Syrian and Israeli aircraft took to the air again today to strafe and bomb ground targets on the Golan Heights. An Israeli communiqué said an undisclosed number of Israeli planes had strafed Syrian targets south of the salient that the Israelis occupied in the October war. Earlier, the communiqué said, four Syrian aircraft attacked Israeli forces in the southern sector of the salient. The statement said all Israeli planes had returned safely and. there were no casualties in the Syrian bombing. Yesterday evening three Israeli soldiers were killed and four wounded when their vehicle struck a land mine near the fortified settlement of Gitit in the West Bank which Israel took from Jordan in the 1967 War. Although the communiqué did not say so, it was believed that the mine had been planted by Palestinian commandos.
In another announcement, an Israeli spokesman said security forces had “discovered” a sabotage group in the district of Ramallah of the West Bank, adding that it attacked an Israeli security patrol last November 8. The announcement did not say how many people, presumably Arabs, had been arrested, but said that “at the time of the arrest two weapons and communications equipment” stolen from the patrol had been found. The sabotage group is also suspected of having set a fire at two banks in Ramallah, the spokesman’s office said.
The hostilities today came on Israel’s Memorial Day, when the country mourns its dead in four wars, and on the eve of the 26th anniversary of independence. In a letter to bereaved families, Defense Minister Moshe Dayan said “only a few months have passed since ‘the Yom Kippur war, and, the firing on the Golan Heights has not yet ceased.” Referring to the hopes for disengagement that Secretary of State Kissinger will be seeking to promote on his forthcoming visit, Mr. Dayan said: “We are now engaged in renewed attempt to lay the foundation for peace and the separation‐of‐forces agreements are a first step towards this aim — and to pave the way toward peace, one in which our sons may live without the shadow of war and in which our generation may carry out its mission.”
Backed up by a concentrated artillery and mortar barrage, Syrian tanks under the cover of smoke screens climbed the slopes of Mount Hermon to shell Israeli positions today. Newsmen visiting the battle zone from Damascus had to take cover several times as shells, antitank rockets and antiaircraft missiles screamed around the snow ‐ streaked mountainside. Israeli jets attacked three times while reporters were in the area. One of the planes was seen falling in flames to the west after an apparent missile hit. The jets, in formations of four, generally flew at a high altitude to avoid ground fire. They fired rockets and dropped bombs, but all the ones within sight fell wide of the Syrian positions. The party of newsmen, representing Western and Arab organizations, was taken to the slopes of Mount Hermon, a 9,232‐foot triple‐peaked massif that overlooks Syria, Israel and Lebanon.
A bloody battle has been raging here for 13 days. The cease‐fire that ended the October war is forgotten. United Nations observers are powerless to do anything but watch the fighting. Most of it has been exchanges of artillery, tank and mortar fire But a Syrian lieutenant colonel in charge of reconnaissance operations said there had been hand‐to‐hand combat several times in the last few days. He said Syrian troops had gained several strategic positions at heights of more than 8,600 feet. Syrian soldiers entrenched in positions high up on the mountainside wore white uniforms to merge, with the snow. The colonel described Mount Hermon as “the sleepless mountain” because the fighting had been going on around the clock. The heaviest action has been around the two main peaks, about 400 yards apart. They are of strategic importance as observation points for directing artillery and air strikes deep into the battle field of the Golan Heights.
“I really and truly believe the time will come when our neighbors will live with us in peace,” Premier Golda Meir said tonight on Israeli television. “I doubt if I will be around to see, it, but I am sure it will come.” The 75‐year‐old leader, who resigned April 11, made it clear in an interview in her Jerusalem home that she would transfer her mantle cheerfully. The generation of leaders that will succeed to power, she said, will certainly be better and more efficient. She said she, had no plans for her retirement and did not want any. She is looking forward to getting up in the morning knowing she has a long day ahead of her to do anything she wants. She wants to cook for her children and grandchildren, she said, adding: “Of one thing I am certain: I will not yearn to be in the Cabinet or the Knesset.”
The United Nations Security Council, by a vote of 13 to 0, adopted last night a resolution condemning Israel for “violation of Lebanon’s territorial integrity” and also deploring “all acts of violence.”
The Egyptian government said that a group of terrorists who attacked a Cairo military academy last week had intended to seize President Anwar Sadat and overthrow his regime. A statement by the national prosecutor’s office said that the chief plotter in the attack had met at length with Colonel Muammar Qaddafi, the Libyan chief of state, last year.
Several senior Iraqi officers, including the air force chief, Brigadier Hassan Hayaoui, have been arrested as the result of the discovery of a plot to overthrow Iraqi President Ahmed Hassan Bakr, according to a report in Tehran, Iran. Meanwhile, there were new claims of continued fighting in northern Iraq between Kurd rebels and government troops.
The Shah of Iran said in an interview published by a Zurich newspaper that there was still room for increases in oil prices. Of member nations of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, he said only Saudi Arabia opposed further price increases.
