Foreign Minister and Deputy Premier Yitzhak Shamir warned Moslem fundamentalists in Lebanon and elsewhere today that those who dare murder defenseless Jews will be punished. “Israel’s arm knows not only how to register, it knows also to reach far distances, and Lebanon is not distant,” Shamir said.
The Likud leader was referring to the recent murders of two of four Lebanese Jews Kidnapped by a Moslem group last March 29. The body of one of them, Haim Cohen Halala, was found in Beirut December 25. The second victim, Isaac Tarrah, was found dead in Beirut January 1.
Israel will not tolerate the kidnapping of Jews in Beirut, Shamir declared. “The kidnappers will gain nothing. The murderers in Lebanon must know that. Let them keep their hands off those poor victims. Let them let the Jews in Lebanon live their lives.”
Speaking of the recent agreement reportedly reached between the warring Moslem and Christian factions in Lebanon under prodding by Syria, Shamir charged that Syria is taking over Lebanon completely “in a cruel, despotic manner.” He chided “those in the West who often express satisfaction with the Syrian regime. I would tell those people in the West, and in the U.S. that one can say the same things about a stabilizing factor in Afghanistan as well,” Shamir said.
He said the situation on the northern border, where Katyusha rockets fell last week, was calm last night. “But Israel’s policy is not determined by one night only,” Shamir warned. He repeated the pledge of his predecessor, former Premier Menachem Begin, that no Katyushas will ever fall again on Galilee. Begin made that vow after Israel invaded Lebanon in June, 1982.
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