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P*|« 2 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE July 7, 1978
Herzog: ‘no end In sight'
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Arab arms ‘ominous 9
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New York—By 1980, the Arab
dates will have more artillery than
the United States, almost as many
tanks, double the air power of
NATO and three times that of the
People’s Republic of China,
according to Chaim Herzog,
Israel’s, representative to the
United Nations.
The “ominous question which
arises,’’ he said, “is what are they
arming themselves for?"
Addressing the 65tb anniversary
dinner of the Anti-Defamation
League of B’nai B’rith at the Plaza
Hotel, Ambassador Herzog
warned that the Arabs’ “obsession
with the acquisition of seemingly
limitless weapons of destruction”
should be a source of concern not
only to Israel. Declaring that the
massive arms transactions during
the past year “exceed all previous
records,” he added that “there
seems to be no end in sight.”
He gave the following examples:
—Orders placed by Arab states
since 1977 for arms to be supplied
by 1980 amount to $35 billion so
far, of which S24 billion has been
expended by Saudi Arabia alone;
—The volume of Saudi military
orders since 1977, even without the
recent purchase of F-I5s from the
United States, exceeds the total
volume of all U.S. arms sales to
Israel since 1949;
—Projected Saudi arms orders
through 1980 could supply the
armies of the entire African
continent, as well as a majority of
the NATO forces—France,
Germany, Belgium, Denmark,
Norway and the Netherlands.
Ambassador Herzog, who
revealed several weeks ago that in
addition to the American jets,
Saudi Arabia is purchasing huge
amounts of armaments, including
late-model Mysteres and Mirages,
from the French, said that a
tenfold expansion of Saudi
military capabilities since 1972
makes that country, with a
population of some six million, the
largest single arms buyer in the
world. The facts, he declared, are
in direct opposition to “the picture
of a defenseless Saudi Arabia
concerned with 36 antiquated
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MIG- 19s in the hands of
Communist-guided Southern
Yemen...planes which have been
there since approximately 1970.”
He further pointed out that the
Arab states today have half a
million more men under arms,
three times the artillery, 3,000
more tanks and several hundred
m’ore aircraft than NATO.
The Ambassador called the
Arab states’ military prowess
“staggering from every perspect
ive, regional, global, economic.”
“One cannot escape the
conclusion,” he said, “that the
world is consciously ignoring a
situation fraught with the gravest
dangers for mankind.”
Discussing the stalled bilateral
talks between Israel and Egypt.
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Chaim Herzog (right) with former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State,
Joseph Sisco.
Ambassador Herzog criticized
“columnists, pundits and leaders
of opinion” who call Israel
“intransigent.”
“In sum total, we have
negotiated for not more than 15
hours,” he declared. “The United
States, on an issue such as
Panama, negotiated for 13 years.
The United States negotiated on
Vietnam for four years. Why
should we be expected to resolve
all the problems of a conflict of
decades in 15 hours? And if it is not
resolved in that period, why should
we be termed intransigent?"
New tactics at U.N.
Blum to replace Herzog
by Cart A1 pert
HAIFA—These very days
Israel’s new ambassador to the
United Nations will be taking over
from Chaim Herzog, who has
represented Israel so well at the
international forum for the past
four years. He is Professor Yehuda
Blum, a lecturer in international
law at the Hebrew University.
The appointment of Blum will
mark a radical change in Israel’s
tactics at the U.N. Jerusalem has
apparently come to the conclusion
that oratory and rhetoric may
command the applause of the New
York Jews sitting in the balcony,
but are of little value in influencing
decisions. Hence the selection of a
spokesman who is an authority on
legal and juridical aspects of Israel,
Arabs and the Middle East.
But Blum is no dry, dusty,
academic theoretician. His life
story itself is dramatic. He was
born 47 years ago in Czechoslova
kia, in a long line of rabbinical
scholars. The family went to
Budapest, and from there was
taken by the Nazis to Bergen
Belsen. His Bar Mitzvah was
observed at the concentration
camp, without a party, but he did
make a speech appropriate to the
occasion.
After the war he and his brother
were sent to Israel by Youth
Aliyah. He enrolled at the Hebrew
University, earned his law degree,
served three years in the army, and
later got his doctorate in law from
the University of London. Upon
his return he joined the legal staff
of the Foreign Ministry. It is worth
noting that Golda Meir conferred
the Arlosoroff Prize on him for his
research paper entitled “Borders of
the State of Israel.” The same
paper was later retitled “Security
Borders of the State of Israel,” and
has since become a basic document
for Israel’s diplomatic personnel.
He spent four months at the
United Nations undergoing a
training program in that body's
legal department, and therefore
knows the intricacies of U.N.
operations from the inside.
Professor Blum can be sharp-
tongued if necessary, but hopes to
present Israel’s case at the U.N.
through legal argumentation and
personal contacts. Since eloquence
and emotional appeals have not
been altogether successful in the
past, perhaps this new approach
may gradually help create a
different climate.
In the U.S. it was Kennedy who
began the process of tapping
academic resources for the State
Department, and his successors
followed suit. Despite its wealth of
academic manpower, Israel has
heretofore not called sufficiently
on this personnel for public
service. Perhaps the appointment
of Professor Blum marks a turning
point in this respect.
Israel's new ambassador to the
U.N. is an orthodox Jew. His
yarmulke will no doubt be
conspicuous in the General
Assembly. And his views on
Israel's foreign policy? It should
come as no surprise that he
endorses the line of the present
Israel Government. Indeed, more
than ten years ago, he published a
paper in which he provided sound
legal and juridical weight for the
thesis that Israel's claims to Judea
and Samaria and Gaza are far
greater than any that could be
advanced by the Kingdom of
Jordan or Egypt to these areas.
The two Arab states were
themselves invaders of the
territories, which they seized by
force in 1948, and hence have no
legal rights to uphold claims which
were at the outset illegal.
There may be a new look for
Israel at the U.N. this coming
season.