Mcgovern, Israeli Information Service Assailed by Israeli Press; Haaretz Criticizes Air Strikes

Sen. George S. McGovern and the Israeli information services came under attack in the local press today. The South Dakota Democrat was assailed for his description of the Israeli air strikes at terrorist targets in Lebanon as “savage bombing attacks by Israeli pilots flying American planes.” The government information apparatus was taken to task for having failed “once again” to explain the nature of the Air Force action.

The mass circulation Maariv commented editorially on the “double standard” observed by the Western world which “keeps silent” when Moslems and Christians are slaughtered day after day in the internecine warfare in Lebanon, but rises up in arms to denounce Israel when terrorist bases are attacked.

“Apparently when Arab terrorists use Russian arms to kill Israelis, that makes no impression on McGovern,” Maariv said. “When Arabs kill Christians the whole world keeps its hands folded. When Christians kill Arabs, there is no reaction. When Arabs kill Jews, it is almost natural. But when Jews attack terrorists, then the whole world rises against Israel,” the Maariv editorial said.

However, Haaretz, one of the influential dailies, expressed criticism of Israel’s air strikes which, it said, were carried out with excessive force and thereby increased the danger of inflicting casualties among civilians. Haaretz contended that there was no need to escalate action to a point where Israel is charged with responsibility for a massacre of civilians and said that the price Israel will have to pay in terms of adverse reaction in the Western news media bears no relation to the border security achieved by the air strikes. Whoever planned the operation intended it against armed enemies, but the government which approved it failed to calculate the other aspects and repercussions, Haaretz said.

INFORMATION SERVICES FAILED

Other newspapers demanded to know why the information services failed to make it clear that all targets attacked by Israeli planes in Lebanon Tuesday were outside of the refugee camps. If any refugees were hit they were inside terrorist bases and apparently collaborating with the terrorists, but Israel did not get this across to the rest of the world, the papers said.

They noted that a school building hit by Israeli bombs had not been used as a school for more than a year but served as headquarters for the Syrian-sponsored Al Saiqa terrorists. Similarly, what the Lebanese described as a farm attacked outside Tripoli was, in fact, a terrorist training base, the Israeli newspapers claimed.