NOT since the Bismarck has there been such a sea hunt. In the teeth of a
gale that whipped the azure Mediterranean into an ash-gray cauldron of
20-foot waves, five Israeli-manned gunboats scooted to Haifa last week
on a 3,000-mile dash from the northern French port of Cherbourg. At
various points, they were tracked by French reconnaissance planes, an
R.A.F. Canberra from Malta, Soviet tankers, the radar forests of the
U.S. Sixth Fleet, television cameramen and even Italian fishermen. From
a distance, the world watched with emotions ranging from amusement to
outrage. In a twist on old-fashioned gunboat diplomacy, Israel had
retrieved $10 million worth of naval vessels, circumventing France's
embargo on arms sales to the Jewish state and producing a political
uproar that had several capitals buzzing. The uproar began when Paris discovered that the gunboats and their
Israeli crews had taken French leave of their fitting-out berths in
Cherbourg. The 240-ton, 148-ft. boats had been ordered by the Israelis
before Charles de Gaulle, seeking to enhance French influence among the
Arab states, tightened his arms embargo on Israel in January 1969. Once
the gunboats were completed, the French allowed Israeli sailors to take
them out of port, but only on familiarization runs and with limited
fuel. A Wide Berth. On Christmas Eve, as they trudged along the quays to
midnight Mass, Cherbourgeois observed that the gunboat crews were
busily stowing supplies. Some young Israelis were out scouring the city
for stocks of everything from cold tablets and vitamin-C supplements to
American cigarettes.
Some of them, with broad grins, explained that they were leaving to
celebrate Christmas in Israel. Christmas morning, in single file and with no lights, the fleet of five
slipped past the Fort de l'Est breakwater, turned south and moved
across the Bay of Biscay. They maintained radio silence until they
reached Gibraltar 64 hours later. There they split up to prevent Soviet
Mediterranean fleet units from boxing them in and herding them to an
unfriendly port. Off Sicily, tankers were waiting to refuel the boats.
Israeli naval units, possibly including two submarines, had also
converged to serve as escorts. Unwilling to risk a pasting, Egyptian
fighters and warships gave the fugitive flotilla a wide berth. Prayers and Jokes. Shielded by a storm for most of the final lap, the
Navy gray vessels rendezvoused outside Haifa and on New Year's Eve made
their way into port as hundreds of Israelis cheered and ships' sirens
split the air. Prayers of thanksgiving were recited in synagogues.
Diners toasted the crewmen and exchanged gunboat jokes, some of them
wordplays on the name of General Mordechai Limon, Israel's
chief of arms purchasing in Europe and the man in charge of the
Cherbourg escape. One joke had France's President Georges Pompidou
walking into a French cafe and gloomily telling a waiter: “I'll have
coffee without moka and my wife will have tea without limon.”
