Israel Air Force jets pounded Palestine Liberation Organization targets in south Lebanon today for the third time this week. A military spokesman said the pilots reported accurate hi is on missile and rocket launching pads in Shahe village from where rockets have been fired into Israel. He said all planes returned safely to their bases.
Premier Menachem Begin made it clear, meanwhile, that the downing of two Syrian helicopters over central Lebanon by Israeli fighters in the past two days was not a random encounter but the outcome of a government decision to warn the Syrians that the use of helicopter gunships against Lebanese Christians will not be tolerated by Israel.
Begin met for an hour today with U.S. Ambassador Samuel Lewis amid strong hints from government sources that the escalation of Israeli attack in Lebanon had at least tacit U.S. approval.
NO SIGNS OF U.S. PRESSURE
Although the U.S. has been calling on all parties for “restraint” in Lebanon, Lewis reportedly conveyed no signs of pressure on Israel from Washington, implicit or direct, nor did he make any requests of Israel with respect to the situation in Lebanon. It is understood here that the U.S. no longer regards Syria as a “stabilizing force” in Lebanon and, in view of the stepped up Syrian attacks on the Christians, Israel felt free to take the action it saw fit.
Begin reportedly told Lewis that Israel wanted a cooling-off period in Lebanon, provided there were no further attacks on the Christians. He asked the American envoy to relay a message to Secretary of State Alexander Haig that Israel would not acquiesce to a situation in which Lebanese Christians would be placed in curcumstances similar to those that afflicted Jews in Europe in 1940.
In that connection, Begin reportedly told Lewis that Israel would do its best to avoid an all-out confrontation with Syria but if Syria continued to employ helicopters against the Christians, Israel would continue to shoot them down.
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