Newspaper Page Text
repeated condemned were imperm
anent measures of release. Israelis
feel their cause is not being fairly
weighed. They feel deprived of
their inherent right of self-defense.
They feel aiso that they can de
fend t lemselves as successfully as
they did in 1948. The government
hears this anguish.
T ere is another fact at issue,
even more v»tal to the world at
large. The enemies of Israel are
growing stronger, armed by Rus
sia (in Egypt and Syria), by
Britain (in Egypt. Jordan and
Iraq a..d by America in Saudi
Arabia). There is a military al
liance concluded by Syria, Jordan
and Egypt, with the single avowed
purpose of their destruction. Their
economy struggles along danger
ously because tneir ships cannot
use the Suez Canal. It was grimly
humorous to them when British
shipment through the canal was
threatened and the Tory press sud
denly called “War”! Yet Israel has
for four years been, not threaten
ed, but actually denied the use of
the Canal, and their pleas have
hardly been heard in the United
Nations. Because of this blockade,
and because of the closing of their
Middle East markets, their econ
omic situation is almost as insecure
as their military one.
So it was that when I awoke
Tuesday morning, I was in the
middle of a war. The few buses
available the previous day had dis
appeared. My hotel was out of the
city and walking the three miles
into Jerusalem I was only one of
hundreds of hikers who moved
slowly forward, stopping every few
steps to gaze up and down the em
pty road in hopes that a rare car
would pass. Children were return
ing happily from schools which
were now closed. In the crowd were
soldiers fully armed and packed,
wr.men going to market, a few
older businessmen, sometimes a
worker, all stretched in long, then
endless rows, like taffy pulled out,
as far as the next bend.
Military police were stopping all
vehicles entering and leaving the
city. Trucks of fighting men
beeped through the people on their
way to Beersheva, the jumping-off
place into the desert. The Nation
was pouring troops into the battle.
The morning papers gave news
that the forces were well into Sinai
and had destroyed the fedayeen
commando bases just inside the
border. On the 11:00 A. M. news
broadcast, the announcer told of
paratroopers landing within ten
miles of the Canal. Fighting was
then going on near the town of
Suez itself.
Jerusalem had changed over
night. T e streets empty of ve
hicles, became pedestrian property.
The meaningless noise which had
been growing during the past
week now was formed into sounds
of war. Newspaper boys shouted
‘‘War” and heavy, kahaki trucks,
covered with netting and smeared
with mud rumbled on and on in
a single direction. Civilian men
were mostly old, and standing on
the sidewalks, they listened close
ly to a radio speaker which chanted
The Southern Israelite
news in an authoritivc Hebrew
voice.
I had coffee with a French stu
dent friend and then, guide book
reverently opened, proceeded with
my tourist duties. I was determin
ed to see what I could, having come
thousands of miles to see this an
cient city, war or no war. I must
have presented a curious sight,
stumbling about, snapping pictures
of synagogues and churches and old
ruins, where soldiers now strung
barbed wire and pretty girls with
bobby sox and rifles walked pat
rol.
By noon I was too tired and too
excited to find sightseeing any
thing but a little foolish. By then
United Nations station wagons
scurried furiously between the Old
and New city, through Mandle-
baum Gate. At stragetic places,
some one began pasting large, green
posters to walls and fences giving
the latest news of the fighting.
These became the continuous focus
of gathering crowds, like thirsty
animals arriving at a water hole
for refreshments. Radios were
turned up full volume in soda pop
stands, and people would stop in
the streets listening thoughtfully,
as they absorbed the words and
interpreted their meaning. To these
people who saw war as the only
course left to them, the Israeli
forces were almost unopposed and
were occupying most of the? Sinai
Peninsula. The air force was now
in action and had that morning
shot down two Russian-type MIG
fighters over the Canal. The fact
that the United National Security
Council, lead by the United States,
was calling an emergency meet
ing did not influence their joy.
Their faith in the UN as a source
of peace had long ago vanished,
principally because the UN had
been willing to interprete their re
prisal raids as aggressions but had
never taken measures to eliminate
the cause of the raids—the infiltra
tion of fedayeen gangs, the supply
of arms to surrounding nations and
the prohibition of Israeli ships
through the Canal.
The war was uncomfortable
close, only a few hundred miles to
the south.
The American Embassy had ad
vised all Americans to leave the
country immediately so late that
afternoon my good luck prevail
ing, I found an empty taxi and de
parted Jerusalem.
It was already night as we start
ed towards Tel Aviv where I had
left my luggage. The Nationals, 24
hours ago in a nervous peace, now
labled it war vigorously and fairly
organized. Soldiers laid wire, set
up communication systems, patroll
ed the streets or marched into the
desert. My taxi was stopped and
its headlights painted blue. It seem
ed macabre to rush through the
countryside, blue lights cn all ap
proaching vehicles, in rows of sil
ent and quickly moving people
defining the roadsides. The stars
alone served to light the way.
Where I had seen farms before,
with banana plantations and citrus
orchards, where kibbutzim lights
had dotted the hills and factories
GENERAL TRAVEL
Extends Best Wishes
CRUISES • TOURS • TICKETS
GENERAL TRAVEL SERVICE
PHONE 3-4567
TALLAHASSEE, FLA.
North Florida's Most Complete Camera Store
Daffal, a.SAee C am erci C enti
123 NORTH MONROE ST.
ACROSS FROM THE FLORIDA THEATRE
Rhone 2-8771
TALLAHASSEE, FLA.
Rest Wishes
FOREMOST DAIRY
Tallahassee, Fla.
Little Folks Store, Inc.
“The Capital’s Major For Minors”
133 NO. MONROE ST. RHONE 2-1146
TALLAHASSEE, FLA.
11