“The fighting power of the Israeli army is one of the chief hopes for keeping peace in the Middle East during the dangerous months ahead,” one of the leading military analysists in the United States declares in an article published in the October issue of Harper’s Magazine appearing tomorrow.
Brig. Gen. S. L. A. Marshall, author of a forthcoming volume on the Sinai campaign and recent visitor to Israel, writes: “My best estimate is that the Israelis are strong enough to discourage Arab nationalist military adventures, near their borders for about five years–if the army’s fighting power can be kept up to its present level.” He adds that “within that time it might be possible to work out a settlement reasonably satisfactory to all the nations concerned.”
The American expert warns, however, that “if israel’s deterrent force is allowed to dwindle, then a war–with unpredictable but terrifying consequences–seems to me much more likely. During the August crisis, I saw for myself that the weight of the Israeli army was one of the main supports for stability in Jordan. Any conspirators plotting to overthrow King Hussein must have realized that they might well be denied all the prizes of revolution by a military reaction from Israel.”
Discussing Israel’s efforts to obtain arms in the West, Gen. Marshall declares that this “does not indicate any plan to build up its fighting power.” Israel’s main purpose, he says, is “simply to replace machinery now wearing out and to fill its dire need for trucks, half-tracks and medium tractors. If this equipment is obtained, the army will be ready to give as splendid an account of itself as it did in the 100 hour war it fought against the Egyptian Army on the Sinai Peninsula in 1956.”
Gen. Marshall says that in explaining Israel’s success in the Sinai to American military experts who are especially interested in view of the presence of American troops in the Middle East, he stated: “Israel’s army did it by extending the limits of military daring. Hitting forces traveled farther over more formidable country in less time than any other combat body in history. Decision was won in three days. By the fourth day some of the brigades (Israeli term for regiment) were mopping up 200 miles beyond their assembly points.”
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.
