Shimon Peres, Deputy Defense Minister, and Col. Ezer Weizmann, Air Force commander, returned yesterday from a brief visit to Washington where they reportedly negotiated with United States officials on the purchase of supersonic Hawk missiles.
Colonel Weizmann said there would be no difficulty for Israel to absorb and operate the ground to-air missiles which the United States agreed last year to sell to Israel. Mr. Peres, who met with President Kennedy at the Presidents request, said he was impressed by the President’s intimate knowledge of Middle East affairs.
Immediately on arrival, the Deputy Defense Minister flew from Lydda to Jerusalem for a personal report to Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion. He also met with Mrs. Golda Meir, Israel’s Foreign Minister.
Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion said today, in reply to a question about West German scientists aiding Egyptian advanced weapons development, that if Israel had any reason to fear Egypt–“and it has”–it was only from Egypt’s conventional weapons. He made the statement in an interview with Davar.
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