Begin Orders Toning Down of Rhetoric Between Israel and the U.S. over U.S. Marine, IDF Tank Squad in

Premier Menachem Begin ordered his ministers to tone down the angry rhetoric between Israel and the U.S. over an incident last Wednesday when an American marine officer confronted an Israeli tank squad south of Beirut. But government sources stressed today that this would “depend on the Americans” allowing the tension over the incident to die down.

Summing up an angry Cabinet debate today, Begin overruled several ministers who had suggested strong public action by Israel to emphasize that it was in the right in the tank incident. Some of them urged Begin to make an official statement or send a public letter to President Reagan.

But Begin said such steps would needlessly exacerbate the tension and would play into the hands of those in the U.S. Administration who want to foment trouble between Washington and Jerusalem. According to Begin, it was those elements who deliberately exaggerated the incident for their own purposes. Defense Minister Ariel Sharon reportedly supported Begin’s “play it cool” approach.

Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir appeared conciliatory when he told reporters, before his departure on a brief visit to West Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg today that he hoped the incident will not affect the friendly relations between Israel and the U.S.

“These accidents in Beirut are very regrettable. I think they will not change the character of the friendly relations with the United States,” he said, adding that neither country needed or wanted such incidents. He was referring to the episode last Wednesday when a marine officer, Capt. Charles Johnson, halted a column of three Israeli tanks and, brandishing a loaded pistol, warned that they could advance only over his dead body.

The incident occurred near the Beirut airport. Israel insists the tanks were on a routine patrol in their legitimate area of operations at the time and that the Americans later conceded this. Begin and other ministers expressed distaste today over reports in the Israeli media citing Israeli sources to the effect that Johnson had been intoxicated when he confronted the tanks. But Cabinet sources said the ministers, regardless of their differences over how to handle the incident, were united in their anger and resentment against the Administration for allegedly exaggerating it.

Much of the blame was heaped on Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger who, it was felt here, deliberately over-reacted to the affair in order “to besmirch Israel.”

CONFIRM TANKS WERE IN THEIR OWN TERRITORY

Officials and military officers assert that when American and Israeli officers and diplomats inspected the demarcation line shortly after the incident, it was confirmed that the tanks were in their own territory and that the marine captain had to leave his forward post to confront them. They said that colored barrels erected since then to define the demarcation line proved this.

The officials appear disturbed over what they perceive to be a deliberate attempt by Washington to exaggerate a minor incident which they admit was the result of a “misunderstanding.” The Israelis say that despite the alleged American admission that there was no serious incident or confrontation, the Americans tend to blame Israel for what could have happened or what might happen in the future.

The tank incident has drawn sardonic comment from Israeli army officers who say it “ranged from the ridiculous to the unhappy to the absurd.” They seem to take offense at the fact that Johnson has become what they call derisively America’s new “folk hero” who “single-handed repulsed three Israeli tanks by brandishing his pistol.”

In an ironic twist, the Israeli tank commander involved in the incident, identified only as a Lt. Col. Rafi, was slightly wounded today when two explosive charges detonated near a patrol he was leading in the Shuafat area, in the vicinity of the confrontation with the marine. A military spokesman said the attackers fled westward toward the area patrolled by the multinational force made up of the marines and French and Italian contingents.

Meanwhile, Maj. Saad Haddad, commander of the Christian militia in south Lebanon and Israel’s principal ally, blasted the U.S. at a press conference in Metullah Friday. He claimed the marines were incapable of halting Palestinian terrorist attacks on Israeli troops in Lebanon and charged that “the marines are there for political purposes” and “to protect the PLO.”

Haddad, who many Lebanese officials regard as a renegade, also charged that President Amin Gemayel “does not have the power to force” the Syrians to leave Lebanon. He scorned the Lebanese regular army as a “collection of soldiers even the best of weapons will not improve.”

Elsewhere in south Lebanon, fierce fighting was reported today between Druze villagers and Christian militias in and around Aley on the main Beirut-Damascus road. According to reports from Beirut, the Druze are helped by the PLO.