Begin Urges Residents of Northern Towns to Maintain High Morale

Premier Menachem Begin went on a morale-building tour of northern Israel today, visiting towns and villages that have been the targets of almost incessant rocket and artillery fire from Palestinian terrorists based in Lebanon. Begin, accompanied by Chief of Staff Gen. Rafael Eitan, was warmly received — even euphorically in some places — by the settlers, most of them immigrants from North Africa who are Likud’s strongest constituents.

In Nahariya, Kiryat Shemona, Metullah and other border towns where the populace has been forced to endure the confinement of bomb shelters for the past week, Begin urged “discipline” and patience. “The enemy has not yet learned its lesson but he will yet learn it,” the Premier promised. “Morale is fundamental. As long as the people maintain a high morale, all will be well.”

Descending into a cramped, overheated bomb shelter for a few moments, Begin remarked that it was “not pleasant but better than being in danger on the streets.” Local residents have been complaining bitterly that the government made inadequate provisions for their safety.

But their ire does not seem to rub off on Begin personally. When he promised “The day will come when Katyushas no longer fall on Kiryat Shemona,” no one reminded him that he made the same vow during his re-election campaign two months ago.

The Begin government’s policies toward Lebanon have been criticized mainly by intellectuals, especially after last Friday’s air raid on Beirut. There is also criticism by industrialists whose factories in the north have been forced to shut down because the workers remain in bomb shelters. Seth Wertheimer, a Nahariya manufacturer who employs several hundred people, said on an Israel Radio interview today that the government failed to understand the need to maintain production even under attack. “You cannot operate a factory with your workers in shelters all the time. The government must find a solution to this serious problem,” he said.