Lebanese security forces occupied American University of Beirut and ejected students who had occupied the administration building in a strike against higher tuition. Interior Minister Bahij Takieddin said police arrested 61 Arab students when they tried to block roads by setting fire to old automobile tires in protest of the police action.
Striking workers and students apparently took no heed of an Ethiopian government warning of stern action as more work stoppages seemed imminent. In Addis Ababa, taxis were stoned as well as schools, and 2,000 employees barricaded themselves in the highway authority headquarters over work demands. An emergency cabinet meeting was held, and diplomatic sources reported the government on the verge of declaring a state of emergency.
Günter Guillaume, a personal adviser to West Germany’s Chancellor Willy Brandt, was arrested on charges of espionage, after West German intelligence discovered that Guillaume was a spy for East Germany’s Stasi security service. Brandt would resign as Chancellor 12 days later.
Large, jubilant crowds greeted Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-Massachusetts) as he toured Leningrad, the last stop on his week-long visit to the Soviet Union. Kennedy and his wife, Joan, went sightseeing, visited the cemetery for Leningrad’s war dead, lunched on cabbage soup with workers at a generator factory and stopped at a store on the way to the Hermitage Museum to buy several hundred dollars’ worth of souvenirs.
A military group calling itself the Armed Forces Movement took over a Portuguese radio station and issued an appeal to all army and police forces to go to their barracks and await orders. They said they wanted “to liberate the country from the present government,” and told the population to remain calm and stay off the streets. Eyewitnesses said that troops and tanks moved on the Defense Ministry, but it was not known if the troops were loyalists or rebels. The rebel forces were believed to be protesting Portuguese colonial policies in Africa.
The Roman Catholic Church in Chile issued a declaration accusing the military junta of permitting the use of torture, arbitrary and lengthy detentions, causing large-scale unemployment and making job dismissals for political reasons and of establishing an economic policy described as shifting the burden to the poor. Chile’s Roman Catholic bishops, in their first joint declaration since the military coup last September, criticized the regime for arbitrary detentions, the use of force in interrogations, and lack of legal protection for detainees. In a personal remark following release of the declaration, the Catholic primate of Chile, Cardinal Raul Silva Henriquez, said continued armed resistance to the junta “appears to us totally useless and immensely harmful to our country.”
Counterfeiters in Colombia have produced and passed in the United States more than $1 million in fake U.S. currency, according to a Treasury Department report presented to the fourth regional conference of the International Police Organization in Panama. “One single plant operation centered in Colombia is believed to be responsible for producing over 105 different types of counterfeit United States currency,” the report said.
Elections were held in South Africa for 169 of the 171 seats of the Volksraad, called in English the House of Assembly. Voting was limited to White voters, with non-White citizens not allowed suffrage in the white-minority ruled nation. The National Party of Prime Minister John Vorster increased its majority, winning 122 seats compared to only 41 for the United Party of De Villiers Graaff, whose party won a majority only in the province of Natal.
Lawyers for the House Judiciary Committee plan to propose tomorrow that the committee narrow its impeachment inquiry to focus only on the most serious potential charges of wrongdoing by President Nixon. The areas would include the President’s possible role in the Watergate cover-up, his income tax returns, the activities of the secret White House intelligence unit, the settlement of the International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation antitrust suit and contributions from dairy producers.
The government began to sum up its case against former Attorney General John Mitchell and former Commerce Secretary Maurice Stans, charging that the two men “sat at the very pinnacle of government in this country” and thought “they were above the law.” The prosecution’s summation followed the closing remarks of Mr. Mitchell’s lawyer, who called the case “a prosecutorial vision.” The case is expected to go to the jury tomorrow.
The Justice Department revealed that it found no violations in its probe of Shirley Chisholm and her 1972 presidential campaign staff, leaving the Democrat Congresswoman “almost totally clear” of the charges that she misused campaign funds. Those charges had been brought by the federal government’s General Accounting Office.
In a change that reflects mounting anxiety about inflation and its effects on the November elections, Senate Democrats voted to support a limited extension of presidential authority to impose wage-price controls. The action by the Democratic caucus set the stage for a Senate battle before the authority expires next Tuesday.
John Dunlop, the Director of the Cost of Living Council, predicts that inflation will be even worse than economists have forecast for the rest of the year. The Federal Reserve has raised the discount rate to 8% and many banks have pushed their prime interest rates up to 10%.
Senate Democrats caucused to discuss the inflation problem, including their intention to allow the President to implement wage and price controls. Senators Walter Mondale and Edward Kennedy pressed for tax cuts, however Senator William Proxmire thinks a tax cut would be foolish. Treasury Secretary-designate William Simon agrees with Proxmire, stating that the administration feels a tax cut would be highly inflationary. A tax cut is likely to pass the Senate but not the House.
