Premier Yitzhak Rabin told the Knesset today that Israel’s fire-power has increased substantially since the Yom Kippur War and assured parliament that even if Egypt receives the weapons it has requested from the Soviet Union, the balance of power between Israel and the Arab states would not become worse this year than it was on the eve of the war.
Rabin disclosed that by the end of 1975, Israel would have 85 percent more artillery pieces and 50 percent more tanks than it had on Oct. 6, 1973. Armored personnel carriers will increase by 25 percent and combat aircraft by 20 percent, he reported. Rabin added that the quality of Israel’s weapons would be significantly better than it was in 1973.
He said the lessons of the war and the recommendations of the Agranat Committee have been fully learned and applied, both to the army and the relevant civilian bodies. He said the only recommendation of the Agranat panel that is still under study is its suggestion that the Premier appoint an advisor on intelligence affairs.
INTELLIGENCE SYSTEMS FUNCTIONING BETTER
Rabin said the committee’s advice that alternative, non-military units assessing intelligence should be strengthened has been implemented. He said, in that connection, that the Foreign Ministry’s research department has been greatly enlarged and entrusted with broader functions. One lesson that Israel had learned, Rabin assured the Knesset, was not to underestimate the enemy and to submit all information to intelligence for double scrutiny and assessment.
As a result of major post-war reorganization Israel’s intelligence systems are now functioning better than ever before, Rabin continued. Military intelligence had been rebuilt from scratch with new criteria established for assessing intelligence information and a new body set up to examine the enemy’s combat theory.
Rabin addressed the Knesset following a debate initiated by Likud over the resignation of information Minister Aharon Yariv. His account of post-war improvements in Israel’s military capabilities was seen as a response to Yariv’s criticism of the Cabinet’s working patterns.
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