France and Israel press effort to ease tension

Efforts are apparently being made on both sides here to ease strains in Israeli-French relations.

President Francois Mitterrand consulted with his interior and defense ministers and the heads of the security, intelligence, and police services to devise new antiterrorist tactics in seeking to calm Israeli concern over a spate of Paris attacks on Jews and their interests.

Israeli opposition leader Shimon Peres conferred with President Mitterrand and concluded the meeting had helped improve bilateral relations. He rejected allegations, voiced by Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, that France was a land of anti-Semitism.