After Three Years

Celebrating its third anniversary, Israel showed off its tough little army last week. Through Jerusalem, scorched by a fierce sun and blistering Khamsin (desert wind) which prostrated dozens of marchers, rumbled Sherman tanks, armored cars and heavy artillery, in a brief violation of the 1949 armistice agreement demilitarizing the Holy City.

In the streets, as fighters roared overhead, youngsters danced and shouted. Newly arrived Jewish immigrants from Iraq and North Africa watched the festivities, shyly amazed at the sight of husky girls in shorts. One old woman, her veil dropped just below her chin as a compromise with the Moslem custom she had always known, crouched silently for 30 hours on a Jerusalem street corner, spellbound by the goings-on in her new homeland. To make the newcomers feel at home, villagers at two new settlements, halfway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, performed Kurdish and Arab dances instead of the Jewish ones.

After three years, Israel was still struggling to integrate its 600,000 immigrants (with 600,000 more expected by 1954) into its strained economy and to reconcile the immigrants' diverse backgrounds, politics and religious principles. Israel fights a losing battle against creeping inflation, badly needs capital for industrial development, a situation that is not improved by high military expenditures. Said one Israeli opposition leader as he watched the parade in Jerusalem: "I will go on complaining about the lack of food and houses, but now I can see how the money is being spent."

In Manhattan last week, launching the $500 million Israeli bond drive, Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion justified Israel's militancy by saying that Arab countries "still speak of a second round,"*added: "Our ordeal is not over."

*The minor border war between Israel and Syria (TIME, May 14) quieted down last week while representatives of both countries drafted a cease-fire agreement. The draft contains no reference to the basic cause of the fighting: Israel's draining of the Hula marshes in the demilitarized zone.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.