More U.N. Observers is No Solution to Border Tension, Israel Says

Israel rejected last night proposals by British Prime Minister Sir Anthony Eden and Secretary of State John Foster Dulles to “solve” border tension by stationing augmented forces of United Nations observers on the borders between Israel and the Arab states and by having Israel and Egypt each withdraw their forces a distance of one kilometre from the border thus creating a one and one-quarter mile wide strip to be administered by the UN truce supervisory organization.

In a statement by the Foreign Ministry, Israel insisted that Sir Anthony’s recent remarks in Ottawa and Secretary Dulles’ statement at a press conference yesterday were attempts to divert public attention from the “real danger threatening peace” in the Middle East. That danger, the Foreign Ministry said, was the military imbalance created by arms shipments to the Arab states. The border problem, with which the Anglo-American statesmen are so concerned, the Ministry characterized as “limited.”

Specifying its objections to the border proposals voiced in Ottawa and Washington, the Foreign Ministry noted that it would require the abdication by the states concerned of their rights and duties to protect their borders and their citizens. In addition, increasing the number of UN observers, whose functions under the armistice pacts are limited to investigation of border incidents, would not increase their effectiveness in discharging such functions.

The only serious border trouble now consists of the practice of Egyptian troops opening fire on Israel units without the slightest provocation, the Foreign Ministry said. The solution for this problem, it held, would be for the Egyptian high command to issue a strict cease-fire and to enforce its observance.