(7 of 10)
"In the old days we were demanding that Israel return to the 1947 partition frontiers. Then we were calling for a return to the 1967 frontiers. Now we have to argue about getting them back to the 1978 frontiers."
TIME Correspondent Gavin Scott talked to dozens of Palestinians in Amman, the Jordanian capital, and found not one who disapproved of the terrorist raid that precipitated the Israeli invasion. "Good, good," declared a hotel doorman. "Three times more, that's what we need."
Said Hanna Naesser, a physicist expelled from the West Bank by Israel four years ago: "This event has done a great deal to restore the faith of the people in the P.L.O." Sociologist Seri Nasser agreed. "I deplore that there are 34 people dead in Israel, just as I deplore that as a result of the Israeli retaliation there will be ten times as many people dead in refugee camps in Lebanon. But how can you blame us? You say this action is not very noble. Name a course we can take that is in fact noble. We have nowhere to go. nothing else to do."
On the other hand, few Israelis seemed to appreciate the extent to which the invasion of Lebanon may have damaged the peace process. "Sadat is unpredictable," said one foreign ministry official. "How can you tell how he will react?" Practically without exception, Israelis approved of the military action. Former Premier Yitzhak Rabin, who has bitterly criticized Menachem Begin's handling of the peace negotiations in the past, said he thought the government had done the only thing it could in response to the terrorist raid. Another Begin critic, former Foreign Minister Yigal Allon, concluded that the invasion took place ''at the right time, in the right place, with the right method." Jerusalem would "try to see to it" that its forces did not long remain in Lebanon, declared Defense Minister Ezer Weizman. But he added: "As long as we find it necessary to impose order and prevent hostile activity, we shall control the area."
The primary reason for the invasion, Begin insisted, was to deny southern Lebanon to the guerrillas, though he added that real freedom from terrorist attacks could come only through a peace settlement. The motive was not revenge, he said, because "there cannot be any retaliation or retribution for the blood of innocent citizens." The newly named Chief of Staff, General Raphael Eitan, echoed the same theme when he quoted a line from Hebrew Poet Chaim Nachman Bialik: "Revenge for the killing of a small child has not yet been invented by Satan."
After the Palestinian raid, the U.S. counseled Israel that whatever response it decided to make should be measured and selective and should be aimed at military rather than civilian targets. The White House was advised of Israel's invasion of Lebanon only minutes before the operation was launched, though it had a pretty clear idea of what was going on. In any event, the White House felt that too much airpower was used, resulting in too many civilian casualties. The U.S. also concluded that the Israeli response was too massive for the situation.