Israel’s Raid into Jordan Worries Three Arab States, Paris Reports

Jordan, Lebanon and Syria have shown “great anxiety” over the “apparent certainty” that Israel will respond militarily to any further attacks against its territory by Arab terrorists, Le Monde reported here today in a dispatch from Beirut. The three governments of the Arab states adjacent to Israel are worried, Le Monde reported, over the implications of Israel’s raid, last Saturday night, against a Jordanian base in reprisal for El Fatah raids which blew up a water pump in an Israeli settlement near the Jordanian border. In the retaliatory action, Israel blasted 11 pumping stations and irrigation installations near Kalkilia, on the Jordanian side of the frontier.

The governments in Beirut, Amman and Damascus now feel, according to the dispatch, that, in the future, Israel’s response “to Arab terrorist attacks will consist of direct military action against the territory of the state from which the attacks are launched.”

Le Monde reported that the security forces of Jordan and Lebanon were seriously worried also by the activities of El Fatah and planned repressive measures against it. Syria was reported to be the only Arab country which backs El Fatah, whose members consist mainly of Palestinian Arab refugees. The newspaper reported that the other Arab countries were doing their best to discourage El Fatah activities which might provoke a serious clash between them and Israel.

French political circles were understood not to have been surprised by the Israeli reprisal raid. In recent weeks, the Israeli Embassy here has maintained continuous contact with the French Foreign Ministry, keeping it informed of terrorist attacks on Israeli territory. French officials were understood to have presumed that Israel might launch an operation to discourage future raids on its territory.