Editorials

...Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher enraged her political opponents with her pre-election triumphal tour of the islands, and a subsequent two-day debate in the House of Commoms concerned itself with the still unsettled question of the long-term British administration of the archipelago...

...The dead protester, himself a paratrooper, has been called "the first victim on the altar of Israel's democracy...

...TORTRESS FALKLAND...

...Within three years the prediction is for an Israeli population on the West Bank of 100,000...

...With Sharon continuing in the cabinet, will Israel continue the Sharon-Begin hard line in relation to the Palestinians and its neighbors...

...Thatcher or a successor in her office may be forced to return to some solution like that proposed and rejected before the Argentine invasion, a "lease-back" arrangement under which sovereignty would have been granted to Argentina which would then have leased the islands back to Britain for a given period of control and administration...

...Israel cannot long survive internal dissension of such character and magnitude...

...Reagan's initiative...

...it would be next to impossible for Hussein to agree to take part in negotiations unless there is a freeze on West Bank settlements, as well as a withdrawal of Israeli troops from Lebanon...

...Despite protests from the United States, Israel is engaged in a crash program to expand its settlements...

...So far Mrs...

...The first problem is an internal one for Israel, but one that has serious implications for its neighbors and friends too...

...Sharon as minister without portfolio is put in charge of the occupied territories, as is reported to be the plan, that would be a clear signal of a continuation of the policy that led to the invasion of Lebanon in the first place and to the increasingly onerous Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, an occupation which is at the heart of the problem...

...It was a stroke of political luck for Mrs...

...MORAL COURAGE IN ISRAEL SAID THE ISRAELI commission of inquiry into the massacre of Palestinians in the refugee camps of Lebanon: "Our conclusion is therefore that the direct responsibility for the perpetration of the acts of slaughter rests on the Phalan-gist forces...

...No other editor, as yet, Sends, with the wound, the tourniquet-Salve with the burn-And ointment with the smart Like your kind heart...

...Sharon, indicate that changing Mr...

...Evacuating the Sinai after the Egyptian peace agreement almost tore the country apart, where only a fraction as many settlers were involved...

...If present Israeli policy continues in regard to the West Bank and Gaza - as it will if Sharon has his way - the result can only be disaster...

...What both the Reagan administration and the Begin regime need is some of the admirable moral courage displayed by the Israeli commission...

...Begin from having to call an election his smaller coalition partners do not want, as well as fitting in with his own preference for Mr...

...David Owen, former Foreign Secretary in the Labor party regime and now a leader of the new Social Democratic party, spoke for many when he said:"The responsibility of the prime minister now is to once again try to reach an understanding with Latin America over the Falkland Islands...

...On the other hand, Hillis is a nice fresh name that invites no comparisons...

...Such settlements, he told visiting Israeli President Yitzhak Navon recently, are "not helpful" to the peace process...

...It went on, however, to affirm that Israel bore "indirect responsibility" for the tragedy in the camps and that Defense Minister Ariel Sharon and three top generals should leave their posts...

...Kilmer has, after all, been used by a bunch of perfectly good poets, all of them my siblings, parents, grandparents and the like...

...vites no comparisons...

...Begin's policies there...

...If Mr...

...No longer does the country wait for the religious zealots who were the backbone of previous settlements...

...Begin's mind and Israeli policy on this matter will take some doing...

...Opinion surveys suggest that as many as seven out of ten Britons are . dubious about the inquiry commission's conclusions, which dealt with the short-term but failed to consider the long-term problem...

...indeed, Begin administration representatives make no: bones about it: even with "only" 100,000 settlers there, it would be well nigh impossible for any Israeli government that replaces Mr...

...This would more than double the present Israeli population there, with the new arrivals making the grand total over 60,000...

...Will the Sharon policy of "attack, attack" prevail...

...While the Arab nations shortsightedly continue to delay initiatives for peace, Mr...

...One such note produced the following: Letter to the (Poetry) Editor or Owed to R. Deen Whoe'er she be That not impossible she (or is it he...

...Thatcher...

...Nice Guy and nerve himself up to a confrontation...

...even better, the report of the commission of inquiry set up to investigate the war exonerated her regime from blame for Argentina's invasion, saying that the government could neither have predicted nor prevented the April 2 Argentine attack...

...So Mrs...

...That doth return my work to me...

...Begin to undo the status quo on the West Bank...

...The second problem is external and at least as serious...

...Fortress Falklands' will not serve the best interest of the islanders, even if it temporarily serves the interests of the Conservative party...

...Reagan's pleas for a halt to its settlement efforts, the Israeli government is starting an extensive and expensive advertising campaign in the press and on the radio and TV to attract thousands of new settlers...

