Moscow Radio Attacks Israel on ‘diversion’ of Jordan Waters

Radio Moscow again assailed Israel’s “perilous diversion of the Jordan River waters” in a broadcast heard here today. The broadcast was in Arabic. The Soviet commentator asserted that the water project was “the climax in Israel’s anti-Arab activities” and linked Israel with NATO. He said that “this year, Israeli leaders visited the NATO capitals and were welcomed everywhere and promised all possible aid–economic and military.”

The broadcast referred specifically to the visit last month to Paris of Gen. Yitzhak Rabin, Israel’s Chief of Staff, and Col. Ezer Weizmann, commander of Israel’s Air Force. Radio Moscow said that the two Israeli military leaders became “acquainted in France with a large number of modern weapons. It is not difficult to understand the motives which move the Israeli army chief to study such weapons. France is one of the biggest arms exporters to Israel.”

The broadcast charged that “Western policy is directed toward the encouragement of armaments and the increase of tension in the Middle East. Behind all this is the perpetual desire of imperialists to distract Arab attention from peaceful creative work.”

Charging that the Western countries exploited “every possible means to increase tension between Israel and the Arabs” to impose their will “on the Middle East people,” the broadcast stated that, “in this complex situation, the Soviet Union, a real friend of the Arabs, reaffirmed its solidarity with them in a joint Soviet-United Arab Republic communique recently.”

The broadcast also charged that “the imperialists” were trying to undermine the “Arab faith” in Soviet aid “against Israeli intrigues.” Specifically, charged the commentator, “they are paying for anti-Soviet articles published in the Lebanese press, misrepresenting the Soviet attitude toward the Jordan water issue.”