Monday, October 8, 1973
In this issue...
1
The Postal Service is going to spend a lot of money to
convince you that it’s really nice, after all. Find out how
and why — and how much.
American news sources may not have brought you the
whole story on AJlende’s downfall. External pressures —
mostly U.S. — forced internal blow-ups.
w / i
The People’s Republic of China celebrated its birthday
last week. The political climate, set in an industriously
agrarian environment, is changing.
The Ducks battled Michigan on even terms — but only on •
the stat sheet and lost 24-0.
Mid-East conflict rages
UN security session
asked by US leaders
UNITED NATIONS (UPI)-The United States
Sunday night broke a two-day period of indecision and on
instructions from President Nixon himself called for an
emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on the
Middle East.
Diplomats and U.N. sources agreed such a meeting
would not be held before this afternoon although con
sultations were to begin this morning.
There was some doubt, diplomats said, whether the
meeting could be organized at all as the Soviet Union and
China (and possibly other pro-Arab members of the 15
nation body) were expected to oppose it.
Neither the Arabs nor Israel had sought a Security
Council meeting this time—the first time in the long
history of U.N. involvement in the Arab-Israeli conflict.
The development came after a U.N. spokesman
announced that Saturday night the chief of staff of the
U.N Truce Observation Organization (UNTOO) in the
Middle East, Maj. Gen. Ensio Wsiilasuvuo of Finland,
issued an appeal for cease-fire in the field to both the
Arabs and Israelis and received no response.
This appeal was backed by U.N. Secretary General
Kurt Waldheim who “naturally supports efforts to this
end by the UNTOO General, the spokesman said.
Russian Reaction
The Soviet Union said it “resolutely supports” the
Arab states against Israel but, unlike in the 1967 war,
gave no hint that it might intervene in fighting.
A government statement carried by the Tass news
agency said responsibility for the war rests with the
Israeli government and “external reactionary circles”
encouraging its “agressive ambitions”.
Observers noted that the statement, the first official
Soviet reaction to the new fighting, was markedly milder
than its initial comment on the Arab-Israeli War six
years ago.
m
Arab firepower offset
by Israeli training
LONDON (UPI) — Recent military surveys of
the Middle East show that, on paper, Israel is
outnumbered and outgunned by both Syria and
Egypt, just as it was in -1967, when it scored a
decisive victory in the Six Day War.
Fully mobilized, Egypt and Syria have a 946
to-488 superiority in planes and can field a com
bined army of more than 1 million men and 3,300
tanks against Israel’s 275,000 men and 1,700 tanks,
according to military strategic experts.
The most modem tanks made by the Soviet
Union spearhead the Arab armies while Israel
relies mostly on obsolete armor supported by
about 150 American-made M60 tanks.
Balanced against this, military sources say
Israeli forces are better trained and have a major
advantage of terrain along the Suez Canal.
To bring its superior armor into play, Egypt
must not only get its tanks across the waterway,
but keep them resupplied with fuel by boat and
pontoon bridges open to destruction from the air.
By contrast, the Israelis, as the defensive
force, probably have sufficient stockpiles near
their second line of defense to hold out for several
days, military sources say.
The Arabs suffer a further handicap in the fact
that October generally provides some of the best
flying weather in the Middle East. Most analysts
believe Israel will be able to maintain air
superiority despite being outnumbered by the
Arab air forces because of higher skills among its
pilots and the longer range of the country’s basic
plane, the F4 Phantom fighter-bomber.
Egypt, Syria forces still advance
Israel blows bridges, strands tanks
From UPI reports
Israeli troops battled the armies oi
Syria and Egypt today in the third
straight day of fierce fighting,
claiming full mastery of the skies
but conceding Arab troops still held
sections of the Sinai Peninsula and
the Golan Heights.
An Israeli military correspondent
at the scene reported artillery duels
along the Suez Canal during the pre
dawn hours as Israeli warplanes
tried to knock out two remaining
Egyptian assault bridges over the
waterway.
Israel announced Sunday night
that it had smashed nine of the 11
pontoon bridges set up by Egypt
across the Suez Canal, trapping 400
tanks on the east bank without
supply lines.
The Egyptian military command
denied it.
On the forbidding plateau terrain
of the Golan Heights, Syrian forces
also reported further advances.
Damascus radio, broadcasting in
four languages including Hebrew,
urged Israeli troops to surrender.
An Israeli military spokesman
called the situation fluid but said
both the Egyptian and Syrian at
tackers in Israeli territory were
suffering heavy losses on the ground
while being unwilling or unable to
challenge Israeli pilots hitting their
air bases and ground defenses.
“Good results’' were reported in
the air strikes.
There was no indication how far
the Egyptians had penetrated across
the Suez Canal — one report from
the scene said they were stopped at
the water’s edge — but the Syrians
were said to be holding a bridgehead
in the Golan Heights.
The national radio said Israeli
losses were “not insubstantial” in
some areas while heroics, including
one tank knocking out 17 Syrian
tanks, were commonplace.
Ministers exchange barbs
Israeli Foreign Minister Abba
Eban said Sunday he had been in
touch with Secretary of State Henry
Kissinger “two or three times before
fighting broke out” in an effort to
avoid the renewal of war.
Eban said the withdrawal of
several hundred Soviet advisors and
the concentration of Arab troops
along the cease fire lines were in
dications that an attack was
forthcoming.
Egyptian Foreign Minister
Muhammed Hassan el-Zayyat said
Sunday his country started the
ground attack across the Suez Canal
cease fire line after an alleged
Israeli incursion earlier Saturday.
Zayyat, speaking to newsmen
after a taping for ABC-TV’s “Issues
and Answers” program, said the
Israeli attack came at 1 a.m. Cairo
time at the port of Sukhna but was
repulsed by Egyptian jet fighters.
Eban heatedly denied Zayyat’s
charge of prior Israeli incursion and
said, “my only consolation is that
he’s much too intelligent to believe a
single word of what he said.”