Nation: Difficult Days for Begin

After the hours of arguing in the Cabinet Room at the White House last week, Israeli Premier Menachem Begin slowly started massaging the pectoral muscles on the left side of his chest. It was a nervous habit that betrayed the anxiety of a former heart-attack victim enduring new stress. In the wake of Israel's invasion of southern Lebanon, Begin had gone to Washington to defend his belligerent policies, and he had found little support in the White House. At one point, in what Begin later called "difficult days," President Carter tried to summarize the...

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