The central committee of the opposition Labor Party and members of its Knesset faction voted unanimously today to demand the immediate withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Shouf Mountain and the Beirut areas, and the withdrawal of all Israeli forces from Lebanon “within two or three months.”
In its first major decision on Lebanon since the early days of the war party spokesmen stressed that Israel should take unilateral action to avoid further casualties, taking into consideration only its own security and defense needs and not the welfare of Lebanon itself or the immediate strategic interests of the United States in the Middle East.
The Israeli moves should be undertaken even if the Syrians did not agree to withdraw their forces from Lebanon.
The Labor resolution said that the multinational force should move into the Shouf and Beirut areas to replace the Israeli army in the first and immediate stage, and the Lebanese army and Maj. Saad Haddad’s forces should replace Israeli troops in the security belt north of the Israeli border in the second stage, with multinational forces ensuring the safety of Palestinians in the camps near Tyre and Sidon.
Party spokesmen stressed that every effort should be made to get the Americans, the Lebanese and even the Syrians to agree to the Israeli moves. But these steps should be taken even without international assent, to reduce the continuous Israeli troop casualty rate.
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