A Poised Fist

In the foothills of Galilee, where Jesus once preached the glad tidings of redemption, Arab and Israeli gazed into each other's cannon. Both sides declared themselves willing to accept the proffered help of the United Nations in resolving the border disputes that have grown in recent weeks to dangerous levels. For the Israelis, however, trust must equally reside in Israel's highly mechanized and vigorous army, without which the 19-year-old nation might long since have been pushed into the sea. Last week Premier Levi Eshkol came under heavy pressure at home to unleash his mailed fist in retaliation for what is interpreted in Jerusalem as nothing less than Syrian brinkmanship.

Mobile Armor. The Arabs well remember that the Israeli army rolled smartly over Egyptian forces on the Sinai Peninsula in 1956 without even being fully mobilized. Though not given to formalities--"If the soldiers feel like saluting, they may if they want to," says one officer--the Israelis are superbly trained and motivated fighters. Israel can command some 250,000 men (v. Syria's 60,000) within 72 hours. Under Premier David Ben-Gurion, the nation decided that its security was best assured by armored units and paratroops capable of striking deep into enemy territory. The army is thus divided into three regional commands, and some of its officers believe that the northern command alone could sweep to Damascus in three days.

The Syrians enjoy a strategic edge because their bunkers are ensconced high in the escarpments overlooking the demilitarized zone. But the Israelis can strike hard at these redoubts from the air, flying in French supersonic Mirage bombers and Skyhawk attack planes recently bought in the U.S. During the Sinai drive, Israel relied on only a few squadrons of French Mysteres for air protection. Now it has some 500 combat jets--four times as many as Syria. It can transport its troops in helicopters. It can roll up 160-mm. mortars and modified Shermans with 105-mm. guns so accurate that they knocked out three of Syria's Russian-made tanks across the border two weeks ago.

Expecting the Worst. Israel's defense forces are built to meet the worst possible combination that could be put against them, but no one expects a combined, integrated offensive by all its neighbors right now. Though Israel is far mightier than it was a decade ago at Sinai, Premier Eshkol still vows to investigate every avenue of diplomacy before striking another punitive blow against terrorism. At home, Eshkol is burdened with an economic recession and the highest rate of unemployment (9%) in more than a decade. In the U.N., he has already been censured by the Security Council for Israel's raid on Samu in Jordan last November.

Yet many Israelis are eager to teach the Syrians a lesson. "How many 18-year-old Cohens have to be killed before the government activates our legitimate right to national self-defense?" cried Knesset Opposition Leader Menahem Beigin about a youth killed by a Syrian mine. Both Israel and Syria last week accepted U.N. Secretary-General U Thant's plea for talks on farming rights within the demilitarized zone, but the Israelis are skeptical. They believe that Syria is intent only on challenging Israel's territorial rights.

Around the disputed zone itself, the planting season has come to the hills of Galilee. The farmers, whose chief politics is the soil, will once more move out under the guns--the Israelis in their armor-plated tractors--to sow their crops in the 19-sq.-mi. disputed sector. Whether they will reap a harvest of bullets or grain depends upon how eager both sides are to avoid extending the hostilities.

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