A Word from the Wise

By William E. Smith

Israel's commission of inquiry issues a stern warning

For the government of Prime Minister Menachem Begin, the week's best news came, ironically, from Damascus, where leaders of the Palestine Liberation Organization strongly criticized President Reagan's Middle East peace plan. Though P.L.O. moderates, including Chairman Yasser Arafat, saw some merit in the plan, which calls for Palestinian self-rule of the West Bank and Gaza Strip in association with Jordan, hard-liners strongly opposed it because it does not provide for an independent Palestinian state. The P.L.O.'s attack on the Reagan plan was fine with Begin, who has denounced it ever since it was offered last September, because he wants to continue to exert Israeli control over the occupied territories.

Otherwise, the Begin government did not fare well last week. Shareholders of Israel's 34-year-old national airline, El Al, which has long been plagued by deficits and labor unrest, voted to dissolve the company. Professors at Tel Aviv University were on strike, Foreign Ministry employees were threatening to stage a walkout, and truck drivers, angry about new taxes, were trying to block the main highway between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

Most distressing to Begin, who emerged last week from a period of mourning for his wife Aliza, was an action taken by the three-man commission of inquiry that has been investigating the Beirut massacre. In that infamous incident, at least 800 Palestinians were killed in September by Lebanese Christian militiamen who had been allowed by Israeli military authorities to enter two refugee camps in Beirut. Last week the commission sent formal letters of warning to Prime Minister Begin, Defense Minister Ariel Sharon, Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir and six ranking military and intelligence officials. The commission advised each man that he was "liable to be harmed" by the results of the inquiry and that he had 15 days in which to request permission to reappear before the commission to offer further testimony. Each recipient was also informed that he "may avail himself of legal counsel." In most cases, the "harm" the commission referred to was related to possible charges of "nonfulfillment of duties."

Issuance of the warnings was related only indirectly, if at all, to the considerable amount of contradictory evidence the commission has received over the eight weeks of its investigation. Two weeks ago, for example, Communications Minister Mordechai Zipori, a former general, testified that on Friday, Sept. 17, he had telephoned Shamir in Jerusalem and told him of receiving reports that the Lebanese militiamen were "massacring" people in the Palestinian camps. Last week, however, Shamir testified that Zipori had not spoken to him of a "massacre" or of "slaughter," but had used the Hebrew word histolelut, which means wild behavior. Shamir further testified that, a short time after receiving Zipori's call, he held a previously scheduled meeting with Sharon, top Israeli intelligence officials and U.S. Special Envoy Morris Draper without bothering to mention Zipori's call to any of them. How could he have failed to share the disconcerting report with his colleagues, the commission members wondered. Replied Shamir: "I didn't ask, and I don't recall that it bothered me, since it was clear that everything going on was known to the persons sitting with me in the room." One commission member, Supreme Court President Yitzhak Kahan, pressed Shamir again and again on this point, but Shamir insisted that he had not felt it necessary to raise the matter with Sharon and the others. Shamir also claimed that he did not learn of the massacre until the following day.

Another contradiction in testimony involved Begin. Hanan Bar-On, deputy director-general of the Foreign Ministry, had previously testified that on Friday evening, Sept. 17, he had called the Prime Minister's aide-de-camp, Lieut. Colonel Azriel Nevo, to pass along an American diplomat's report of trouble in the refugee camps. Last week Nevo testified that, "as far as I can remember," he had not even talked with Bar-On that Friday. Asked Kahan: "BarOn did not speak with you that evening?" Replied Nevo: "Did not speak. He says that he called me at my home, but I was not there." Pressed Kahan: "There was no conversation, either about the camps or about any other subject?" Said Nevo: "No, no." Begin had told the commission that he did not learn of the massacre until late Saturday, when he heard of it from a BBC newscast.

Last week's warnings were issued in accordance with a law requiring such disclosures if, in the judgment of the panel, it appears that "a particular person is likely to be harmed by the inquiry." The commission is not a court of law, but its findings could lead to further legal action. Whether its warnings will cause any witnesses to change their testimony or will have a salutary effect on some curiously foggy memories, is something the commission will find out when the 15-day grace period ends nextweek.

--By William E. Smith.

Reported by Harry Kelly/Jerusalem

With reporting by Harry Kelly/Jerusalem

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.