Gen. David Elazar said tonight that Israel has made impressive progress toward self-sufficiency in arms production, including highly sophisticate weaponry. The Chief of Staff of Israel’s armed forces also praised armaments received from the United States which he said contributed to Israel’s “great leap forward” in arms, both qualitatively and quantitatively during the last five years.
Elazar spoke at the annual convention of civilian employes of the military–mechanics, scientists, laundry workers and engineers–who he described as “an integral part of the Israeli Army.”
He said U.S. arms helped transform Israel’s arsenal compared to what it was before the 1967 Six-Day War. However, he added, this was brought about not only by arms purchased from the U.S. but by Israel’s own arms production-which-had increased enormously.
“We can state that all the small arms in use by the Israeli armed forces are locally made, all the auxiliary armament except heavy artillery, is locally made and even in complicated and sophisticated weapons systems there is very significant progress towards self-sufficiency,” he said.
Elazar added that “the new missile boats are not the only example,” but did not cite other examples. The first of the new missile boats built in Israel, the Reshef, will be launched at Haifa Feb. 19. It will be armed with the Israel-made Gabriel surface-to-surface missile.
Police with blow torches forced open the gates to the Ashdod port area which had been locked with iron chains by a group of striking temporary port workers who are demanding permanent workers status. The lock-out caused a three-hour work stop-page at the port today. Permanent workers rejected an appeal by the temporaries to join them in the strike. The Port Authority agreed to grant permanent status to only 70 of the 200 temporary workers.
Police arrested six more Druze villagers at Majdal Shams on the Golan Heights last night, bringing to 20 the number of suspects taken into custody since last week in connection with a Syrian-directed Druze spy ring. The suspects are accused of working for Shaquib Abu Jamal, a wealthy Druze land owner of Majdal Shams, who is believed to be the leader of the ring that was reportedly gathering intelligence in Israel and the administered territories and passing it on to Syrian agents.
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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.
