1954: A SPY STORY I Op
coming to a head." For example, Lavon quoted a "highranking American personality who had recently visited Israel" (John Foster Dulles) as having been "deeply shocked by the Israeli plan for the immigration of three or four million Jews to Israel in the next ten years." (Now, 15 years later, less than a million have arrived, with little prospect of large-scale immigration in the forseeable future.)
On September 12, it became known in London that the government of Israel had transmitted several proposals to the British. The Israeli note objected to British evacuation of the Suez Canal bases without guarantees of passage through the Canal for Israeli ships and assurances that the military power balance would be maintained. Two days later, a group of Conservative back-benchers in Parliament, known as "the Suez rebels" and composed of the most reactionary colonialist elements, demanded the immediate cessation of negotiations with Egypt, using the Israeli protest as their pretext.
While the British waivered, the Americans moved forward. On April 11, 1954, Henry Byroade made a sensational speech. He said that Israel should cease its conqueror behavior and end its assumption that violence is the only policy understood by its neighbors. Two days later, Byroade announced that American aid to Israel would be cut, and American aid to Arab development plans increased.
On April 17, Nasser officially assumed the position of Egyptian Prime Minister, purging the government of proNagib elements.
Throughout this period, tension increased along the Jordanian frontier. Acts of Arab terrorism had become common; Israel retaliated in massive military raids across the frontier, Lavon and Dayan concurring in this policy. Much later, Lavon was to accuse Dayan of generally exceeding orders with larger-scale raids than the government intended, while Dayan, in turn, accused Lavon of courting