Israel Not Afraid of Flow of Arms to Arabs, Ben Gurion Indicates

Prime Minister David Ben Gurion, addressing the Israeli Military Academy today, indicated that Israel was not afraid of the flow of arms to certain Arab countries. “The flow of arms to Arabs,” he said, “will not be helpful to them in overcoming Israel, since our strength is with the human being and his spirit and morale.”

The Prime Minister reviewed Israel’s achievements after the Sinai campaign and emphasized that Israel’s name now enjoys more esteem throughout the world than during the pre-Sinai days. Among the achievements he listed was the freedom of passage of Israeli shipping to the port of Elath which had been hampered by Egypt before the Sinai campaign. However, he emphasized that he was not sure whether “we shall not have to struggle, or even fight, for this waterway again.”

Another achievement was that the Sinai campaign made Israel a factor in the Middle East, Mr. Ben Gurion said. He also enumerated other achievements, including rapprochements with a number of countries. In his speech he also suggested a possibility existed that Jews might emigrate to Israel from countries which hitherto had not been even thought as a possible source of Jewish emigration. Although he mentioned no names, it was taken for granted he meant the Soviet Union and other Communist countries.

CHIEF OF STAFF SAYS SOVIET AND WESTERN ARMS STRENGTHEN ARABS

Gen. Moshe Dayan, Israeli Army Chief of Staff, told the same audience that Russian help to some Arab countries as part of the Soviet campaign to establish a firm foothold in the Middle East, and Western assistance to “pro-Western Arab countries, had resulted both in strengthening the Arab countries and increasing their hostility toward Israel.

He said the increased hostility was due to the fact that the Arab countries no longer feared any foreign power intervention on behalf of Israel. Against this anti-Israel development, Gen. Dayan listed the widening split in the Arab world with Syria and Egypt ranged against Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Lebanon, and changes in Jordan’s Arab Legion, which he listed as “positive factors” from Israel’s viewpoint.

He did not describe the “changes,” but it was assumed he meant the decline in the effectiveness of the Arab Legion, once considered the best Arab army in the Middle East, as a result both of the ouster of its British officers and of the exposure by King Hussein of pro-Nasser elements in the Legion.

Gen. Dayan said that, “for the time being,” fedayeen activities were not continuing and that quiet existed on Israel’s borders with Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt. He added that the recent outbursts along the Syrian border were probably due in part to the Russian arms gifts build-up of Syrian military strength. He also warned that Syria threatened to use force to prevent completion of Israel’s Jordan Valley water project.