Defense Minister Moshe Dayan of Israel warned the Lebanese government that if it failed to police the Arab guerrilla groups operating from its territory, Israel would continue its punitive raids into southern Lebanon until the entire area would have to be abandoned. He made the warning in an unusual Sabbath-morning press conference in Tel Aviv in which he explained the motives behind Israel’s latest raid into Lebanese territory. “The people will find it impossible to live there,” the defense minister said. “Their homes will be destroyed and the whole area will be deserted.”
Acting in retaliation for an Arab, assault on Thursday in which 18 persons died, Israeli army units last night crossed the border and struck at six villages in southern Lebanon. A military spokesman reported this morning that the soldiers had blown up 20 homes and seized about 10 suspected collaborators. The raiding parties returned to Israel after midnight. The border area was described as quiet today. In explaining the raid into Lebanon, Mr. Dayan said today that “our objective this time was political, not military,” adding that the raid had been intentionally limited in size and damage.
“We have no doubt that the Government of Lebanon knows that the three murderers who killed the Israelis in Qiryat Shemona came from the headquarters of the Jabril group in Beirut, he continued, referring to Achmed Jabril’s Popular Front for the Liberation Palestine. “The Government of Lebanon knows where to find him and his group of murderers and it is their job to do it.” Mr. Dayan added that if Lebanon failed to act, there would be no peace in southern Lebanon.
“If we cannot live in peace on our side of the border,” he said, “then eventually the entire southern part of Lebanon won’t be able to live in peace.” Lebanon, he said, “will find itself in a situation like what happened in the Jordan. Valley in the past when the Jordanian Government was forced to abandon the whole area.” This was the case after 1968, when Israel carried out punitive raids against Palestinian guerrilla bases on the east side of the Jordan River. Jordan ultimately evacuated the residents from the area and only recently has begun to repopulate the villages along the river.
An Israeli raid on six Lebanese villages, in which two persons were reportedly killed, raised concern in Beirut over greater reprisals for Palestinian guerrilla violence against Israel. Lebanon asked an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council, which was set for Monday.
A special Syrian envoy in Washington discussed his government’s detailed proposals for the separation of Syrian and Israeli forces in the Golan Heights with Secretary of State Kissinger. After meeting with, General Kahalil al-Shihabi, chief of staff for Syrian military intelligence, for two hours, Mr. Kissinger told newsmen that the discussion had been “very useful,” and had been conducted “in a very friendly, very constructive atmosphere.”
Syria shot down three Israeli planes above front‐line tank and artillery battles today, a Syrian military spokesman said. He said the planes had been seen falling west of the Golan Heights front, two of them in flames. In the ground battle, said by the spokesman to be going on at many points on the heights, the Syrians said they were inflicting heavy losses on the Israelis. The Syrian spokesman said two Israeli planes had tried to blow up a Syrian position on Mount Hermon, which overlooks the frontier. They were met by air defenses. One plane was hit and was seen falling toward the west, the spokesman said. Later, a formation of Israeli jets tried to bomb a Syrian post, and again the aircraft were met by air defenses, the spokesman said. Two planes were hit and were observed falling in flames, he said. It was the 33rd successive day of fighting on the Golan front.
Israel denied this claim. Israeli aircraft attacked a Syrian unit that crossed the cease‐fire lines near Mount Hermon, the Israeli army spokesman said. The planes also hit Syrian units that were providing covering fire for the infiltrating troops, the spokesman said. He reported that all the Israeli planes had returned safely to their bases.
About 1,000 Damascus Jews are reliably reported to have streamed out of the ghetto to which they are confined to demonstrate last month against the slaying of four young Jewish women attempting to cross into Lebanon. A similar number of other Syrians, most of them believed to be Christians, were reported to have joined the demonstration in the center of Damascus. The Jewish demonstrators shouted demands that they be allowed to leave Syria. Since 1947 the Syrian Government has refused to allow Jews to emigrate and has subjected the country’s Jews, who number between 4,000 and 5,000, to restrictions and mistreatment.
The Việt Cộng denied South Vietnamese reports that the Communists fought a tank and infantry battle to capture Tống Lê Chân ranger base near the Cambodian border. The Việt Cộng said they just walked in, found the camp deserted and took over. A Việt Cộng spokesman, Major Phương Nam told newsmen: “Our forces encircled the camp and fired mortars, but there were no tanks or infantry engagements. “When our first troops entered the camp, they found it deserted with all the field guns, shells and supplies left intact,” he said. “We have taken no prisoners and do not yet know in which direction the Saigon troops retreated.” The Saigon command said yesterday that the camp had been overrun after tanks and infantry attacked it.
