Arab Attacks Continue to Menace Suez Area

(Continued from Page 1)
mand to attempt to create the im-
pression that the entire region was
on the verge of a new outbreak of
war. It was timed, he said, to coin-
cide with Foreign Minister Abba
Eban's departure for Washington
to confer with President Richard
M. Nixon and was apparently
Cairo's intention to prompt Presi-
dent Nixon to take action to force
an Israeli withdrawal from the
Canal as a means of averting a
new all-out war. Israelis also be-
lieve the Egyptians were ad-
dressing themselves to the Big
Four who were confering at the
UN on a Mid East settlement.
(At the conference held in
Cairo Wednesday, Arab chieftains
proclaimed that any country send-
ing arms to Israel will be con-
sidered an aggressor. It was a
warning directed at the United
States and Great Britain).
Israeli spokesmen said the UN
observers called for a cease-fire
on Saturday and Israeli gunners
complied but resumed firing when
the Egyptians ignored–the order.
Sunday's events duplicated those
of Saturday when Egyptian artil-
lery opened up at 5:30 local
time along the whole canal front
from Kantara in the north to Suez
in the south. The attack was pre-
ceded five hours earlier by an ear-
ial dogfight over Israel-held terri-
tory in which Israeli jets shot down
one Egyptian MIG-21 and drove
off three other intruding MIGs.
The plane burst into flames. Its
pilot, who bailed out over Israeli
territory, was identified as Lt.
Mouhamed Abdul Bakhi, 21. An
Israeli spokesman said he was
rushed to a hospital by helicopter
where attempts were being made
to save his life. Egyptian sources
admitted that one MIG was shot
down but claimed to have shot
down one Israeli plane. Israeli
sources said all planes returned
safely to their bases.
The Egyptian MIGs were appar-
ently on a photo-reconnaisance
mission prior to the artillery bar-
rage. The artillery attack, which
was described as a massive bar-
rage of the kind favored by the
Russians. erupted simultaneously
from Kantara at the canal's north_
ern entrance to Suez in the south.
Cairo claimed that Israel began
the attack near Ismailia and the
shooting then spread over the en-
tire front. An Israeli spokesman
said a cease-fire was called for
7:45 p.m. local time by UN ob-
servers and Israeli forces observ-
ed it. He said the Egyptians in the
northern sector stopped shooting
but enemy artillery along a 15-
mile front° on the southern flank
kept up the fire. The Israelis said
they resumed shelling at 8:05 p.m.
but suspended fire 20 minutes later
in response to another UN cease-

fire call. When the Egyptians
failed to do likewise the engage-
ment was resumed at 9:05 p.m.
and lasted until 10:40 p.m. when
the shelling subsided on both sides.
Cairo claimed that it was the Is-
raelis who failed to obey UN cease-
fire orders. The Israeli timing for
the cease-fire requests did not co-
incide with those broadcast by
Cairo Radio.
The fight along the Canal fol-
lowed two weeks of continuous
sniping by Egyptians in which at
least nine Israeli soldiers were hit.
Lt. Gen. Odd Bull, chief of the
UN cease-fire observation corps,
reported to Secretary-General U
Thant that the sniping was initiat-
ed by the Egyptians in most cases.
Thant warned last week that it
could lead to a major outbreak of
fighting along the Suez front.
Dayan warned the Egyptians sev-
eral times.
In a radio ;interview broadcast
by Kol Israel', Gen Dayan said,
"We are not as weak along the
Suez Canal as the Egyptians be-
lieve and we have the capacity to
hit back hard and painfully .
If the Egyptians do not want to
observe the cease-fire and they
continue to snipe, they will get
back what they need to open their
eyes."'
Last October an eight-hour ar-
tillery duel along the Suez cost
Israel 15 dead and 31 wounded
Four days iater Israeli comman-
dos penetrated deep into Egypt to
blow up a transformer and two
bridges. The reprisal was followed
by a period of quiet until the snip-
ing incidents escalated last month.
Fierce artillery duels across
the Suez Canal which Israel says
Cairo initiated in an apparent
deliberate attempt to create a
new war scare in the Middle
East, has had disastrous conse-
quences for Egypt, a military
spokesman said today.
At least nine oil storage tanks
at Port Suez near the canal's south-
ern end went up in flames, de-
stroying an estimated 27,000 tons
of fuel. Three Egyptian ships at
Port Ibrahim on the Gulf of Suez
were hit by Israeli shells and one
was set afire. A fertilizer plant
adjacent to the damaged oil re-
fineries and Egyptian army en-
campments and artillery positions
were also hit and seriously dam-
aged. There was no estimate of
casualties to Egyptian military
personnel but they are believed
to have been heavy.
(At the Riad funeral in Cairo
Monday, the procession was led
by a grim-visaged President- Gamal
Abdel Nasser as throngs pressed
against police lines shouting for
"revenge." The foreign ministers
of 13 Arab League states met in
the Egyptian capital to deal

