Begin: Peace Treaty with Egypt Helped Israel Meet a Potential Threat from Syrian Missiles

Premier Menachem Begin boasted last night that because of Israel’s peace treaty with Egypt he had to mobilize only a few hundred reservists in the continuing missile crisis with Syria. He told an election rally in Rehovoth that if Israel had not been at peace with its neighbor to the south a massive call-up would have been necessary.

“If we did not have the peace treaty with Egypt today we would already have mobilized the reserves, both in the south and the north because of the dispute with Syria,” Begin said. “We did not mobilize even one army unit — only a few hundred people — there was no need.”

But in a television interview last night, Chief of Staff Gen. Rafael Eitan indicated that the army has taken far more extensive measures than the Premier disclosed to meet a potential threat from Syria. He said “appropriate preparations” were being made “for a possible clash with Syria” but did not elaborate.

He said Syria’s intentions at this point are “still not completely clear.” They might be planning a war of attrition against Israel or to support renewed terrorist activities by the Palestine Liberation Organization, Eitan said. “We are watching the changes (on the Syrian front and in Lebanon) and are making the appropriate preparations to meet them,” he said.

Eitan confirmed reports that several hundred Libyan soldiers are assisting the PLO in Lebanon and said they would be treated the same way terrorists are treated if encountered in a clash. Deputy Defense Minister Mordecai Zipori said today that Israel had “the proper answers” for the Syrian military build-up. “Dealing with Syria is no problem for the army and one can foretell the outcome,” he told Jewish settlers in Hebron.