About 6 million Japanese workers returned to their jobs after winning wage hikes from management and the government. The workers, spearheaded by 280,000 Japan National Railway union members, brought the nation to a virtual standstill in a strike Thursday and Friday in a strike.
British troops fired on a crowd in the Protestant Shankhill Road area of Belfast to break up a mob attacking an army patrol with stones and bottles, the army said. It said two soldiers and two civilians were taken to a hospital afterward. The crowd hijacked two buses and set one of them afire during the clashes.
A French opinion poll indicated that Francois Mitterrand, leftist alliance candidate for president, would take the most votes in the first round of the May 5 election but that most Frenchmen thought he could not win a runoff. Although Mitterrand was figured to win 38% to 40% of votes in the first round — depending on his opposition — Frenchmen felt that either of the Gaullist-oriented candidates, Jacques Chaban-Delmas or Valery Giscard d’Estaing, would beat Mitterrand in the second round May 19 if no candidate gains a majority in the first round.
Several dozen political prisoners in two Soviet labor camps are on a hunger strike to protest continued solitary confinement of dissident biologist Vladimir Bukovsky, dissident sources reported. Although many details were unavailable, the sources said that the prisoners asked that Bukovsky be taken off restricted rations and transferred to a hospital. The biologist gained publicity for his allegations that many Soviet political dissidents are confined to insane asylums.
Mexico announced an all-out campaign against armed gang leaders who use money, terror and bribes to carve out private empires in Mexican states. The most recently discovered gang ruled an area around Tapachula near the Guatemalan border, the government reported. Officials estimated the gang was responsible for between 200 and 300 killings, although earlier estimates ranged up to 2,000. The government admitted that local officials often collaborate with the gangs.
Guerrillas attacked an American mission school near Mt. Darwin in the heart of Rhodesia’s guerrilla war zone and killed two African senior staff men, a security force communique reported. Roy Eichner, head of the Chicago-based Evangelical Alliance Mission, later said that more than 200 black schoolchildren were sent to their homes but that eight white missionaries remained at the mission.
Nine Catholic missionaries arrived in Rome from Portugal’s African territory of Mozambique and said they had been expelled, apparently because they urged the church to defend blacks as well as whites. The Italian priests said Portuguese security police seized them and put them on a plane without giving them time to contact their bishop or collect their belongings.
Robert Abplanalp accused investigators for the Senate Watergate committee of “reckless conjecturing” as he again denied that he ever discussed a $100,000 donation by Howard Hughes to President Nixon’s election campaign. Mr. Abplanalp, a close friend of the President, denied that he had discussed the contribution with Charles Rebozo, another close Nixon friend, “or anyone else” before the money was purportedly returned to the Hughes interests.
Most American families pay about the same percentage of their incomes in taxes, a private study reported. Only the richest 3% to 5% of U.S. families and the poorest 10% pay more than 25% of their income in taxes, according to economists Joseph A. Pechman and Benjamin A. Okner of the Brookings Institution. Their study covered federal, state and local taxes and included such levies as sales and property taxes as well as income taxes.
The Republicans have fallen behind the Democrats on the political issues of “peace and prosperity,” a Gallup Poll shows. On the issue of prosperity, the GOP has declined 19 points since the fall of 1972. At that time the Republicans held a three-point edge over the Democrats. On the issue of peace, the GOP has dropped eight points since 1972, with the Democrats now having a nine-point edge.
When more than a dozen disabled Vietnam veterans occupied an office in a Los Angeles federal building last month to protest the policies of the Veterans Administration, the incident symbolized how controversial the Veterans Administration has become — in sharp contrast to the special position the agency enjoyed in the eyes of veterans and the government until recent years. Interviews with government, congressional and veterans’ organization officials found no fundamental change in the traditional high regard shown for war veterans. But the interviews indicated that a serious split has developed in the system that governs veterans policy, and that this split is a result of the Vietnam War.