with political and diplomatic
issue s. Gen. Bull, flew to
Cairo from Jerusalem for a
meeting at the request of Egyp-
tian Foreign Minister Mahmoud
Riad. Egyptian diplomatic sources
said Gen. Bull would be asked to
warn Israel that the fighting along
the Suez Canal might have "grave
consequences." Egypt claims that
Israel started the artillery duel
in violation of the cease-fire and
shelled civilian areas. Gen. Bull
has already informed the UN that
the fire-fight was initiated by
Egypt. Fighting took place all along
the canal from Qantara to Suez.)
Israeli military circles had high
professional regard for Gen. Riad
who was named chief of staff by
President Nasser after Egypt's
disastrous defeat in the Six-Day

War. He was killed while person-
ally inspecting Egyptian artillery
positions at Ismailia early Sunday
morning.
Israeli military sources said it
was unusual for a nation's top
military leader to be at the front
lines at such an early hour and
that it indicated that the Egyp-
tian artillery attack was delib-
erately planned and ordered by
the highest authorities and was
not the result of a skirmish that
was escalated on the initiative of
local commanders. Israeli cir-
cles believe that other high rank-
ing Egyptian officers. may have
been killed or wounded in the
burst of Israeli tank fire across
the 150-yard-wide Suez Canal
which killed Gen. Riad. They
said the Egyptian chief of staff

Wearing his familiar eyepatch, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe
Dayan tours the area along the Suez Canal with Israeli Chief of Staff
General Haim Bar-Lev (right) and members of his staff.

was not likely to have been on
his inspection tour alone and
probably was accompanied by
headquarters staff officers.
Israeli military circles also indi-
cated that Egyptian shipping in
the Gulf of Suez was a target of
their artillery for the first time.
A spokesman said the hits scored
on three vessels were a reminder
to Egypt that Israel had the power
to blockade Port Suez and Port
Ibrahim. They pointed out that
Egypt would have immense diffi-
culties if it was forced to rely on
land transport to bring supplies
from the south that ordinarily
would be carried by ship.
Although the fire exchange in-
volved thousands of rounds of am-
munition and hundreds of weap-
ons, Israeli troops were spared
the heavy casualties of last Octo-
ber. Since that battle, concrete
bunkers and underground fortifica-
tions have been built.
(Both sides filed several letters
with the Security Council blaming
each other for starting the fight-
ing.)
(In Washington, the government
deplored the violation of the United
Nations cease-fire, especially since
"lives were lost in such skir-
mishes," State Department
spokesman Robert J. McCloskey
said. He was asked at a press
conference to comment on the ar-
tillery duel. McCloskey confirmed
that Israel Foreign Minister Abba
Eban was to meet with Secretary
of State William P. Rogers on
Wednesday. He had no information
on a report that King Hussein of
Jordan plans a trip to Washington.
On the status of the Big Four talks
on the Mid East. McCloskey said
such talks had not yet been sched-
uled.)

