The Parliamentary Foreign Affairs and Security Committee met here today to discuss the political situation in the light of the latest United Nations Security Council developments on the Suez Canal blockade complaint. It also considered the Israel Army maneuvers.
Authoritative sources stressed today that there was no connection between the holding of maneuvers at this time and the unstable political situation prevailing in neighboring Arab countries. The war games, they said, had been scheduled for this time as far back as a year ago. Army spokesmen said the chief purpose of the war games was to test the mobilization system and demonstrate to the reservists the degree to which they and their training command have prepared them for battle action.
At the same time, however, Brig. Yigal Yadin, Chief of Staff of the Army of Defense, warned that the Israeli Army had taken serious note of statements made by Egypt that that country still considers itself at war with Israel. It would be idle to ignore the threats of a “second round” against Israel prevalent in the Arab countries, Brig, Yadin declared, and their plans for a “revenge” campaign against the Jewish state.
In addition to the Egyptian situation, Yadin referred to the unstable situation on the Jordanian and Syrian frontiers and said that Israel might find itself at war with an Arab state with which no armistice had been concluded. This was taken as a reference to Iraq. These factors, he asserted, warranted continued alertness by the Israel Defense Army.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