In the two months since Patricia Hearst was kidnapped in Berkeley, California, there has been a sharp increase in major kidnappings in the United States. Whether the wave will subside, or whether it is, as a private security professional described it, just the beginning of a crime wave that will become commonplace can only lead to speculation. There is no question, however, that the increase in kidnappings has had an impact among those who see themselves as potential victims and they have begun to take unusual and costly precautions.
Miami police searched for leads in the murder of a controversial Cuban exile leader who once had promised to lead an invasion of his homeland but never carried out the plan. Jose de la Torriente, 69, former Cuban agriculture minister, was shot to death at his home Friday night. Police refused to speculate on the possible motive. However, Torriente had been increasingly criticized in the exile community after his invasion did not materialize and reportedly had received a threatening note that was “political” in nature.
Steel industry labor and management, after long negotiations with the government, have adopted a voluntary nationwide plan to end race and sex discrimination in their hiring, employment and pay practices, sources close to the negotiations said. The plan, which is expected to be made public Monday, will require the steel companies to give back pay totaling millions of dollars to victims of past discrimination.
Hamster-transmitted meningitis cases have risen to 94, the National Center for Disease Control said in Atlanta, but none has caused death. New York recorded the highest number of cases with 39, followed by California, 29; Florida, 14; Massachusetts, 6; New Jersey, 4, and Minnesota and Nevada, 1 each. Officials have traced the infection to a Birmingham, Ala., hamster breeder, estimated to have shipped 300,000 of the pets to retailers through a Florida distributor.
The families of 56 miners killed in the 91-death Sunshine Mine disaster in 1972 have filed suit for nearly $12 billion in damages against the U.S. government and 21 companies. The suit is the largest ever filed in U.S. District Court for Idaho, in Boise, and one of the biggest damage claims in history. The amended suit charges the defendants with complicity in causing the deaths of the miners, who were trapped by an underground fire on May 2, 1972. The suit charges that the defendants provided false or inaccurate information about the hazards in the mine and were willfully negligent by providing or installing inadequate equipment.
W. A. (Tony) Boyle, convicted of ordering the murder of a rival for his post as president of the United Mine Workers, has been quietly returned to the federal prison hospital in Springfield, Missouri, to await sentencing. Boyle, 72, will be examined to see how the trial affected his ailing heart and frail body, the hospital director said. Boyle was convicted Thursday on three counts of murder in the 1969 shootings of Joseph A. (Jock) Yablonski, his wife and daughter.
Tornadoes caused minor damage in northeast Missouri and at least three persons were killed in heavy flooding in southern Mississippi in a day of rough weather from Texas to Wisconsin. An Easter weekend snowstorm moved through Utah and Colorado. Rain fell steadily in southern Mississippi for a second day, forcing 300 persons to flee from their homes in Mendenhall and Mize. Hail battered the Dallas area as thunderstorms soaked the north and central parts of Texas.
Gasoline stations in parts of New York City, Suffolk, Westchester, Rockland and Ulster Counties and parts of the upper Hudson River Valley have reported serious shortages of gasoline in recent days, according to state officials. The officials, citing a preliminary county-by-county survey underway to determine if the state’s odd-even rationing system should be dropped or modified, said they had also discovered areas in which some service stations had run out of fuel while others nearby were still pumping — at a higher price.
Westar 1, the first commercial geostationary satellite, was launched from Cape Canaveral in the United States by NASA on behalf of the Western Union communications company.
At Wrigley, rookie Ken Frailing allows one earned run in 8⅔ innings as the Cubs whip the Expos, 7-4, in the first of two. In game 2, Montreal plates 8 runs in the 4th as they top Chicago, Ron Fairly has a double and grand slam to pace the Expos.
Born:
Sergei Gonchar, Russian National Team and NHL defenseman (Olympics, silver medal, 1998, bronze medal, 2002, 4th, 2006, 6th, 2010; NHL Champions, Stanley Cup-Penguins, 2009; NHL All-Star, 2001-2003, 2008; Washington Capitals, Boston Bruins, Pittsburgh Penguins, Ottawa Senators, Dallas Stars, Montreal Canadiens), in Chelyabinsk, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union.
Darren Turner, British racing car driver, in Camberley, Surrey, England, United Kingdom.
Ahmed Ghailani, Tanzanian conspirator convicted for the bombing of the U.S. embassies in Tanzania on August 7, 1998; in Zanzibar City.
Died:
Stanley Smith, 71, American actor and singer (King of Jazz; Soup to Nuts; Good News).
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