Friday, November 9, 1973—THE BULLETIN—3
UAR BLOCKING VITAL BAB EL MANDAB STRAITS
TEL AVIV -- Israel is taking an increasingly serious view I of the continued blockade of the straits of Bab el Mandab, tho I narrow neck of water connecting the Indian Ocean and the I Red Sea. Thirteen freighters are stuck in the Israeli port of iEilat at the head of the Gulf of Aqaba, many of them with I full cargoes for African and Far Eastern ports. They are un-I able to sail because of two Egyptian destroyers and several I submarines patrolling the straits. The Egyptian force is report-I edly turning back ships bound for Eilat. But a Japanese freight-I er unloaded a cargo of frozen tuna at Eilat recently and sailed I unmolested by the Egyptians who are apparently unwilling I to provide an incident with Japan.
iSRAEi CAPTURES CHARGE RED CROSS SHARES SAGGER" MissiiES ^^^^^ CEASEFIRE DEATHS
IRGE ARABS TO lATCH ISRAEL'S UMANE CONDUCT
Jerusalem Post
JERUSALEM—Israel's decision 0 allow supplies to reach the Egyptian Third Army and its moderate response" to the Arab efusal to observe the Geneva onvention on prisoners of war inoved the London Daily Telegraph ecently to call on the Arabs to eet the same standard of conduct. In an editorial the paper said: "Israel's enemies say she dare ot rout the Egyptian Third Army [ow because America would not lllow it. But there may not be ueh that America could do to ip it.
Instead, Israel has agreed to
t a supply column through to
r stranded enemies, g "Here in essence is the dif-bence between the standards of
nduct of the two societies con-onting each other in the Middle-
St.
For, on the same day Egypt was fusing tograntRed Cross access captured Israelis, Israel res-nded by stopping evacuation of ptured Arabs - which, consid-ing she could have denied the [eans of survival to 20,000 nien, s a moderate response indeed. "Let the Arabs now show sim-r standards."
TEL AVIV—A large number of Soviet-made "Sagger" anti-tank missiles were captured by Israeli forces during the War with Egypt and Syria and have been incorporated into Israel's tank corps.
The weapon, which confronted Israeli armored forces in the initial days of the war, comes in two forms, both electronically guided.
They are carried on special amphibious vehicles in batteries of six with eight in reserve. They also come in the portable "suitcase" package which can be operated by infantrymen.
TEL AVIV - An Israeli ambulance helicopter clearly marked with the Red Magen David, was shot down by the Egyptians after the cease-fire was declared, killing an Israeli physician who was in the copter tending the wounded.
This was revealed by Moshe Barnea, secretary of Amnesty International in Israel which sponsors the Public Committee for Israeli POWs.
Barnea charged that the Red Cross shares responsibility to
Dutch won't be intimidated
AMSTERDAM — In spite of an oil boycott by Arab states, Dutch public opinion does not appear to have been intimidated. Since the announcement of the boycott, non-Jews in Holland have been contributing to the United Jewish Appeal with committees formed in many towns.
Prominent Dutchmen, including three former Prime Ministers, declared their support for Israel in a full page newspaper advertisement on the crisis following , the attajck by Egyptian and Syrian forces on the Day of Atonement.
Arab measures against Holland include an oil boycott announced first by Algeria, Kuwait, Qatar and Abu Dhabi and joined now by Saudi Arabia, Libya and Bahrein; Iraq's nationalization of the Dutch holding in an oil company in the country; and curtailment of the services of the Dutch KLM airline by Iraq and Jordan.
Rotterdam processes large supplies of Arab crude oil and re-exports . big quantities to Belgium, West Germany and Scandinavia.
Holland possesses a pro-Israel image which largely stems from her sympathy for Dutch Jews, most of whom were deported by
BY MAURITS KOPUIT
the Nazis and murdered in European concentration camps during the Second World War.
The country has represented Israel's interests in the Soviet Union since the USSR broke diplomatic relations with the outbreak of the 1967 Six-Day War.
