid was tempered by the fact that three navy frogmen en route back to Sinai from the Ras Sadat exploit were accidentally killed by a faulty charge. "How unlucky it was," she said sadly to an aide, "that they had done their job so beautifully and on the way back had encountered tragedy." When the massive dogfight broke out, the Premier was less interested in the Israeli kills than in the fact that an Israeli pilot had been shot down over Egypt and captured. She telephoned General Haim Bar-Lev, her Chief of Staff, and asked for all the personal information he had on the airman.

Nevertheless, she is convinced that Israel must maintain a tough attitude toward the Arabs and accept the losses. As a result of her approach, the Israelis no longer speak of "retaliatory" raids, but "anticipatory counterattacks."

This theory of pragmatic belligerency receives general support among Israeli politicians, especially in view of the rising casualties along the Suez in recent months. Where the politicians