One idea tentatively considered by the State Department this weekend as a means of pacifying the Israeli-Arab borders is said to involve a “cordon sanitaire” in which United Nations forces would patrol a zone on both sides of the frontier to deter infiltrations and reprisals.
Such a scheme was reported to envisage a U. N.-patrolled strip — possibly two to three kilometers wide — on both sides of the border. Roving U.N. patrols, helicopter surveillance, and fixed guard posts would seek a coordinated system to interdict and inhibit crossings in either direction. The divided city of Jerusalem presumably would be exempted.
The suggestion is one of a number of ideas advanced to control the inflammatory border situation, it was learned. A U.N. helicopter surveillance would be coordinated through close communications with ground units. Such an observation system would have spotted the assembly of an Israeli armored column in time to take emergency preventive steps, it was noted. But it was not explained how such a helicopter patrol would prove effective against lone Arab saboteurs or teams of two or three commandoes operating under cover of night.
The plan made it apparent that its proponents were mainly concerned with protecting Jordan from a recurrence of the Israeli military action that took place on November 13, and in keeping crossings limited in scope. This idea is one of a number of tentative proposals being discussed to “seal off” the Israeli borders to duplicate the passivity which now exists on the Israeli-Egyptian Gaza border.
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