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Most Israeli officers remain skeptical about UNIFIL's ability to perform its mission. "If the Palestinians are clever," a top Israeli official told TIME Correspondent David Halevy, "they will move back into the southern area but hold their fire for two to three months. After that, they could use the area as their primary base for terrorist operations against Israel. And we will be stuck with an international force in southern Lebanon that will limit our freedom of operation there."
Officially, the Israeli government defends the wisdom of its invasion of southern Lebanon. Premier Menachem Begin called the operation "a big political success" and declared that UNIFIL will become "a buffer force between Israel and the terrorists, and will force the terrorists to restrict their operations." Some of his colleagues disagree. At last week's Cabinet meeting, several ministers asked angry questions about Israel's use of American-made cluster bombs in Lebanon in violation of a 1976 commitment to the U.S. that the weapons would be used only against armies in the event of full-scale war. Defense Minister Ezer Weizman, whose political position has been weakened by his handling of the operation, replied lamely: "I gave the air force orders to use the bombs. But you have to believe me that I was not aware of the agreement [with Washington]. The Chief of Staff [Mordechai Gur] forgot to inform me of it." That statement was greeted with a pregnant silence.
Partly because of Washington's displeasure over Begin's rigidity during the recent peace negotiations, there are sign that Jerusalem may be moving toward a more flexible position. Six weeks ago, Begin shocked the Carter Administration by declaring that U.N. Resolution 242—which, among other things, calls for Israeli withdrawal from occupied territories—did not apply to the West Bank. At week's end Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan announced that his government now "regards 242 as the only basis for negotiations" leading to a peace treaty with its neighbors, including Jordan. The Israelis were clearly implying that a subtle change in policy had taken place, but U.S. officials were not convinced that the new formulation was sufficiently different to get the peace negotiations going again.