Israel celebrated Army Day today throughout the country, with festive observances marking the occasion in most urban and rural areas. In an Order of the Day broadcast last night over the official “Voice of Israel” station, Brig. Gen. Yaacov Dori, Army chief of staff, urged the strengthening of the Jewish state’s defenses as a means of ensuring peace for the new nation. Gen. Dori’s Order reads:
“Our mission has not yet been accomplished. We do not seek war, and our only desire is to build and create in peace. But as the armies of the Arab states crowd at our frontiers, and their governments speak of taking up arms, there can be no security for peace. We Israeli soldiers are today called upon to increase our strength. We need a popular people’s army, with commanders and soldiers of high professional standards, all serving under iron discipline. We shall carry out our mission with the same ardor that fired the souls of our pioneers.”
In Jerusalem, Israel’s chief delegate to the United Nations, Aubrey S. Eban, addressing a military parade held “somewhere in a Jerusalem camp,” declared that the “Arab world has not yet reconciled itself to the idea of defeat and is contemplating revenge. Political pressure against our claim to Jerusalem is lessening and every soldier can do much by helping to observe the sanctity of the Holy Places,” Mr. Eban continued.
He listed last year’s most important achievements as Israel’s military victory, establishment of the government, international recognition of the Jewish state and the return of exiled Jews to Israel. The Order of the Day issued by Chief of Staff Gen. Dori was read out to the Jerusalem troops by Col. Moshe Dayan, commander in the Jerusalem area. The troops observed ten minutes of silence in memory of those who fell during the war.
Observers here, explaining the small-scale observance of Army Day in Jerusalem, pointed out that it was inopportune for Israel to display its military strength while the mixed armistice commission was in Jerusalem to discuss the reduction of forces in the Holy City.
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