...In a country very hard pressed financially, the cost of recapturing the islands, garrisoning them for four years, and making them economically viable is estimated at about $4.8 billion, out of a defense budget of $25 billion...

...All of which means that settlements should be an urgent topic if and when Prime Minister Begin arrives in Washington on his supposedly upcoming visit, if Mr...

...So sweet, from you, rejection-Let me see How triply sweet must your acceptance be...

...Thatcher is riding high for the moment...

...President Reagan's Middle East peace plan called for a freeze on Israeli settlements on the occupied West Bank...

...Thatcher is coming out ahead on every battle...

...The fighting in the Falklands is long over, but the political fallout in Britain continues and the end is not in sight...

...Will the country's vision of itself extend from the Jordan to the Mediterranean, with perhaps a chunk of Lebanon thrown in...

...She is prepared to spend enormous sums on keeping a permanent British garrison there and on economic development...

...In its latest thumb-of-the-nose to Mr...

...In the long run the size of this due bill is likely to make others think twice, including future prime ministers, even if it does not seem to bother Mrs...

...The government's plan is obvious...

...eliminating 100,000 settlers from the West Bank would be close to impossible...

...By the middle of the year, 35,000 additional Israelis are expected to move to the West Bank...

...ANNE KILMER HILLIS Lake Worth, Fla...

...Who knows - the resultant second thoughts might ultimately lead to the kind of internationally negotiated solution that should have been found in the first place...

...With Sharon still in the cabinet, such a stand by the United States is more crucial than ever if a peaceful settlement in the Middle East is to be achieved...

...At this writing, Prime Minister Menachem Begin and his cabinet, with only Mr., Sharon dissenting, have after considerable debate voted to accept the commission's findings...

...Reagan will have to be prepared to speak up strongly - and to back his words up just as strongly if necessary...

...This amounts to something like $3 million for each of the 1600 Falkland islanders - a sum calculated to give war a bad name even among the most dedicated hawks...

...The World Zionist Organization is in charge of drafting settlement plans for the government...

...Despite the standing of her party in the polls and the report of the commission of inquiry, however, opinion in Britain on the Falklands matter is far from united...

...Thatcher that Argentina was clearly guilty of an act of aggression in its invasion of the Falklands...

...King Hussein of Jordan would agree, as he weighs his own possible participation in Mr...

...Thus the cabinet decision accepts the letter of the commission's findings, but not its spirit, and this moral evasion raises two serious problems...

...But that does not mean that an increasing number of questions will not be asked about long-range British policy on the Falklands...

...Reagan can forget about being Mr...

...Not only did British troops oust the Argentine invaders, but her trip to the islands produced a gain of three percentage points for her Conservative party in the latest Gallup poll...

...There is, she says, no other course if Britain is to honor the preferences of the Falklanders as to the government they want to live under...

...Subsidized land costs, very attractive purchase prices, and highly favorable mortgage terms are attracting many non-ideological Israelis to the West Bank, even among those opposed to Mr...

...In the sober and careful way it conducted its hearings and in the nature of its findings, the commission reflected the highest moral standards of Israel and brought honor upon it in the eyes of the world - in striking contrast to the foot-dragging Lebanese investigation of those "Christian" Phalan-gists who actually carried out the massacre...

...If there is to be any hope for a different outcome on the West Bank, Mr...

...That is the growing polarization of the Israeli people into two increasingly hostile camps, including predominantly Sephardic or Oriental Jews who tend to support the Begin hard line and those Ashkenazi or Western Jews who fear and oppose him...

...Sharon will step down as defense minister, but he will remain in the cabinet...

...by the year 2010, according to spokesmen for that organization, the figure will be 1.4 million Jews and 1.6 million Arabs...

...In an unprecedented and shocking event in Israel during the cabinet debate over the commission findings, a confrontation between these two groups has already left one dead of a grenade attack and nine wounded, with Sephardic Jews crying out to the anti-Sharon demonstrators, incredibly, "They shouldn't have rescued you from Hitler in 1945...

...Once in a while she has time for a quick note of consolation...

...But the question of sovereignty is a complex one, and in the end Mrs...

...ET CETERA One of the sadder duties of poetry editor Rosemary Deen is saying "No" to more poems than we can possibly accept...

...This decision keeps Mr...

...Our correspondent adds that she has submitted poems under both her maiden and her married name...

...Sharon's tactics...

...Thatcher supports what she calls a "Fortress Falklands" policy...

...Begin, in short, is in the process of creating facts on the ground, facts which cannot be ignored...

...But recent events in Israel, including the retention of Mr...