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Izvestia, Pravda Attack United States Decision on Negotiating Phantom Jets for Israel

October 30, 1968
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The two leading Soviet newspapers, Izvestia and Pravda have attacked the United States decision to negotiate with Israel the sale of supersonic F-4 Phantom jets. Leonid Koryavin, in an article in Izvestia, the Soviet Government organ, wrote. “The decision of the United States to supply Israel with offensive weapons – and the supersonic Phantom fighter- bomber is precisely this kind of weapon–is evaluated by political observers in the Middle East as one step which, if cleared of its verbal husks, spells only one thing, namely encouragement for Israel to launch fresh aggression.”

Writing in Pravda, Communist Party organ, Igor Belyayev said, “There are odd coincidences which are ruly most striking. For instance, the U.S. had hardly expressed its readiness to supply Israel with F-4 fighter-bombers, when the situation in the Middle East became still more aggravated. Volleys of Israeli artillery constantly thunder in the Suez Canal area and on the River Jordan, aircraft are sent into action, and the bellicose Israeli generals speak ever more frequently about a new round of the Sinai war.”

Both articles were reprinted in full in the “Review of the Soviet Press,” a bulletin issued here by the Soviet Mission to the United Nations.

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