“second Round” in Arab-israel War Possible, Chief-of-staff Warns; Wants Army Enlarged

Brig. Yigal Yidan, Chief of Staff of the Israel Army, in the first press conference he has given since he assumed his new post, declared today that the Army of the Jewish state must “be as prepared as ever to repulse any attack and fight the enemy on his own soil.”

In order to cope with the preparations being made across Israel’s borders, he said, the army must be enlarged. Preparations for a “second round” by the Arab countries, he stressed, were real and not a “propaganda scare.” The Israel Army, he stated, has proof of this and as a result, the size of the peacetime Army, for which the present Defense Law provides, would soon be insufficient. This was the reason that a number of amendments to the present law were submitted to the Knesset earlier in the week, he revealed.

The Israel Chief of Staff warned that the “war is not yet over.” He said the two-year military service act now in force enables many officers and enlisted men who started their army service in 1948 to obtain their release from service this year. He disclosed that volunteers for the army were numerous. Many of these volunteers, he stated, are veterans of defense organizations that go back many years. Many of these men, he said, now want to make a new start in civilian life and “their places must be filled by conscripts.”

Stressing that the army was “completely unpolitical,” Brig. Yadin affirmed that “personal qualities only, not political creeds,” are taken into account when appointments are made. “The Army should be pioneering in spirit, modern in outlook, democratic and technically efficient,” he stated. Women must be called up for a two-year period, he explained, because from ten to 20 percent of jobs in the Army could be filled by them as well or better than by men.