Begin Explains Why His Government Accepted the Inquiry Panel’s Recommendations

Premier Menachem Begin indicated to the Knesset yesterday that his government accepted the recommendations of the commission of inquiry into the Beirut refugee camps massacre only because Israel is a country that lives by the rule of law.

Heaping praise on outgoing Defense Minister Ariel Sharon and the senior army officers whose ousters the commission called for, Begin said the decision to comply with the recommendations was a very hard one to take. He defended the retention of Sharon in the Cabinet, an issue over which Israeli legal experts are sharply divided.

The Knesset voted 61-56 yesterday to approve the Cabinet changes. Begin will assume the responsibilities of Defense Minister temporarily until his choice for the post. Ambassador Moshe Arens, returns from Washington. Arens’ confirmation by the Knesset is a virtual certainty. The Knesset vote also endorsed the decision to keep Sharon on as a Minister-Without-Portfolio.

That decision has been attacked by prominent jurists and sections of the press as a circumvention of the commission’s intentions. But Begin cited legal opinion in support of it, notably by Attorney General Yitzhak Zamir, former Attorney General Moshe Ben-Ze’ev, and a former chairman of the Knesset’s Legal Committee, Zerach Warhaftig. (See Feb. 15 Bulletin.)

BEGIN DEMANDS APOLOGY FROM TIME MAGAZINE

Begin also demanded an apology from Time magazine for publishing a report in its latest edition that an unpublished section of the inquiry commission’s findings disclosed that Sharon had encouraged the Christian Phalangists in Lebanon to take revenge on the Palestinians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps.

According to Time he did this at a secret meeting with veteran Phalangist leader Pierre Gemayel the day after his younger son, Lebanon’s President-elect Bashir Gemayel, was assassinated. Begin said the Time allegation was completely false and that the American news weekly awed Israel an apology.

Meanwhile, two ministers who were absent when the Cabinet voted 16-1 last Thursday to accept the inquiry commission’s report, expressed support today for the decision to retain Sharon in the government. Deputy Premier Simcha Ehrlich, a leader of Likud’s Liberal Party wing and a political moderate, said it “was acceptable to me.” Ehrlich has often been sharply critical of Sharon.

Science Minister Yuval Ne’eman, leader of the ultra rightwing Tehiya party, said that if Sharon had been forced out of the government it would have appeared in Europe and the U.S. to be a victory for outside pressures.

Ehrlich, who returned to Israel last night after undergoing heart surgery in the U.S., praised the Cabinet for accepting the commission’s findings. For the Cabinet which appointed the commission to have rejected its recommendations would have been incredible, he said.

Ne’eman, who returned from New York on the same flight as Ehrlich, had no comment on the commission. An extreme hard-liner who has called for annexation of south Lebanon by Israel, he warned that if the government ever agreed to the withdrawal of Israel’s forces from Lebanon, he and his party would consider leaving Begin’s coalition.