went on for many weeks and a liking grew between the two enemy officers-the one tall, the other short, but both dark-skinned and speaking beautiful Arabic.

During one of their conversations Abd-el-Nasser brooded that he would never see his home again, that the whole brigade might die fighting in the Pocket. Yerucham comforted him. "You'll see, Gamal," he said, "you'll get back and have many children."

After the armistice the encircled brigade did get home. Later Yerucham was appointed Israeli delegate to the Mixed Israeli-Egyptian Armistice Commission. From time to time he asked his Egyptian counterpart how his friend Gamal was doing, and sent greetings. One day the Egyptian officer told Yerucham that a child had been born to the now Lt. Col. Abd-el-Nasser. Remembering the conversation, Yerucham hastened to buy a baby gift in Tel Aviv and asked the Egyptian delegate to deliver it to his friend. At their next meeting, the Egyptian brought a message of thanks from Abd-el-Nasser, with a big box of sweets from Gropy, the famous Cairo cafe.

Abd-el Nasser himself mentions his conversations with Yerucham Cohen in his book, The Philosophy of the Revolution, and soon after he came to power, he did something really revolutionary: he unofficially invited Yerucham to meet him in Cairo. As a disciplined Israeli citizen, Yerucham asked permission from the Israeli Foreign Minister. The answer was no. If the Egyptian government wants to talk to Israel, the officials said, they must talk with the Israeli government, not with a private citizen. (Curiously, a high-ranking West German told the Israeli government last year, after a visit to Cairo, that Abd-elNasser would still like to meet with his old friend, Yerucham Cohen.)

In light of all this, I believe that Abd-el-Nasser had no anti-Israeli sentiments or policy to start with. Coming to power quite unprepared and assuming a policy-making position without any prior plan, he seems to have had an

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