Israel Government representatives have opened negotiations with British and American oil companies on a plan to build an oil pipeline from Elath to Haifa to by-pass the Suez Canal, it was reported here today from Jerusalem.
The pipeline could be built in one year and would cost $30,000,000, the rep ort said. It would be 16 inches in diameter and would carry 4,000,000 tons of oil a year. The line would terminate at Haifa where the oil would be refined at refineries which now operate at far less than capacity because of the Arab refusal to sell oil to Israel or to pipe it into Israel. The Israel plan is for tankers to unload in the Gulf of Akaba, at Elath, the report stated.
At the same time, it was indicated here today that the Foreign Office has given no consideration, nor does it intend to give any thought, to the proposals for the digging of an alternate canal or the construction of an oil pipeline across Israel. Apart from the cost, it is felt that such a canal or pipeline would have to be constructed only in the event of closure of existing facilities. If such a situation ever arose, the Foreign Office believes, the Arabs would be equally prepared to halt supplies through a cross-Israel pipeline or blockade the Red Sea entrance to an alternate canal.
Meanwhile, the influential weekly Economist calls on the government to consider an alternative channel to the Suez Canal and not to dismiss the idea as visionary. The newspaper suggested that the de facto border area between Israel and Egypt along the strip from Akaba to Gaza could be placed under United Nations authority–with Israel and Egyptian agreement–and could carry pipelines, land traffic and possibly a canal.
BRITISH DIPLOMAT URGES GOVERNMENT TO STAND BY ISRAEL
The importance of “Britain’s standing by its friends,” was stressed last night by Sir Knox Helm, former British Minister to Israel, addressing the Liberal Party’s summer school at Cambridge. Sir Knox asserted that Britain and the United States “went a long way to building up Colonel Nasser.”
The former envoy referred to Israel as the “strongest weapon in the armory of Arab nationalism” adding that without its anti-Israel rallying point the Arab world would fall apart because of internal differences and divisions. He expressed the opinion that Nasser is not yet ready to make war on Israel.
Referring to the “tragic human problem” of the Palestine Arab refugees, Sir Knox charged that they were being exploited for political ends. He said that the refugees, prey to troublemakers and agitators of all kinds, constituted a real danger.
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