A spokesman for the Israel Army declared today that the Egyptian complaint to the United States charging Israel with “premeditated aggression” is “nothing but a blind for Egypt’s warlike intentions toward the Jewish state and the refusal to make peace with Israel.”
The spokesman recalled the minor incident on June 30 over which Egypt is now trying to create an issue. He said that an Israel patrol erroneously crossed the frontier on that day near Rafa, accompanied by a Piper Cub, but withdrew when the Egyptians opened fire. Later the mixed armistice commission discussed the incident and the matter was considered closed as far as Israel was concerned.
“Egypt’s protestations to the United Nations come ill from a country which has a heavy record of aggression against Israel and seized every opportunity to proclaim her intentions to renew such aggression,” the Israel spokesman said. He pointed out that Egypt refused to comply with the U.N. request to conclude a permanent peace with the Jewish state.
(At Lake Success Gen. William Riley, chief of U.N. truce supervision in Palestine, told a press conference he did not believe Israel-Arab armistice disputes were getting “too far out of line,” despite the complaints by Egypt and Lebanon to the Security Council. The border incidents complained about by the two Arab countries could and should be settled by mixed armistice commission on the spot, he said.)
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