Israel is still seeking a way to cope with Arab guerrilla warfare which will end such raids against Israel without creating the threat of major warfare, Israel’s Foreign Minister, Abba Eban said today in a television interview from Jerusalem broadcast here.
He said that the Arab view was that small guerrilla forces could achieve political results far more effective than confrontations between regular military forces in which Syria or Jordan “would come off badly.” He said this belief was a source of special danger because “the technical answer” to such tactics “has not yet been found.”
In an interview with the London Guardian correspondent in Jerusalem, Mr. Eban called Syria the “chief instigator” of guerrilla attacks on Israel in recent months. He said Israeli strategy begins with an effort to make its territory as “impenetrable” as possible to incursions while exercising maximum restraint, but that, as a last “and reluctant” resort, Israel would undertake “active deterrence.”
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.