Joop den Uijl, the Dutch Prime Minister, has described as "extremely serious" the choice of Holland from among the European nations by certain Arab states for an oil boycott.
Both the^ Prime Minister and Max van der Stoel, the Foreign Minister, have announced that there is no change in the Dutch attitude towards the Middle East.
The Dutch Government supports the implementation of Security Council Resolution 242 of November, 1967, for Israel's withdrawal from occupied territories, but on the other hand, Israel must possess "safe and recognized" frontiers.
From the statement the Dutch • Government apparently follows the English text of the resolution specifying "withdrawal from occupied territories" and not the French text, which reads "withdrawal from the occupied terri
tories."
Mr. van der Stoel said that Arab States in imposing the oil boycott misunderstood Holland's policy towards the Middle East and he denied allegations that Holland had transported volunteers to Israel or had sent arms to Israel.
The Foreign Minister told a press conference this week that Holland's close ties with Israel (Continued on Page 1) See: DUTCH
FOREST DESTROYED
JERUSALEM - A Katyusha rocket attack launched from Lebanese territory just before start of ceasefire, caused forest fire destroying some 80,000 trees in a JNF forest between Kibbutz Misgav Am and Kiryat Shmona, Upper Galilee.
this crime because until now it has refused to recognize the Red Magen David's equal rights with the Red Cross or the Syrian Red Crescent.
The Amnesty secretary listed several violations of the Geneva Convention by the Arab forces including the rape of a Bedouin girl and her mother, murdering a girl on the Golan Heights, bombing the Druze villages on the Golan, shelling some 40 Israeli civilian settlements with "Frog" missiles and removing the shoes of prisoners-of-war to humiliate them.
He suggested that Israel should condition any assistance to the encircled Egyptian forces by following to the letter the demands of the Geneva Convention.
Springer came to "be with Israel"
LOD AIRPORT—Axel Springer, one of West Germany's leading publishers, arrived here recently aboard his private jet following the cancellation of the TWA flight to Lod on which he was originally booked.
Springer was met at the airport by his son. Axel Springer Jr., who had been covering the war as a photographer for the Springer papers.
"I came because I wanted to be in Israel in these difficult times," said Mr. Springer, an old and generous friend of Israel, as he stepped off his plane.
(Jerusalem Post)
NEWSPAPERS PLEASE COPY
BY GERALD KAUFMAN Columnist, London Jewish Chronicle
me while I
ANXIETY FOR ISRAELI POWs
(Continued from page 1)
lliberate flouting by Syria and ^pt of the accepted norms of Third Geneva Convention to fich they (and Israel) subscrib-And no wonder that in her |st major pronouncement on war peace in the Knesset Golda bir made the issue of the Israeli |Ws "one of the principal tests [the ceasefire."
The Geneva Convention of 1949 Stains, among others, three re-frements which Syria and Egypt peace in the Knesset (on Itober 23), Prime Minister Ida Meir made the issue of Israeli POWs "one of the icipal test of the ceasefire."
The Geneva Convention of 1949 itains, among 'lathers, three juirements which Syria and
Egypt had broken. First, that combatant countries should, not later than within a week, notify the International Committee of the Red Cross of the capture of any POW, together with all requisite particulars about him. Secondly, the representatives of the ICRC should have immediate access to the POWs. And, thirdly, that badly wounded prisoners should be repatriated even while hostilities continued.
By October 28, the Israelis had submitted to the ICRC the particulars of no less than 1,641 prisoners — 1,256 Egyptians, 354 Syrians, 17 Iraqis and five Moroccans. Another 5,000 Egyptian prisoners, captured in the last days before the ceasefire became operative, were still being processed and their names, too, are
k ISRAELI MOTHER WEEPS for her missing son during dem-Istration outside Knesset protesting Government's handling of lisoner of war issue. JCNS photo.
gradually being given to the Red Cross.
By that date, however, the Syrians had not submitted a single name of captured Israelis while the Egyptians provided the ICRC only with a garbled version of the names of POWs whose capture was public knowledge anyway.
