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Telephones are still tapped frequently, and mail and cables censored in Egypt. But there have been some notable relaxations. The secret police are far less in evidence now. Following record crops last year, consumer goods are more readily available and some food prices have been forced down. The cruel sequestration laws that Nasser invoked to punish the middle class for opposing him have been eased, and many Egyptians are reclaiming seized property. Faced by a shortage of efficient managers, Sadat is seeking to create a class of executives and to give them a sense of belonging.
Open criticism is being allowed again, and there have been some pointed attacks on the Pan-Arabism that flourished under Nasser and all but obliterated millenniums of Egyptian history. Wrote Literary Editor Louis Awad of Cairo's Al Ahram: "If you search in the six reading books taught from Grade 1 to Grade 6 in Egyptian schools, you do not come across the name Egypt even once. You only discover stupid poems that begin, I am an Arab. My father is Arab. My brother is Arab. Long live the Arabs.' " So pronounced is the "Egypt first" mood, that the Cairo correspondent of Beirut's Al Moharrer recently fretted in print: "I cannot but be concerned about Egypt's Arab character."*
Bold Stroke
If there were any doubts that Sadat was running the country, they were dissipated last week when the President in a bold stroke purged Ali Sabry, 50, one of his two Vice Presidents and his closest competitor for power. Sabry has been resentful from the first that it was Sadat, not he, who won the presidency after Nasser succumbed to a massive coronary thrombosis. After some months of sniping, he decided to challenge Sadat head-on over the proposed federation of Egypt, Syria and Libya. The union has been coolly received by Egyptians, who recall how a similar federation with Syria dissolved rancorously a decade ago. Sadat is not believed to be much more enthusiastic; but he agreed to join in order to put pressure on Israel and to mute criticism of his diplomatic initiatives toward the Israelis.
Direct Affront
At a bitter, five-hour meeting of the 150-man central committee of the Arab Socialist Union last month, Sabry launched a showdown attack on the federation. Like the pro-Communist Sudanese, the left-leaning Sabry objected to any alliance with Libya's Muammar Gaddafi, a fundamentalist Moslem who vigorously opposes Communism. Sabry's real target, however, was Sadat. Sabry bluntly demanded: "Where did you get the authority to agree to this federation?"
It was an affront that Sadat could not ignore. Five days later, during his May Day speech at Helwan, he pointedly ignored Sabry among 40 notables gathered on the dais. Then, his back, ram rod stiff, and his brown eyes flashing, he declared: "I am responsible to the Almighty, the people, and myself." Next day he stripped Sabry of the vice presidency.
In no area, however, has Sadat left his imprint more clearly than in the tortured Arab-Israeli confrontation. This is the problem that Richard Nixon has described as "the most dangerous" facing the U.S. and, indeed, the rest of the world, because of its "potential for drawing Soviet policy and our own into a collision."