Cairo Struggles to Silence Popular Praise for Israel Border Attack

Published originally under the title "Wary of Harming Israel Ties, Egypt Looks to Bury Popular Praise for Border Attack."

Winfield Myers

At 4:20 in the afternoon of October 5, 1985, an Egyptian soldier manning a checkpoint in the Red Sea resort town of Ras Burqa raised his gun and began firing into a crowd of Israeli tourists.

Seven Israeli civilians, including four children, were slain in the attack.

At the time, Hosni Mubarak’s government moved quickly to keep the soldier, Suleiman Khater, from becoming a national hero and jeopardizing the peace treaty with Israel that had been signed only six years before.

Read the full article at the Times of Israel.

Lazar Berman is the Times of Israel‘s diplomatic reporter and a Middle East Forum Writing Fellow.

Lazar Berman is the diplomatic correspondent at the Times of Israel, where he also covers Christian Affairs. He holds an M.A. in Security Studies from Georgetown University and taught at Salahuddin University in Iraqi Kurdistan. Berman is a reserve captain in the IDF’s Commando Brigade and served in a Bedouin unit during his active service.
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