Word: israel
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Israel, where flags flew at half-staff in mourning, Premier Levi Eshkol vowed that "the Lord shall avenge their blood." Israelis speculated on earthly reprisals, from bombing the 17,000 Iraqi troops stationed in Jordan to knocking out Baghdad TV. However, the executions presented Israel with a cruel dilemma: any reprisal would inevitably endanger the 2,500 Jews still living in Iraq...
...Israel had another reason to heed appeals for restraint, particularly from the U.S. Any retaliation would surely fan fresh talk of war in the Middle East, and undermine the latest Israeli diplomatic thrust. It is aimed at countering a Russian proposal for a big-power settlement to be imposed on the hostile nations of the region. Such a settlement would protect the Arabs and presumably consolidate Russia's position in the Middle East. But the Russian initiative also stems from fear that any all-out conflict might involve the two superpowers in a nuclear showdown...
...proposal as a trap, since any imposed settlement would put out of reach their goal of a peace treaty negotiated directly with the Arabs. In essence, the Israelis contend that their extended borders vastly lessen the danger of war: the Arabs are not in a position to fight, and Israel, with defense in depth, has no need to hit first as it did in 1967. Israel's argument is convincing, except for its presumption of rationality on all sides...
...hanged was a good man. Some of the most important men in Iraq came to his store. He was very, very far from politics." The speaker was Benjamin Aharon, 51, who left Baghdad in the early 1950s as did more than 100,000 fellow Jews, and now lives in Israel. Although his family had lived in Baghdad and Basra for centuries, he had no regrets about leaving. "We were all suspected of being spies for Israel, but we did nothing, nothing . . . They are Nazis." The 2,500 Jews who remain in Iraq today live under a reign of terror...
...hangings in Baghdad were a bitter dramatization of the plight of the many thousand Jews who still live in the Arab world, and Israel opened a determined publicity and diplomatic campaign designed to protect them. They are among the remnants of the great Diaspora-the dispersal of the Jews from Jerusalem after the conquest of their capital by the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar in 586 B.C. Down through the centuries, Jews and Arabs got along with one another reasonably well; though Jews generally were treated as second-class citizens, they were respected as "people of the Book." They prospered as traders...