Where Israel Draws the Line

...As in previous plans, its role would be to crush the Israelis' front-line fortifications (the so-called Bar-Lev Line...

...There are, of course, internal differences about tactics and even final territorial adjustments, but the government and public are in solid agreement that a return to the June 5, 1967 borders would eventually lead to another Arab attempt to eliminate Israel...

...A further source of irritation was Thant's urging Israeli withdrawal from Sinai to the British Mandate line--borders not mentioned in any relevant Security Council resolution...

...The Russians have created for the Egyptians a formidable missile defense shield composed of carefully overlapping high- and medium-range SAM-2 and low-range SAM-3 missiles...

...If those 1,200 guns open up on the Bar-Lev Line at full blast...

...There are certain things beyond which our American friends have to realize we will not go...

...Despite intensified flight training during the truce period, there seems to have been no corresponding upgrading in the fighting quality of the Egyptian pilot...

...There is keen awareness here that Cairo's "positive response" to special UN envoy Gunnar V. Jarring's Mideast initiative has placed Jerusalem on the defensive, with enemy and friend alike condemning its unwillingness to withdraw from the territories occupied during the Six Day War in exchange for a peace agreement...

...Defense Minister Moshe Dayan succinctly expressed the nation's sentiments recently when he said, "Israeli presence at Sharm el Sheikh without peace is preferable to peace without the Israelis' presence...

...From an international standpoint, the cease-fire imposed on all combatants by the UN Security Council in June 1967 remains in force...

...Less publicized is the impressive strengthening of the heavy artillery across the Canal, now believed to consist of some 1,200 of the latest Soviet long- and medium-range guns...

...More important, though, Israeli officials felt the elimination of these artificial time limits might free Sadat from the impulse to climax every deadline by saying or doing something impressive...

...But whether the Israelis repeat the same tactics or try to spring something new...

...Eliahu Salpeter is a member of the editorial board of Ha'aretz, one of Israel's leading newspapers...

...That he delayed his report on the Jarring mission (commending Egypt for responding "positively" while condemning Israel for not doing so) until two days before the scheduled expiration of the cease-fire was seen as support for Soviet-Egyptian efforts to pressure Washington into an open split with Jerusalem...

...Unless, that is, someone high up in the General Staff wanted it to...

...Actually, the whole question of whether or not to extend the ceasefire is a perfect example of a contrived controversy...

...Prime Minister Golda Meir, already under attack in the Knesset for her "conciliatory" remarks on the border question to the London Times, had no choice but to denounce Rogers' proposal in the most vehement terms--as much for reasons of internal credibility as security...

...If he really wanted to talk business, it would be somewhat easier without this unnecessary pressure...

...the Air Force will play a key role--especially if progress in developing electronic means to counter the SAMs is as great as foreign aviation publications report...

...This restraint has now been removed, but military observers here maintain that Egyptian troops along the Canal are sufficiently well-disciplined not to allow any minor shooting to expand over a wide section of the front...

...In the coming weeks, each side's reaction to the other's reconnaissance flights will act as a sort of seismograph for what is going on at the respective General Headquarters...

...He urged that Israel renounce "acquisition of territory" in favor of a political agreement guaranteed by an international peace-keeping force...

...These are supported by high-velocity anti-aircraft guns...

...Since President Sadat's unexpected indication that he was willing to put his name to an agreement, therefore, Israeli leaders have been searching for ways to persuade the world--and especially the United States--that a return to the June 5, 1967 borders would amount to a truce, not genuine and lasting peace...

...Meanwhile, the Egyptians have considerably improved their own front-line fortifications...

...Assuming Israel's jets evade the SAMs in this hypothetical encounter, Egypt's planes will be compelled to engage them...

...Yet Israelis did find some comfort in an interview President Nixon gave UPI shortly after his Foreign Policy Message...

...As long as Cairo subscribed to the truce, there was little danger that a small incident would lead to a major flare-up...

...Sadat's March 6 declaration that there would be no further extensions thus evoked no particular concern in Israel...

...Rogers' press-conference statement that, excluding the Gaza Strip, "the 1967 boundary should be the boundary between Israel and Egypt," was of little solace...

...But no amount of pressure, be it from the UN or the U.S., will alter the Israeli officials' belief that they must insist on border changes vital to the country's security...

...But the White House appears determined to avoid a major crisis in relations with Israel, realizing that would arouse public ire and force the leadership to adopt a more intransigent position...

...Although only a few responsible Israeli leaders expect a resumption of full-scale battle along the Suez Canal in the near future, the present military line-up is of enormous diplomatic and political importance...

...Moreover, Israel felt Sadat should be given an opportunity to turn his "heroic" renunciation of the ceasefire into a de facto armistice, in accordance with the 1967 UN resolution...

