
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, June 18, 1990                   TAG: 9006180028
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: JERUSALEM                                LENGTH: Medium

LEBANON INVASION ARCHITECTS NAMED TO ISRAEL DEFENSE POSTS

The new right-wing Cabinet on Sunday gave former generals Ariel Sharon and Rafael Eitan their biggest say in military policy since both were reprimanded for actions in two massacres during the 1982 Lebanon invasion.

At its first meeting, the Cabinet named Sharon, a former defense minister, and Eitan, chief of staff during the Lebanon invasion, to the 11-man Ministerial Defense Committee.

The committee is a forum for debating defense policies and also includes one representative of each of Likud's government coalition allies.

Sharon and Eitan were blamed by an Israeli inquiry for not anticipating that Israel's Lebanese Christian militia allies would massacre hundreds of Palestinians if they were allowed to enter Beirut's Sabra and Chatilla refugee camps in 1982.

Sharon, a leader of the conservative Likud bloc, also was named chairman of a Cabinet committee overseeing the immigration of thousands of Soviet Jews to Israel. Sharon is an advocate of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

His appointment has raised fears that he would try to move Soviet Jews to the occupied areas, worsening already tense ties with the United States. U.S. officials consider the Jewish settlements obstacles to peace.

Israeli officials insisted Sunday that the new Cabinet would work for peace with Palestinians and for a smoother relationship with the United States.

Defense Minister Moshe Arens said he wants to "improve the level and scope of dialogue between myself as defense minister and the Arab Palestinian population in the area, so that together we try to find the basis of an agreement."

by CNB