They were the 37 soldiers (several of them wounded) who had surrendered at their outpost near Port Tewfik on the orders of the Israeli Chief of Staff, on condition that Red Cross representatives were present; the six wounded Israelis shown to the press and on Egyptian TV in a propaganda display; and five Israeli liaison officers with the former UN truce observers on the Suez Canal in whose presence they were taken prisoner.
Another 50 POWs have been recognized from press pictures and films which Israeli embassies abroad collected and sent home for agonizing identification by relatives and friends of the missing men.
Neither Egypt nor Syria complied with the requirement that they allow the Red Cross access to camps and hospitals holding Israeli prisoners. Premier Meir told American journalists (in a television interview) that Israel had been preparing the repatriation of the first group of Egyptian POWs from among the some 2,000 wounded. But she also made clear that Israel would not tolerate the continuous failure by the leaders of Egypt and Syria to comply with the Geneva Convention.
In the light of past experience, Mrs. Meir declared, the captured Israeli soldiers could not be left to the mercy of Sadat and Assad.
JCNS.
LONDON—Pardon
puke.
A few weeks ago, soon after the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War, the London Daily Mail expressed the hope that "this war will end speedily, having . . . chastened the Israelis' pride." Now the Mail's reporter on the spot whoops over "a spirit of all-conquering exhilaration among the Israeli troops."
The British Government insisted that its anti-Israel arms embargo would give it a special role in helping to bring about a ceasefire. Having played no part whatever in achieving that ceasefire, and having been excluded from any role in subsequent peace-making, it now complains because the Israelis are excluding it from a share in the spoils of their victory.
The Daily Telegraph reported last week: "Britain's fighting services and weapons industry are upset because they will be denied information about the latest Russian weapons gleaned by Israel in the Middle East war ..."
Why this melancholy? Because "there is a weapons market worth hundreds of millions of pounds to be fought for. In future American weapons, benefiting from the latest Russian secrets, may be a better buy than British."
HOW SAD it would be if the Israelis prevented the British arms industry from improving its wares, which could then be denied to the Israelis at their hour of greatest need.
The London Daily Express, putting its addoration for "Sir Arab Douglas-Home" (as a letter to The Guardian dubbed him) ahead of its need for Jewish readers to prop up its dwindling circulation, gave Israel no encouragement during its time of trial. With Israel's victory safely won, the Express is now ready to pay tribute to "one of themostbreath-
taking counter-offensives modern warfare."
m
In that statement, at least, the Express is accurate. For, now that the war really does seem to be over, it is time to dispel a myth that has grown up-that the outcome for the Israeli Army of the 1973 Yom Kippur War was inferior to that of the 1967 Six-Day War. In fact, the 1973 victory was far more remarkable.
In 1967 the Israelis had the advantage of surprise. In 1973 they were taken by surprise. And they were surprised by a mass of armor greater in numbers than the tank force which the Germans sent to attack Soviet Russia in 1941.
Thirty years ago the mighty Russians, with a population of over 150 million, crumbled and nearly fell. This time the Is-realis, less than three million strong and fighting on two fronts, stemmed this massive blitzkrieg in a few days. In a counter-offensive which only political considerations prevented from reaching Cairo and Damascus.
I do not glory in war. I detest it. I want my Israeli friends to be over and done with it. But October 1973 proved that if the Israelis are ever going to be chastened or learn their lesson, it will not be on the battlefield.
Newspapers on Fleet street, please note.
UAR PRISONERS GET ISRAEL MEDICAL CARE
LOD AffiPORT — Dozens of wounded Egyptian prisoners were flown here from Sinai recently after receiving first-aid on the battlefield from doctors with the Israeli forces.
Ambulances were waiting to take them to Sheba Medical Centre at Tel Hashomer. Wounded prisoners have also been hospitalized at Shmuel Harofeh Hospital in Beer Ya'acov.
(Jerusalem Post)