Begin Says Israel Will Act if Lebanese Christians Are Attacked

Premier Menachem Begin told a foreign press luncheon here today that “If the Christian minority in Lebanon is attacked, either in the south or in the north, Israel will not remain passive.” He did not elaborate. He reiterated that Israel was carefully watching the movements of the Syrian army in Lebanon which is in the process of being replaced by the Palestine Liberation Army, a para-military organization which Syria has armed with tanks and artillery. Both Israel and the Christian enclaves in south Lebanon are concerned that this move could lead to a resumption of the civil war.

On Egyptian-Israeli relations, Begin said Israel would submit an official protest to Egypt about the anti-Israel remarks reportedly made by Deputy Premier Hassan Tohamey in an interviews published in the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Siyassa. He was quoted as saying that the “semi-state, Israel,” is on the verge of collapsing, and that Jews were “traitors and hypocrites and had been portrayed as such in history books.”

Begin said “It is almost impossible to understand Tohamey’s comments. They are completely contradictory to the nature of the relations developing between the two countries.” Tohamey is a Moslem fundamentalist who has been close to President Anwar Sadat since the pre-revolutionary days in Egypt. He was the No. 2 man in the Egyptian delegation to the Camp David conference in September, 1978.

It was reported from Cairo, meanwhile, that the Egyptian Parliament approved a law last night ending Egypt’s participation in the Arab League boycott of Israel. No formal vote count was recorded. Five members of the opposition Socialist Labor Party and one independent member abstained. The official end of the boycott was to have come on Jan. 26, the day normal relations were established between Egypt and Israel under the terms of their peace treaty. But the government requested a delay pending formal approval by Parliament.