INTRODUCTION

Volume seven of the series Israel's Foreign Relations covering the year 1981 and the first half of 1982, deals mainly with the final phases of the implementation of the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty, culminating with the completion of the withdrawal from Sinai on 25 April 1982. Among the other events featured in the documents, are differences of views between Israel and the United States on American arms sales to Arab states, the visit of Prime Minister Begin to Washington in September 1981, the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding on Strategic Cooperation between Jerusalem and Washington after the bombing by Israel of the Iraqi nuclear facility near Baghdad (June 1981) and the passage of the Golan Heights Law (December 1981). Attention is also focused on the state of relations with Egypt after the assassination of President Sadat in October 1981. No description of lsrael's foreign relations can aspire to completeness without relevant United Nations General Assembly and Security Council resolutions, virtually all of them anti-Israel, adopted by the automatic pro-Arab majority in the world organization. Special attention was given to events along the Israel-Lebanon border, and especially the mini-war fought along that border in July 1981.

As in the past, this volume contains only documents that have been previously published in various forms, most of them as press bulletins issued by the Israel Government Press Office in Jerusalem. The United Nations documents are taken from United Nations releases.

Once more, as in previous volumes, there has been no effort at editing the text, and where excerpts are produced, it is so indicated. Since most of the material appeared originally in Hebrew, the translation was done by the staff of the Government Press Office who deserve much credit for their work under deadline pressure. Therefore, there has been little attempt to refine the style, and to insure consistency of spelling. This accounts for the occasional English and American way of spelling.

The editorial notes before each document provide the background in order to make the reading of the particular document easier as it is placed within a historical context.

I must thank Evan Muney for his assistance.

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Meron Medzini
December 1987