MIDEAST I
"Where You Come First"
rYoung Israel of Oak Woods
Kosins
cordially invites you to attend their
, ,
III Ili
Pre•Chanuka
32nd Annual Dinner
Uptown
Southfield Rd. at
11 1/2 Mile • 559-3900
Big & Tall
Southfield at
101/2 Mile • 569-6930
Sunday, Dec. 13, 1987 — 22 Kislev 5748
at
BARRY'S
LETS RENT
IT
Young Israel of Oak Woods
24061 Coolidge Highway, Oak Park
Guest Artist
Couvert $62.50
Sidney Resnick
per plate
PARTY RENTALS
OUR NEW LOCATION
Dinner Chairmen
Nathan Butrimovitz
Fayga Dombey
4393 ORCHARD LAKE RD. N. OF LONE PINE
IN CROSSWINDS (FORMER PINE LAKE MALL)
I 855-0480 I
For further information, please contact
Young Israel Office — 398 ,1177
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A Third Generation Roofing Family in Detroit
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Single-Ply and Built-up Systems
Fully • insured
Call Scott or Roy Woolf
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in Southfield
646-2452
Studio In Harvard Row Mall
The
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50%-70% OFF
ALL NAME BRANDS
• Vertical Blinds
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Free in Home Design Consulting
Hours: Mon.-Sat. 10-5
Thursday 10-8
352-8622
New Rochester Hills
651-5009
Combatants' Strengths
Detailed For The Public
CARL ALPERT
H
aifa — The book was
published only a few
weeks ago. It was
launched at a press con-
ference at Tel Aviv Universi-
ty, announced in the
newspapers, and presumably
placed on immediate sale in
bookstores in Israel and other
countries of the world. If past
experience can serve as a
guide, dozens of copies were at
once snapped up by agents of
various Arab states. Perhaps
a score or more of copies were
acquired in Tel Aviv, and at
once shipped across the river
into Jordan, whence they
made their way to other lands
of the Middle East. The
material in the book is of
prime interest to Egypt,
Saudi Arabia, Syria, Algeria,
Libya, Iraq, Iran, Kuwait,
Tunisia and all the others. In-
telligence officers of these
countries will spend long
hours studying the text and
analyzing the comments.
The book is entitled The
Middle East Military Balance
— 1986, written by Aharon
Levran and Zeev Eytan. It is
produced each year (this is
the fourth volume) by Tel
Aviv University's Jaffee
Center for Strategic Studies,
and is published by the
Jerusalem Post in this coun-
try, and Westview Press in the
U.S.
In some 450 pages it
surveys the major strategic-
political developments of the
year in the Middle East,
analyzes the '-' military
strength of the countries in-
volved and studies the opera-
tional capability of the major
armed forces.
It gives details of the Arab
military buildup, country by
country, tank by tank, plane
by plane. But it is equally
revealing of developments on
Israel's military scene. It pro-
vides details of our army,
navy and air force, with
statistics on equipment.
Thus, we learn that Israel has
626 combat aircraft, 215
helicopters and many more
ancillary planes. Our navy
has three submarines and 47
combat vessels, including
speedy patrol boats and
hydrofoils.
Our standing army com-
prises 170,000 men, with
ready reserves of 370,000. We
have 3,900 tanks and 8,000
armored personnel carriers
and reconnaissance vehicles.
There is much more, of course.
We are given a long list of
countries in all parts of the
world to which Israel has
reportedly transferred (sold)
arms. Recalling embargoes
against us in the past, it is en-
couraging to read that today
we manufacture artillery,
rifles, mortars, mines, tanks,
bombs, missiles, torpedoes,
LCT's, radar and a long list of
additional vital military
hardware.
All this information, we are
assured, has been approved
by domestic censorship for
publication.
Little wonder that the book,
which costs around $30,
should be in demand in Arab
lands.
Similar information is pro-
vided for each of the Arab
states. Perhaps of special in-
terest is the analysis of the
organized military forces of
the Palestinians, in all their
competitive units. Arafat's
Al-Fatah, the Al-Fatah rebels,
and the others headed by Dr.
George Habash, Naif
Hawatmeh, Ahmed Jabril,
Abu Nidal — to mention just
a few of the more familiar
names — command forces
totaling some 16,300 men, of
which about half are today
stationed in Syria. We are
even given a breakdown of the
weapons in their possession.
The book does not duck the
issue of Israel's nuclear
potential, and questions
along this line were asked at
the press conference. Does
Israel have the bomb? The
book: "On the one hand,
Israel indeed does not actual-
ly possess nuclear weapons;
on the other, and in view of its
ongoing nuclear effort, it has
positioned itself to be capable
of producing nuclear weapons
in less time than it would
take the Arab countries to do
so."
The total of Arab strength,
quantitatively, exceeds ours,
but it still lags behind us
qualitatively, despite
desperate efforts in the Arab
world to acquire high
technology skills. They still
have problems of technically
skilled manpower, and the
more sophisticated their
equipment becomes, the
greater their problem. Hence
the importance of
technological education to
Israel, and the need to give
top priority to institutions
like the Technion.
Aharon Yariv, head of the
Jaffee Center, and former
head of Israel military in-
telligence, sees little danger
of imminent war in the Mid-
dle East, for four major
reasons: 1) financial problems