The Israel Government today lodged a protest with the president of the United Nations Security Council against the “menacing buildup” of massive arms by Egypt along the Israel frontier. At the same time, the United Nations received a report from its truce chief Maj. Gen. E.L.M. Burns relating in detail the Syrian killing of four Israelis in the attack ten days ago on Lake Tiberias, and implying that Israel was also at fault.
The Israel complaint, which will be circulated to all members of the Security Council, said that “close to 180 separate acts of aggression by forces under Egyptian control” took place during the last three months in the Gaza strip area. “The situation in the area has deteriorated sharply,” the complaint said. “The Egyptian attacks have become more frequent and more brazen, Egyptian troop concentrations, equipped with heavy armor and other modern weapons of offense are being massed on the borders; propaganda against Israel grows more warlike and more virulent with every passing day; in consequence, the lives and safety of the people of Israel are endangered and the peace of the region imperilled.”
The heightened tempo of Egyptian aggression on the borders and of Cairo’s increasing troop build-up “have been accompanied by an increase in Egyptian political activity against Israel,” the accusation declares. “Official Egyptian propaganda has reached an almost unbelievable pitch of shrillness and venom. The central theme, repeated every hour of every day in public utterances, in the controlled press and over the controlled radio services, is the destruction of Israel.”
Gen. Burns, in his report on the Syrian shootings at Lake Tiberias, establishes that the Israel boat “was fired at from various spots” but nevertheless he comes to the conclusion that “both sides violated the General Armistice Agreement.” “This new incident,” he says in his report, “should be considered by both parties not as further instance of the other’s aggressiveness, but as proof of the necessity to take adequate measures to remedy a dangerous situation.”
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