Pressure Expected over Unifil

Israel is bracing itself for about of diplomatic pressure over recent violent incidents between Maj. Sood Haddad’s Christian militia and allied Shi’ite villagers in south Lebanon and units of the United Nations interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), especially its Irish contingent.

The Irish government has already launched a diplomatic initiative on three separate planes designed to bring Israel to loosen its ties with the Haddad militia which Ireland holds responsible for the recent murder of tow of its soldiers by shi’ite villagers.

Israel, for its part, has made it clear to the Irish government and to other interested parties that it does not propose to weaken its support for Haddad, who it considers a security asset because his border strip bars Palestinian terrorist infiltrators and because of Israel’s longstanding commitment to the Lebanese Christians to prevent their destruction by the Syrians, the Palestine Liberation Organization or the indigenous Moslem majority.

Premier Menachem Begin made these points at yesterday’s Cabinet meeting when he reported to the ministers on his meeting Sunday night with Irish Ambassador Sean Ronan. Ronan had conveyed to Begin the “deep personal concern” of Ireland’s Premier and demanded that Israel take action to restrain Haddad’s men. Begin told the Cabinet that he had promised Ronan that Israel would “do its best” to influence Haddad. “But we cannot give him orders, ” the Premier had noted.

Begin said he explained to the Irish envoy the nature of the. “blood feud” tradition under which the Shi’ites, who lost a teenage boy to Irish gunfire two weeks earlier, saw themselves bound to hit back at the Irish battalion until a “sulha” (reconciliation) was arranged. Ronan told reporters here this week that he does not accept the distinction which Begin and other Israeli policymakers make between Haddad’s militia and the Shi’ite villagers.

THREE-PRONGED IRISH INITIATIVE

The Irish diplomatic initiative is aimed in three directions:

In Washington the Carter Administration is being asked to pressure Israel to cease supporting Haddad. Israel has long been careful not to supply Haddad with American weaponry which could be construed as breach of the terms of purchase.

In Brussels the Irish Foreign Minister was to take up the question at a meeting of the European Economic Community (EEC) Council of Ministers, with a view to achieving a concerted EEC approach to Israel.

Ireland is also seeking a conference, under UN aegis, of the defense ministers of 10 countries which contribute troops to UNIFIL. These are Fiji, Ghana, Ireland, France, Norway, Holland, Nigeria, Nepal, Senegal and Italy.

This three pronged effort is designed according to Ronan, to achieve the short-term goal of greater safety for Irish and other UNIFIL troops and the long-term goal of enabling UNIFIL to extent its area of control into the “enclaves” presently run by Haddad. The Irish unit in concert with UNIFIL has begun evacuating four outposts situated within Haddad-controlled territory in an effort to reduce tensions in the area at least to a limited extent. Irish soldiers manning these positions were being replaced today by Norwegians and others.

Ronan says his government believes Haddad is not effective in stopping PLO incursions into Israel while UNIFIL has had a good record in this respect and would be even more effective if it did not have to worry itself about Haddad’s constant harassment of its forces.

Israel’s position — and there are no signs in Jerusalem that this basic position is undergoing review–is that Haddad has been effective in preventing PLO incursions and that UNIFIL’s record in this respect is patchy at best. Israeli sources point out that some 30 or more Palestinian terrorist encampments are known to exist within the UNIFIL controlled area.