Questions were raised anew in some quarters here today over the wisdom of sending high ranking Army officers into the front line combat against Arab guerrillas. The policy was questioned as the nation mourned the deaths in action Friday of Lt. Col. Moshe Peles, a paratroop commander, and Maj. Doron Manor, who led their men in a brief but violent skirmish with an El Fatah gang in the hills near the West Bank town of Jenin. Six Israeli soldiers, including the two officers, were killed and four were wounded when their patrol was ambushed. A military spokesman said the El Fatah band was later wiped out.
Military sources said here today however that the Army officers will continue to lead their men and will continue to order “follow me” and not “forward.” They maintained that the policy of officers-to-the-front was responsible in great measure for the high morale of Israeli troops and distinguished Israeli fighting forces from the armies of most other countries. But the feeling was growing in other quarters that Israel can ill afford to risk the loss of some of her best trained, most experienced officers in relatively minor clashes with guerrillas.
Lt. Col. Peles was, in addition to being a brilliant soldier, one of Israel’s national heroes of the Six-Day War. He distinguished himself in the fierce battle to drive the Jordanian Army out of East Jerusalem and it was he who hoisted the Israel flag over the city on June 8, 1967, climbing to the cupola of the El Aksa mosque, the highest point in the old walled city, while snipers’ bullets whistled around him. Maj. Manor too, was considered one of the most promising young officers. The son of a member of the Irgun Zvai Leumi, the military underground organization of the Mandate period, he rose in rank from private to major. He was married only a year ago.
Friday’s battle in which the two officers died was acknowledged to have been the most serious encounter to date with guerrilla forces. The fact that it occurred 11 miles west of the Jordan River, deep inside Israel-occupied territory, was also regarded as serious. It gave rise to speculation here and abroad as to whether Israel would take retaliatory action, when and in what form.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
