Middle East: Foray into Jordan

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By the first light of dawn, troop-car rying Israeli helicopters lifted off their pads near Jericho and Sodom and raced eastward deep into neighboring Jordan. As soon as they had landed their in fantrymen in blocking positions, the main Israeli invasion force began to roll. North of the Dead Sea, Centurion tanks laden with helmeted paratroopers and halftrack personnel carriers trun dling infantrymen rumbled across the Allenby and Damiya bridges onto Jordan's East Bank. A second task force punched across the border south of the Dead Sea. Israeli artillery laid down a barrage that walked just ahead of the advancing columns, and delta-wing jets blazoned with the Star of David criss crossed the skies. In the worst out break of hostilities in the Middle East since last June's Six-Day War, Israel last week launched a massive reprisal that raised the question of whether it may have got into the unhappy habit of overreacting.

Israel's targets in the attack were four towns that it claimed were being used as bases for Arab commandos infiltrating into Israel. In recent weeks the Arab terrorists (see box) had stepped up their activities; on the weekend before Israel's retaliatory thrust, they had made six attacks, ranging from outright firefights to a bomb set off in Jerusalem. In the worst incident, they blew up a bus carrying the children of government workers on a tour of the remains of King Solomon's mines near Elath, killing two adults and wounding 28 of the 44 children on board.

Through the Orange Groves. Israel's revenge came as no surprise. Four days before the invasion, Defense Minister Moshe Dayan warned that the Arabs were preparing for a "new wave of terror," which Israel would take steps to contain if King Hussein of Jordan could not. Premier Levi Eshkol told the Knesset much the same thing, and Israeli Ambassador Yosef Tekoah on the same day filed two complaints with the United Nations against the Arabs' "repeated acts of aggression." The stage was set for retaliation.

With all this warning, it was also not surprising that the Arabs were about as prepared for the onslaught as Arabs can ever be. South of the Dead Sea, the Israelis easily overran the three tiny towns of San, Feifa and Dahal, and some 20 guerrillas were reported killed. But the main Israeli attack on the onetime refugee camp of Karamah north of the Dead Sea proved to be another matter. When they were no more than a mile into Jordanian territory, the Israeli armored columns were met by Jordanian tanks, which gave fierce battle and pinned down half of the Israeli force. The other half raced ahead toward Karamah, across the river flats, through groves of oranges, olives, blossoming almond trees, across fields of young wheat and vegetables.

Out of Proportion. Warned in advance by Egyptian intelligence, most of the 2,000 Arab commandos who use Karamah as a training base had pulled back into the surrounding hills to snipe at the oncoming Israelis. Inside, some 200 guerrillas stayed on to defend the town. Outnumbered and outgunned, 110 perished in a series of sharp house-to-house firefights; another 100 Arabs were taken prisoner. Frustrated in their hopes of entrapping the entire force, the Israelis quickly pulled out, but had to fight their way back to Israeli territory.