Opinion & Comment
What the Turks Should Teach Egged

What some members of the secular public in Israel don't understand, has been understood a long time ago abroad, especially in Moslem countries.

Last week, the Israeli media was aghast about the news of a bus with separate seating which Egged began to operate between Ashdod and Bnei Brak.

The line operated for one day, and was canceled immediately, after Egged was intimidated by the tremendous pressure of the leftists and the senior officials of the Transportation Ministry, among them Minister Yitzchok Mordechai (who claims he is traditional). But what the secular leaders in Israel don't understand, people in other countries understand quite well. Newspapers reported last week that some Turkish citizens hailed the separate seating in the Israeli busses.

According to Ma'ariv "the Foreign Affairs Ministry received a telegram which said that the separate seating on the busses is being hailed in Turkey, and one of the papers even gave the news a headline spread across the entire page. This paper, which is generally anti-Israeli...stressed that this time, Israel has adopted a considerate and sensitive approach to religious demands."

However, the Foreign Affairs Minstry did not take the trouble to update the editors of the Turkish paper, and to tell them that a day after the bus line began operating, it was canceled due to the inconsiderate, insensitive approach toward religious demands.

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