The Middle East is nearing the end of a six-to-10-year period of “relative calm,” Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin said in an address before graduates of the Israel Defense Force Staff and Command College Thursday. He noted that in the past few years the threat of imminent war with the Arab armies had been remote, but he added that Israel has erred in predicting the outbreak of war. He said the State must “learn the lesson and be attentive to changes which may occur.”
He added that unlike some other armies, the IDF cannot assume there will be no war in the next few years.
In two weeks, Rabin is scheduled to go on a four-day official visit to West Germany, where he will hold talks with West German defense officials and visit Holocaust sites. He will be the first Israeli Defense Minister to visit Germany.
Northern Command Maj. Gen. Yossi Peled, a Holocaust survivor, will accompany Rabin.
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.