In a tape-recorded message that the authorities described as apparently authentic, Patricia Hearst said she had been a willing participant in last week’s bank robbery, that her weapon had been loaded and that she had been prepared to use it.
A federal judge will rule on the San Francisco police department’s latest tactics in their search for the “Zebra” killer. Police have had authority to stop and search young black men resembling the killer. However, the black community is angry and mayor Joseph Alioto is the subject of much of their criticism.
The NAACP has taken the matter to court. As a result, the police plan to change their approach, putting a special task force on the streets to help track the killer or killers. A highly placed source within the police department admitted that the stop-and-search tactics were not productive.
The Tennessee legislature rescinded its approval of the national Equal Rights Amendment.
The Supreme Court upheld a law which allows certain tax exemptions to widows but not widowers.
HEW Secretary Caspar Weinberger urged that national health insurance be instituted right away. The House Ways and Means Committee has begun hearings on various national health insurance plans. Weinberger praised Representative Wilbur Mills and Senator Edward Kennedy for their new health plans which he says are more in line with administration thinking. However, the Nixon health insurance bill still differs from Kennedy’s and Mills’ bill.
President Nixon asked Congress for $5.18 billion in foreign aid, including a $900 million “peace package” for the Middle East. The request is more than twice the $2.5 billion appropriated for the current fiscal year, not counting $2.2 billion in emergency aid to Israel, and $960 million more than the President’s original request.
Secretary of Defense Schlesinger plans to reduce the number of nuclear weapons in Europe and cut back on the number of atomic missiles and planes kept on alert for immediate attack. According to his associates, Mr. Schlesinger believes the United States has more nuclear weapons in Europe than it could effectively use and that the United States is in effect increasing the chances of nuclear war by keeping so many planes and missiles on alert.
Arab oil money has begun to flow to the West, including the United States, where about $1 billion has surfaced, mainly as investment in real estate — land, hotels, apartment buildings and office towers. So far, the flow has been little more than a trickle, a small but significant part of the vastly increased Arab oil revenues. But truly massive flows are expected to follow.
The Environmental Protection Agency ordered a halt to the sale of pesticides containing vinyl chloride. Director Russell Train ordered the action to speed the removal of those pesticides from the market. The chemical is linked to a rare form of liver cancer. At least 12 cases among workers at the factories where it is produced have been tied to exposure to the chemical.
Two U.S. Custom Service agents and an alleged marijuana smuggler were shot to death during a gun battle in a secluded desert area near the Mexican border, said authorities in Nogales, Arizona. The dead agents, identified as Louis Dickson, 32, and Charles Bokinskie, 26, were found lying near their truck. The other man, identified as Michael A. Williams, 43, was lying beside a second vehicle about 200 yards away and 200 pounds of marijuana were found near his body, officials said. Williams was wanted on a fugitive warrant from California on marijuana charges, authorities said.
Bud Abbott of the Abbott and Costello comedy team died today in Los Angeles.
New York City officials said that the ruptured water tank blamed in Monday’s office tower explosion had been installed last September and renovated only last Saturday by unlicensed contractors working without required permits. Mayor Beame said he had asked the District Attorney to investigate the “apparent violation of law.”
A scoreless dual between the Cubs Bill Bonham and the Reds Jack Billingham ends with a bases-loaded 9th inning walk to George Foster. The Reds beat the Cubs, 1–0.
Something in the air? At Comiskey, Wilbur Wood picks up his second win of the year, going six innings as the Sox beat the Brewers, 7–2. Terry Forster records a save, allowing a hit and a walk in 3 innings, but striking out 8. The White Sox collect 13 hits to 8 by Milwaukee. All 21 hits are singles.
The NFL grants a franchise to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, to begin play in the 1976 season.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 832.37 (+86.39, +11.58%).
Born:
Brian Marshall, American rock bassist (Creed – “With Arms Wide Open”), in Jackson, Mississippi.
Derek Luke, American actor (Antwone Fisher; “13 Reasons Why”), in Jersey City, New Jersey.
Eric Kripke, American television writer, director and producer (“Supernatural”), in Toledo, Ohio.
Will Cunnane, MLB pitcher (San Diego Padres, Milwaukee Brewers, Chicago Cubs, Atlanta Braves), in Suffern, New York.
Jared Tomich, NFL defensive end (New Orleans Saints, Green Bay Packers), in St. John, Indiana.
Stephen Wiltshire, British architectural artist and autistic savant; in London, England, United Kingdom.
General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, Ugandan military officer, former commander of the Uganda People’s Defence Force (UPDF) and son of President Yoweri Museveni and First Lady Janet Kataaha Museveni; in Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.
Died:
William “Bud” Abbott, 76, American comedian and film actor (“Abbott and Costello”), of cancer; his co-star, Lou Costello, had died in 1959.
Franz Jonas, 74, President of Austria since 1965; Chancellor Bruno Kreisky would serve as acting president until a presidential election on June 23 and the inauguration of Rudolf Kirchschläger on July 8.
History Diaries 