The banking-industrial establishment was pushing France to lift arms embargo during the 1967 Arab–Israeli War
CIA
Files
In
the newly
released archive of
13 million pages by CIA, a report
under the title France
and the Arab-Israeli crisis
was monitoring the French moves in the extremely unstable Middle
East, especially after the rising tension in the Arab-Irsaeli
relations during the Six-Day
War.
Perhaps
the most impressive in the report, is that it refers to specific
powerful banking and business names that were pushing for the lift of
the embargo, like the House of Rothschild and Marcel Dassault. The
report also refers to the role of Georges Pompidou, Prime Minister of
France at the time, who has been "former Director General of
the House of Rothschild", as also mentioned:
On
5 June Paris publicly announced a decision made on 2 June – before
the opening of Middle East hostilities - to place
a total embargo on arms to all countries involved in the conflict.
This particularly affected Israel, since its armed forces relied
heavily on French armaments.
On
8 June the policy was to be modified to permit the shipment of spare
parts but not offensive weapons, reportedly as a result of Premier
Pompidou's reminder to De Gaulle that all armaments contracts with
Israel included a clause to supply spares for 10 years. The
embargo is officially still in effect, but there has been welter of
conflicting information on whether it is being observed.
All indications are that shipment of spare parts was resumed after a
short break in early June and is continuing.
On
the matter of offensive weapons, Israel is almost certainly receiving
some equipment which falls in this category. Powerful banking and
business circles, such as the House of Rothschild and Marcel
Dassault, have put pressure on French officials, and particularly on
Premier Pompidou (former Director General of the House of
Rothschild), to lift the embargo. The Dassault firm argued that
French manufacturers would lose out completely in the future as
suppliers of arms to friendly nations if they were not able to
resupply in time of real need.
There
have been rumors that Israel cancelled its arms contracts with
France. Our best judgment is that there have
been discussions of cancellation but that no decision had been taken.
The report
also concentrates on the attempt of France to play a major role in
the future developments in Middle East, therefore, De Gaulle's
attempt to maintain relative balance:
Efforts
to extend French influence in the Middle East have been given a boost
by careful cultivation of the Arabs during the conflict, and there
have been indications that some Arab states would favor France as a
mediator in the conflict. [...] France is the only major power which
is not linked with either of the combatants or their big power
supporters – a point which Paris unfailingly makes. [...] At this
point, De Gaulle's immediate concern is to keep Franco-Soviet
relations from deteriorating and to prevent the “super-powers”
from negotiating without France. [...] De Gaulle might still hope
that a threat to cut off even the present supply of arms and spare
parts would give him some leverage on Israel which could be used to
lead it to moderate its demands for a settlement. Over the longer
run, France might under certain circumstances lift its embargo.
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