Israeli officials are anxiously awaiting information on the likely format of the United Nations emergency force for south Lebanon. Military officials here observed tonight that a force on the pattern of the UN Emergency Force (UNEF) in Sinai or the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) on the Golan Heights would be completely inadequate to forestall terrorist incursions back into the region and from there into Israel.
These officials pointed out that UNEF and UNDOF were never intended as fighting units, but as units to police virtually empty buffer zones. The force in south Lebanon, on the other hand, to be effective, would have to be equipped with armored vehicles, and, more important, would have to be specifically mandated to shoot not only as the ultimate resort of self-defense but also in pursuit of its mission to keep the area free of terrorists.
Meanwhile, Israel has plainly been disconcerted at the speed and determination with which the U.S. has pushed through the Security Council resolution. Observers here speak of a sharp rift in the American attitude to the Israeli operation in southern Lebanon. Some link its timing to the passage in the Senate of the first Panama Canal treaty.
In any event, after on initial period of near-acquiescence by Washington in the Israeli action, a spate of sharp statements followed urging prompt Israeli withdrawal and not specifically accepting the linkage upon which Israel insisted between Israeli withdrawal and the attainment of an “agreement or arrangement” to ensure the non-return of the PLO to the border areas.
At Ben Gurion Airport this morning, before leaving for the U.S. and prior to the Security Council’s adoption of the resolution, Premier Menachem Begin said that despite the imminent passage of the resolution he would still have to discuss with President Carter detailed measures “to ensure that the murderers do not return to these areas.” But informed sources said Jerusalem had hoped until today that Washington would delay passage of the resolution itself until after Carter and Begin had conferred.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
