More than half of the senior officers in the Israeli army take a clearly “doveish” view toward the Arabs and support the recognition of Palestinian self-determination, according to a Hebrew University survey just published here. The survey found that the Israeli officers were also more liberal in their outlook than senior officers of the U.S. army.
The study, by Yoram Peri, appeared in, “State, Government and International Relations,” a periodical published by the Hebrew University’s political science department and its Institute of International Relations. According to Peri, his findings were especially significant in view of the general attitude on Middle East problems held by the public. He said that although the army is non-political. its “elite” was of similar background as the nation’s political elite and tended to adopt similar political views.
A second study published in the same issue of the periodical alleged that former Defense Minister Moshe Dayan was considering a pre-emptive war in 1973 to secure political advantages for Israel prior to Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger’s political initiative that year. According to the writer, Avi Klein, Dayan was convinced of Israel’s superiority over her Arab foes but misjudged Arab preparedness for war. This was the result of Dayan’s long-held belief that the Arabs were easy to scare, Klein wrote.
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