...And the Foreign Minister sought to get across much the same point in both his public appearances and his private conversations with American and United Nations officials...

...It was clearly a case of his having to cover up the diminishing returns of his oft-repeated threats...

...Israeli jets will again have to silence them, though the forest of SAM missiles will make the task more difficult than it was a year ago...

...When Cairo, in response to a proposal by Secretary of State William P. Rogers, agreed last summer to a three-month armistice, Israel went along but stated that as far as it was concerned both sides were still bound by the unconditional and unlimited UN cease-fire...

...It also means that Washington can consider more seriously Egypt's appeals to intercede with Israel on its behalf...

...Indeed, there are observers here who speculate that President Nixon has already made some quite significant concessions to the Arabs...

...Should Egypt decide either to resume its war of attrition or attempt to cross the Suez in force and establish a bridgehead on the east bank, the heavy artillery would be the spearhead...

...It is as if someone suggested that the buyer's endorsement is in itself sufficient payment for the property," an Israeli politician remarked three weeks ago, just before Abba Eban left for his brief visit to the United States...

...But no sooner had Cairo terminated its formal truce than the Secretary General resumed his reports to the Security Council on the strategic situation along the front, although neither side had resumed military activities (apart from the customary mutual overflights...

...Analysts here interpreted this to mean that while Washington would bring considerable diplomatic and political pressure to bear on Israel, its failure to comply with U.S...

...By dramatizing the potential for renewed hostilities in this way, Thant was serving Egyptian propaganda interests...

...For the benefit of the Israelis, they also have conducted several amphibious and pontoon-landing exercises in open view on their side of the Canal...

...According to Israel's unusually well-informed military correspondents, no dramatic improvements have been made in the capacities of the Egyptian Air Force...

...To avert another war, he said, the U.S...

...Official reaction here to Secretary of State Rogers' March 16 news conference reflects the delicacy of the situation...

...Israelis view the recent actions by UN Secretary General U Thant--like virtually everything he has done in the Middle East dispute since May 1967--as unnecessary provocation...

...was committed to maintaining a balance of power in the Middle East...

...THE QUEST FOR SECURITY Where Israel Draws the Line BY ELIAHU SALPETER Tel Aviv Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat's refusal to formally extend the Suez Canal ceasefire beyond its March 7 expiration gave some relief, but not very much, to Israel's battered world image...

...The Israelis, it is said, were not greatly impressed...

...In a sense, Israel's current predicament is the inevitable product of a 12-year campaign stressing that all it wanted of its hostile neighbors was a peace treaty...

...Israelis are convinced, too, that they can hold out until they are able to negotiate defensible borders, regardless of whether Sadat chooses to wage full-scale war or resume Nasser's war of attrition...

...The recently restored arms parity means that neither Egypt nor Russia (short of a major direct intervention) can forcibly remove the Israelis from Sinai...

...And this is Egypt's Achilles heel, the damper to whatever dreams Cairo may have of battlefield glory...

...Between "defensible borders," mentioned by President Nixon in a 1970 press conference, and "insubstantial border changes," suggested by the President two months ago in his Foreign Policy Message to Congress, Israelis perceive a very great and depressing difference...

...Nor have they abandoned all hope of bringing the West around to appreciating why these rectifications are so critical...

...This was corroborated by American officials following Mrs...

...To underline his point he cited Cairo's handling of the cease-fire, considered here as simply another proof that Egypt demands preconditional and unconditional acceptance of its terms--rejecting the negotiated settlement that is customary when nations that waged war wish to make peace...

...wishes would not affect the flow of vital military supplies...

...The late President Nasser's unilateral "abrogation" of the truce and initiation of a "war of attrition" were violations of this cease-fire order, as were Israel's subsequent retaliatory strikes deep inside Egypt...

...We cannot trust Rogers' offer, even if it is proposed in good faith," she declared...

...Meir's rejection of the Jarring initiative and the Rogers proposal for international guarantees...

...This position was reiterated after Sadat succeeded Nasser and agreed to a three-month and then one-month extension, each time trying to raise the ante for his compliance...

...While basically true, this has obscured the fact that the kind of settlement Israel has in mind involves more than a piece of paper signed by both sides: It would require a fundamental change in the Arab attitude toward the permanence of the Jewish State...

...The truce, of course, has enabled both sides to beef up their military positions...

...Yet for all the false drama surrounding the cease-fire, there was no denying the value of a formal Egyptian undertaking to abstain from hostilities...

...After more than 2,000 years in which persecution, rejection and insecurity have been the outstanding characteristics of Jewish existence, security--for itself, and by extension for Jews everywhere--is the essential element of the Israeli concept of peace...