Israelis Critical of Soviet Warning That Jewish State Endangers Peace

Israeli officials were critical today of yesterday’s warning from Moscow that Israeli policies are endangering peace in the Middle East. Foreign Minister Abba Eban. who stopped here on his way to the 23rd United Nations General Assembly, termed it another “in a series of sterile warnings, always unilaterally supporting the Arab position and threats.” He charged that Soviet rearmament and support of the Arab states were responsible for the increased tension in the area.

(Israel’s Deputy Prime Minister Yigal Allon, addressing the Foreign Press Association in London, said “This is but another contribution to the tension in the Middle East and is irrelevant to the actual situation,” because Israel plans no crossings of the cease-fire lines.)

(An official statement issued by the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem today denounced the Soviet warning as “slander” and “the clarion call with which the Soviet propaganda machine heralds its ‘fall offensive’ on the occasion of the opening of the 23rd General Assembly.” The statement accused the Soviet Union of issuing its warning to Israel to divert world opinion to the Middle East as a “smoke screen” to cover its invasion of the territory of Czechoslovakia.)

Italian newspapers, with the exception of the Communist press, endorsed Mr. Eban’s assertion yesterday that it was necessary for Israel to maintain her deterrent power against aggression. Most papers saw confirmation of Mr. Eban’s press conference remarks in reports of increased Soviet naval power in the eastern Mediterranean, especially the presence of the aircraft carrier Moskva with its fleet of troop-carrying helicopters. The Rome daily Tempo said that “for Italy, the Soviet naval deployment in the Mediterranean is the equivalent of the threat against Germany posed by the occupation of Czechoslovakia.”