U.S. Call For Aid To Israelis

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32313, 3 June 1970, Page 17

U.S. Call For Aid To Israelis

(N.Z.PA.-Reuter—Copyright) WASHINGTON, June 2.

Nearly three-quarters of the members of the United States Senate have asked the Nixon Administration to provide Israel with more jet aircraft.

The Senate Republican Leader (Senator Hugh Scott) has delivered to the State Department a letter signed by 71 senators and addressed to Secretary of State (Mr William Rogers). “We feel that the strengthening of Israel's military position at this time is the best guarantee against the outbreak of major hostilities,” the letter says. Senator Scott also delivered a copy of a resolution he is co-sponsoring, urging President Nixon to call on the Soviet Union to withdraw Russian pilots and missile technicians from Egypt Asked if he believed that the balance of power had shifted to the Arab side as a| result of the Soviet Union; involvement Senator Scott j said that the Russians had tilted the balance to the extent of making Israel’s situation critical.

Israel asked some time ago to buy 25 more F 4 Phantom fighter-bombers and 100 A 4 Skyhawks. The United States said on March 23 that it was postponing action on the request on the ground that the balance of power in the Middle East had not swung against Israel. The White House has indicated informally that it welcomes the senators’ letter. There have been signs in Washington in recent weeks that the sale of aircraft to Israel would be approved ultimately. New Air Attacts Israeli fighter - bombers pounded targets across three Arab borders today, including a guerrilla base from which a rocket attack against Israel had killed a schoolgirl, aged nine. The aircraft flew into: JORDAN, to attack guerrillas who had fired rockets at the town of Beit Shean, on the River Jordan border south of the Sea of Galilee. The girl was killed on her way to school and five other children and three adults were wounded. EGYPT, in four strikes totalling more than seven hours, to attack military targets on the Suez Canal. LEBANON, to hammer guerrilla bases on the southwest slopes of Mount Hermon, the frontier area where the Israelis had made an armoured sweep again Arab guerrillas on May 12. Amman Version A Jordanian spokesman in Amman said that Israeli artillery hit the eity of Irbid. killing a child, aged six, and wounding 12 other persons, including five children and two women. In Tel Aviv an Israeli mill-

tary spokesman said that a 30-minute artillery battle developed in between the Arab attack on Beit Shean and the retaliatory Israeli air raid.

“We aimed at the sources of fire in Jordan.” the spokesman said. “The guerrillas were using Russian-made 130 mm Katyuska rockets, one of which exploded in a playground beside an elementary school in Beit Shean. “The Israeli Government is holding Jordan responsible for the attack, and our representative at the United Nations (Mr Yosef Tekoah) has been instructed to lodge a complaint there.” The assault on Biet Shean was the second Arab attack to claim the lives of children in two weeks. Guerrillas in Lebanon fired bazooka shells

into a school bus on the Lebanese border on May 22, killing eight children. This attack prompted the Israelis to begin policing the Lebanese side Of the border in an effort to keep the guerrillas away. The latest Beit Shean incident is expected to inflame further the tense situation on the Jordanian front The Israeli Minister of Defence (General Moshe Dayan), who hurried to the immigrant town of 12,400 people after the attack, hinted that there was action ahead when he declared: “The defence of Beit Shean is not only in the bomb shelters, but also in our tanks, artillery and planes.” Beit Shean is one of the most ancient sites in Israel. The bodies of King Saul and

his son, Jonathan, were nailed to the walls of the town by the Philistines. As the air raid sirens wailed yesterday, teachers quickly took children to the shelters for three hours. They emerged just in time to see waves of Israeli jet aircraft swooping over the Gilead Hills in Jordan in the retaliatory strike. Loud explosions could be heard and palls of smoke were seen rising above the Jordanian positions. At the same time, Israeli artillery began a barrage of fire against the Irbid sector of Jordan, and a half-hour artillery duel ensued. Elsewhere yesterday, Israeli aircraft continued their intensified bombardment of Egyptian positions along the Suez Canal after the Egyptian am-

bushes on Saturday, in which 13 Israeli soldiers were killed, four were wounded and two were taken prisoner.

‘Egypt Winning’

In Cairo, the Egyptian Minister of War (General Mohammed Fawzy) said the Egyptians were now winning their war of attrition against Israel, and were preparing for a decisive battle.

General Fawzy was reporting to the National Assembly five days before the third anniversary of the six-day war of June, 1967. The authoritative newspaper, "Al Ahram,” said that General Fawzy told the Assembly that civilian morale in Israel was falling, and that he ruled out any chance of a full-scale Israeli attack. “The Israelis know the situation is shifting against them, and the Israeli Military Command fears the time when our forces can reach the east bank of the canal safely,” General Fawzy is reported as saying.