Peres Warns of Gravity of Syrian War Preparations

Defense Minister Shimon Peres told the Knesset today that Syria had received almost as much military hardware from the Soviets in the 10 months since the Yom Kippur War as in the six years between 1967 and 1973. During those six years the Soviet Union had sent into Syria $2.5 billion worth of arms–and since Yom Kippur $2 billion worth, he said.

The arms included the MIG-21 “Flogger” plane, an advanced version of the top-notch Soviet fighter-bomber, Scud ground-to-ground missiles and large quantities of heavy artillery especially 180-mm. mortars. In addition, the Syrian army had been engaged in large-scale training maneuvers while the Damascus politicians were seeking to woo Jordan into a revived “eastern front” alliance of aggression against Israel.

Israel, however, would not allow itself to be surprised again, Peres declared. Zahal (the Israel Defense Force) is taking all the requisite measures. Only a strong Israel would succeed in keeping the peace option open–while at the same time deterring the enemy from resorting to force, or defeating him if he did so, Peres said. The Minister was replying to a motion for the agenda by Likud leader Men achem Beigin who demanded that the Knesset debate “the political and military situation” before it adjourns for the summer recess next week. Beigin’s motion was struck off the agenda by 49 coalition and Rakah and Moked votes against 35 from Likud and the National Religious Party.

BEIGIN RAISES FATE OF WEST BANK

Peres said he and other Israeli leaders had sought to present the fact of Syrian war preparations without understatement because the people had the right and duty to know what possibilities lay in store for them. He rejected Beigin’s charge that the government had not been forthcoming enough on the threat of renewed hostilities. At this point Likud Knesseter Yigal Hurwitz interjected: “Why did (Foreign Minister Yigal) Allon say on American TV that war was not likely?”

(According to the transcript of the Allon interview yesterday on WNBC’TV’s “The Today Show,” the Foreign Minister said, “…you have to expect a war in the foreseeable future. It’s possible, I would say. Not inevitable.”)

Beigin said it was pointless for the government to declare that it would ask the nation to determine the fate of the West Bank by holding elections “when the time comes,” since government ministers in their statements–and apparently in their dealings with King Hussein –were already expressing Israel’s readiness to return large areas of “Judea and Samaria.” He urged that a referendum be held before any such negotiations began. Beigin revealed that during the period of the national unity government an Israeli emissary met with Hussein–but said the emissary had told the King he had no mandate to discuss a return of West Bank territory.

The issues of the West Bank and meetings with Hussein were also raised in two earlier motions by Likud’s Ehud Olmart and Moked’s Meir Payil, both referring to the NBC report of a meeting on May 27 by then Premier Golda Meir and Defense Minister Moshe Dayan with Hussein.

WILL MISS NO CHANCES TO CONFER WITH ARABS

Replying to these motions, Premier Yitzhak Rabin said he would not waste the Knesset’s time discussing a story which had been denied (by Mrs. Meir). The motions were both struck off the agenda.

Rabin stressed that his government would miss no chance of holding open or secret meetings with Arab leaders if the Arabs so desired. The government, he said, had formulated no plan yet for a West Bank settlement–but it certainly had rejected Hussein’s proposal for a Jordan River disengagement pullback. “Should there be other ideas we shall study them–but we have heard no others,” Rabin said. If an overall peace agreement could not be reached, he continued, Israel would willingly work for partial arrangements, while maintaining the lines on which its forces were stationed now.