Reports Egypt Planning Major Blow in Suez Area Discounted in Israel

Israeli circles discounted today widespread rumors that Egypt was, planning a major military confrontation with Israel along the Suez Canal. They said that Egypt was not prepared for a confrontation and that despite the intensity of Sunday’s artillery barrage and other provocation incidents before and since, Cairo authorities had instructed the army to exercise restraint. According to the Israelis, the Egyptians appear to want only brief, local incidents along the canal for prestige and morale-building purposes. Israel, they said, has decided not to be provoked into an escalation unless the Egyptian incidents continue along the lines of the Jordanian border incidents, in which case action would be taken.

(Terence Prittie, writing in The Guardian in London today, largely agreed with the Israeli assessment of Egypt’s intentions. He said that while Egypt’s military build-up along the Suez Canal had caused concern in diplomatic quarters, it is believed that its primary purpose was not to prepare for full scale military action but to increase the pressure on Israel to permit the re-opening of the canal on terms acceptable to Egypt and to Soviet Russia. According to Mr. Prittie, Soviet support for the Egyptian build-up has a subsidiary purpose of bolstering President Nasser’s declining prestige. The correspondent said Russia was believed to have secured agreements from Egypt and Yemen for the Soviet Navy to use bases in those countries).

(Cairo newspapers predicted today a “massive blow-up” along the Suez Canal. The semi-official Al Ahram said Egypt would attempt to “even the score” and regain prestige. The official Syrian newspaper Al Hawara proposed today that oil producing Arab countries strike at United States interests in retaliation for pro-Israel statements by presidential candidates Hubert H. Humphrey and Richard M. Nixon).

(The Daily Express in London reported estimates by military observers in Tel Aviv that Egypt has up to 130,000 men dug in along a 60 mile front equipped with new Soviet artillery and tanks. Their positions straddle all roads connecting Cairo with the Suez Canal, the report said.)