Paul Sann Journalism, Letters , Writings

reporting

New York Post Thursday, October 6, 1955

Tel Aviv, Oct. 6--Is there anything Israel and the Arabs can get together on?
The answer is "no," now more than ever all the way down the line.
The result is that this corner of the Middle East; at peace except for four years of border incidents that get in the papers only because people keep getting killed, is now one great armed camp.
Israel concedes that it has 250,000 in its fighting force, not all in uniform but all very much available because the country is so small that total mobilization would be a mere matter of hours.
The figure can't be much of an understatement since it represents just about every man and woman here under 45 who can be counted upon for full frontline duty, but neither is it to say that no more than 250,000 would shoulder rifles to save the Jewish homeland.
As for the Arab armies, the published figures are wholly misleading.
Egypt, with a population of 29,900,000 against Israel's 1,600,000 lists its army at 100,000. Among the smaller Arab nations Iraq puts its standing force at 55,000, Syria at 40,000, Jordan at 25,000 and Lebanon at 7,000.
If this were accurate it would mean that the Arab world, 40,000,000 strong and panting to push the Israelis into the sea, had only 227,000 men in uniform against the Jewish pool of 250,000.
But longtime observers of the military operations of Egypt and her neighbors use another set of numbers in assessing Arab strength. They add 100,000 to Egypt's army and 100,000 to Syria's, 50,000 to Jordan's, 20,000 to Iraq's and 5,000 to Lebanon's.
If they're right the Arabs have more than a half million troops under arms or on reserve.
That would mean a two-to-one edge at the start if war broke out. The Arabs very likely also have the edge in firepower right now, with or without the Communist contracts Egyptian Premier Nasser is talking about.
Israeli officials contend that Arab military outlays triple their own and they admit that more than half the budget here goes for defense.
Whatever the numbers in men or dollars, the prospects are not bright.
Even so, there is no wailing in the streets here in a nation born in flames only seven years ago. The people go on sweating out a narrow living and praying for peace or maybe just years and years of border warfare. That prospect has begun to look bearable by comparison with the larger threat--in a dismal kind of way, that is.
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