Israel’s Arab neighbors were put on notice yesterday that Israel may be forced to take the military offensive if they continue what he called their war of attrition. Defense Minister Moshe Dayan said that Israel’s armed forces, used to swift breakthroughs and fast maneuvers, had not experienced static warfare and added, “I’m not sure we can remain on the defensive.” To do so in the face of continued Arab attacks and mounting casualties “calls for supreme efforts and a deep faith in our cause,” Gen. Dayan declared. The Defense Minister spoke at a convention of B’nai B’rith chapters here.
Premier Golda Meir and Deputy Premier Yigal Allon addressed other groups. Mrs. Meir spoke at a reunion of veterans of Haganah, Israel’s pre-statehood defense force, and Mr. Allon addressed students at Tel Aviv University.
The Premier said Israel’s armed forces had changed the nation’s image abroad and acknowledged that the change may have deprived Israel of some of the sympathy shown to the “underdog.” “Our image may be in danger because we have single-handedly overcome the dangers we were facing,” she said, “but what counts is that Israeli forces are strong and the world should know it.”
Mr. Allon said that Israel was willing to negotiate permanent boundaries with its Arab neighbors but the borders had to reflect first the nation’s security needs and secondly its historic ties with the land. He chided those on one extreme who demand that Israel retain every inch of occupied territory and those on the other who insist on a unilateral withdrawal.
Gen. Dayan’s carefully worded speech was seen here as serving notice not only to the Arabs but to the entire world that Israel reserved the right to switch from defensive to offensive tactics if Arab armies and guerrillas kept up their border warfare. He said Israel could easily conquer Amman and Damascus–the capitals of Jordan and Syria–but Israel was not interested in new territory. The problem is holding the line, he said.
Gen. Dayan said Arab guerrillas had managed to break the cease-fire and implicate Arab governments in the border fighting but they have not managed to disrupt daily life in Israel or to generate an uprising in the occupied territories. He said infiltrators had killed 70 Israeli soldiers and civilians in the administered territories since the Six-Day War and had suffered 400 dead themselves. He said the Egyptians have violated the status of the cease-fire along the Suez Canal but not the cease-fire line itself. “They have used everything they’ve got except their Air Force,” Gen. Dayan said, because Egypt’s jets “are no match for ours.” He said if Israel is to hold the line, it must fortify itself and establish settlements in the occupied areas and must have the patience and ability to make the economic efforts necessary to build roads, lay waterlines and establish airfields and communications. “Israel may be faced with yet another war, but we are not a nation that submits, but a fighting nation,” Gen. Dayan said.
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