No-War Prediction In Jordan R. Dispute

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30339, 15 January 1964, Page 13

No-War Prediction In Jordan R. Dispute

(R.Z.P. A.-Reuter —Copyright) JERUSALEM, January 14. Israeli service officers, diplomats and citizens are confident the Arabs will not start a war over Israel’s intention to divert the Jordan river to irrigate the Neger Desert. Foreign Ministry officials say a 13-nation Arab conference in Cairo is likely to prove a nuisance value to Israel and nothing more. They base their no-war prediction on three assumptions:

1. The Arabs have no casus belli. 2. The ability of I s r a e I’s defence forces to repel attack, even from the combined forces of Arab neighbours. 3. President Nasser’s forces are tied up in the Yemen. Service officers are convinced the West agrees that Israel is entitled to proceed with the water diversion. The Soviet Union has shown no sign of backing the Arabs wholeheartedly on the issue. A Reuter cable from Cairo says that leaders of the Arab nations will hear military and technical reports on

Israel’s plan to divert Jordan water for irrigation. A communique issued last night after the opening session said the kings, presidents, and government heads would also consider “the Palestine cause and the Zionist threat in general.” The Arab leaders have put aside the long-standing disputes and enmities which have divided some of them to seek to draw up the expansionist Zionist danger as represented by “a new serious phase”—the Jordan. A conference official said Arab delegates would be unanimous in taking “vital measures.” As the Moslem fasting month of Ramadan begins on Thursday or Friday,' some observers think the session might end by Wednesday night. Arabs feel that if the scheme succeeds, Israel’s

economy would be boosted to absorb one or two million Jewish immigrants. The Arab League secre-' tary-general, Mr Adel Khalek Hassouna, said the diversion of the Jordan would “rob the Arabs of the right to benefit from their waters, attract more of the forces of fanaticism and evil, consolidate the aggressive imperialist creation in the Arab world, and liquidate the sacred rights of the Palestine Arabs.”

Mammoth Job

Israel seems to have adopted a policy of silence on the Jordan river scheme which is well under way, Reuter says. There are no details when water will start flowing through the giant network of canals and pipelines. Official spokesmen say the project is nearing completion. Testing, lasting some months, will then begin. Three rivers, one rising in Lebanon, one in Syria and one in Israel, unite in Israel to form the. Jordan. At present only oneseventh of the water is used. The rest evaporates or fills

the Dead Sea. Israel proposes to move 320 million cubic metres of water a year, half the length of Israel, from Lake Tiberias to the Negev Desert in the north. Water will be pumped from the lake, about 700 feet below sea level, into an open canal about 25 miles long. Two pumping stations will bft it to a height of 1200 ft above sea level. Then a concrete pipe, 108 inches in diameter will carry the water by gravity the remaining 65 miles. The cost is estimated at about £4O million. Israel intends to start the water pumping "sometime this (northern) summer.”