Israel, Arab ,Lands Must Work Out Peace
Without Interference Arthur Goldberg

(Direct JTA Teletype Wire
to The Jewish News)

LONDON — Arthur J. Goldberg,
the former United States ambas-
sador to the United Nations, de-
clared here Tuesday that the SeCu-
rity Council's Nov. 22, 1967, Mid
East resolution which he helped
draft was a clear call for an over-
all peace settlement between the
parties directly concerned and not
for a piecemeal settlement to be
carried out before Israel and the
Arab states reached a contractual
agreement on secure, recognized
frontiers and other items contain-
ed in the resolution.
Goldberg, who is president of the
Anierican Jewish Committee and is
visiting here on behalf of that or-
ganization, gave his interpretation
of the resolution at a press con-

.Egyptian firefighters play streams of water on blazing fnel . storpge tanks at the Nasr
• oil refinery in Suez Which was hit in a four-hour Israeli barrage.

ference here and in an address
later before the Institute of. Jewish
Affairs of the World Jewish Con-
gress. On both occasions he stress-
ed that the letter and spirit of the
resolution left no doubt that "the
parties to the conflict should be
the parties to peace." Others can
and should help," he declared in a
reference to the proposed Four-
Power talks on the Mid East, "but
their contribution should be to sup-
port Ambassador Gunnar V. Jar-
ring's mission, which is to promote
agreement and assist efforts for
peace."
He said the 1967 resolution
which established the mission
assigned to Dr. Jarring made it
clear that his role was to bring
the two sides together, not to act
as an arbitrator between them.
Goldberg's •interpretation of the
resolution, which most diplomats
regard as the cornerstone of fu-
ture peace in the Middle East, car-
ried the authority of a man who
was, in large measure, responsible
for its text and its unanimous ac-
ceptance by the Security Council.
He noted that other proposals
offered at the time by Russia and
Yugoslavia were rejected. "The re-
solution must be viewed as a
whole," he said. "The idea and
proposition on the withdrawal by
Israel to the former armistice
lines was defeated."
As for where the limits of an
Israeli withdrawal should be, Gold-
berg said "This is covered by the
insistence of the resolution of an
agreed and accepted settlement on
both sides and on secure fron-
tiers."
He said the resolution clearly
left the implementation timetable
to be worked out by the parties
concerned. "It is common sense
to assume that some problems
such as the opening of the inter-
national waterways of the Suez

Canal and the Straits of Tiran
-̀are bound to take less time in
their implementation than others
such as the Arab refugees." He
said this "flowed from the legis-
lative history of the resolution."
Goldberg said that in his view
diplomacy was the only way to a
Middle East settlement. He said
that while there were apparently
no immediate prospects of a settle-
ment and that recurring acts of
violence were a hinderance, a
settlement was bound to come
sooner or later. He said "The UN
charter requires that each nation in
the area must accept the right of
the others to live. The Arabs must
renounce any state or claim of bel-
ligerency which the Security Coun-
cil has found inconsistent with
peace as far back as 1951. The
Israeli withdrawal must be within
the context of a peace settlement
as agreed between the parties."
The former UN envoy and U.S.
Supreme Court Justice said that as
a private citizen he was no longer
privy to the policies of the U.S.
But, he said, he was unaware of
changes in the U.S. policy in the
Middle East. He said he knew of
no intention to change the decision
to supply Israel with Phantom jet
fighter bombers.
Goldberg said' "We cannot be
sure whether the Russians genuine-
ly want peace in the Middle East"
because "They have not been a
force for peace there recently and
on the contrary have exercised a
disruptive influence."
He said Israel's casualties dur-
ing the Six-Day War in proportion
to its population were equivalent to
all the casualties suffered by the
United States to date in the Viet-
nam War. He said Israel's casual-
ties since 1948 amounted to more
than 8,000 persons killed, propor-
tionately greater than U.S. casual-
ties the whole of World War II.

-

Related stories pages 14, 15, 16 and 17.
711E. DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

48—Friday, March 14, 1969

