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In Israel, there were indications that the almost universal condemnation the Israeli government has received abroad for its siege of West Beirut had made it more truculent than ever. A case in point was the Israeli reaction to the Reagan Administration's plan to reassess the Camp David accords in the hope of reaching a settlement on the problem of Palestinian autonomy. A high Israeli official last week blustered that, if the U.S. were to try to "amend" Camp David, Israel would simply annex the West Bank, as it had wanted to do all along. That drastic step would create havoc in the Middle East, and the U.S. had no intention of letting it happen.
But in the meantime, Washington policy makers had a more immediate problem to think about: how to negotiate the withdrawal of Syrian and Israeli forces from Lebanon before open warfare breaks out between them.
— By William E. Smith.
Reported by Johanna McGeary/Washington and William Stewart/Beirut