eclassi ed ass 54499 Date 3 042019 3 9 3 41 2 NEAR aas'r - 7 Israel Preparing Case to Justify Development of epen on u- ear apa i i The government appears to be preparing a case to Justify development of an independent nuclear capability It is also preparing for an intensified campaign to obtain advanced weapons systems from foreign sources--particularly the US The US Embassy in Tel Aviv believes that such a course is clearly indicated by Prime Min- ister Ben-Gurion's recent public statements emphasizing that limitations on arms in the Mid- dle East as favored by the US would in effect deny arms to Israel alone except in the unlikely event that the Soviet Union took similar action regard- ing the Arab states Placing Israel at such a disadvantage the prime minister said is likely to increase the danger of war in the middle East Ben-Gurion stated that neither a guarantee nor any a1 lianoe is sufficient for Israel's protection without adequate inde- pendent strength The Knesset subsequently adopted a resolution to increase Israel's deterrent strength These actions-have been accompanied by intensive propa- ganda at home and abroad on the increased'threat that the projected union of Egypt Iraq and Syria allegedly poses for Israel ln'actuality these states have been so preoccupied with their own difficulties that they have made no progress on the unification of their armed forces which was to have been one of the first steps' to implement their union seem 63 DIGEST Page 7 This document is from the holdings of The National Security Archive Suite 701 Gelman Library The George Washington University 2130 H Street NW Washington D C 20037 Phone 202 994-7000 Fax 202 994-7005 nsarchiv@gwu edu