Defense Minister Shimon Peres disclosed today that Israel was building an electronic early warning system extending from Mt. Hermon on the Golan Heights to points south of Jerusalem so that it will not be “caught napping” as in the Yom Kippur War. He told members of the Engineers Club at their weekly meeting that Israel’s neighbors were erecting a similar “electronic wall.”
Peres said that the qualitative advantage that Israel has enjoyed in its past conflicts with the Arabs may be nullified by the very advanced nature of modern weaponry in enemy hands. He said the quantitative ratio of 3-1 in favor of the Arab armed forces against Israel should not be regarded as a “normal” starting position from which an Israeli victory in a new war was certain.
Peres said Israel was ready to talk with any of its neighbors interested in reducing tensions. But, he declared, “this state cannot be confined to a strait-jacket ten miles wide,” a reference to the pre-June, 1967 borders. There must be settlement “north, south and east,” he said.
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