While serving as Jimmy Carter's special Middle East ambassador in 1979-80, Sol Linowitz spent countless hours trying to fathom the complex personality of Menachem Begin. As President Reagan prepared to confront Begin on the invasion of Lebanon, TIME asked Linowitz for his views on dealing with the Israeli Prime Minister:
Begin is a man of many moods, with a wide swing of emotions. He can be very gentle, quiet, sentimental. Yet he can also act like a thundering prophet out of the Old Testament. He is a man who walks in his own history....
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