Former Premier Yitzhak Rabin has warned that Israel cannot solve the problem of Palestinian terrorists in southern Lebanon by military means and to attempt to do so would be a grave mistake likely to entangle Israel in international difficulties without achieving its objectives.
Rabin’s address yesterday to students at the Hebrew University’s agriculture school in Rehovot was an indirect reply to Chief of Staff Gen. Rafoel Eitan who told high school students in Tiberias Sunday that only a military strike by Israel could put an end to terrorist harassment from Lebanon. Eitan has already been criticized by Knesset members for implicitly ruling out a political solution.
Rabin, himself a former Chief of Staff, said the terrorist threat from Lebanon could not be eliminated by military means because no nation in the world would agree to an Israeli occupation of Lebanon for any length of time. He did not refer to Eitan’s remarks.
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