If It Happens Here, It Will Happen There

Israel's Premier Golda Meir, a woman who wastes few words, came straight to the point. Attending the funeral of an 18-year-old boy killed by an Arab rocket in the frontier town of Kiryat Shemona, near Lebanon, she said: "Under no circumstances will we permit murderers to sit across the border and sow death in our midst. We desire quiet on the borders on one condition: that there be quiet on both sides of the borders." If it happens here, she warned in effect, it will happen there. Last week, 36 hours after her warning, Israel took steps to quiet the other side of the border. In a massive retaliatory raid, Israeli armor rolled across the Lebanese border under jet-fighter cover.

The attack was hardly unexpected. Since November, under an agreement with Beirut, Arab guerrillas have occupied a rugged 27-sq.-mi. section of the border near snow-topped Mount Hermon, using its hills and hollows as a base for attacks on Israeli settlements in East Galilee. In one recent 40-day period, by Israel's count, they carried out 61 attacks that killed eight Israelis, wounded 30 and brought demands for protection from settlers in the area.

Concealed Cache. Responding to those demands, a column of tanks and armored half-tracks clattered across the Lebanese border toward guerrilla strongholds. The Israeli troops encountered little resistance at first and quickly entered six villages near the Hasbani River. The soldiers gave villagers leaflets with a pointed verse from an old Arab poem: "Whoever sows thorns will not harvest grapes and whosoever lights fires is likely to get burned."

The Israelis were well prepared. From informers, Israeli intelligence had learned the precise whereabouts of guerrilla hideouts. In the village of Hebbariyeh, one Israeli commander reached a spot where he had been told he would find a fedayeen headquarters. All he saw was a small street kiosk, but inside was the opening to a corridor that led to a fully equipped underground hospital and arms cache.

At Lebanon's behest, the United Nations Security Council met quickly to consider censuring Israel. Lost on none was the fact that Israel had gone into Lebanon for much the same reason that the U.S. had gone into Cambodia --to clean out enemy sanctuaries. This put the U.S. in an uncomfortable diplomatic position. Secretary of State William P. Rogers admitted at his Washington press conference that military action was regrettable, but he added: "You have to consider the causes." The Security Council nevertheless flatly turned down a U.S. amendment critical of all parties to the Israel-Lebanon dispute. Only Britain sided with the U.S. in the 13-to-2 vote.

The Biggest Bag. Though the Israelis had hoped to end the raid in less than a day, the eventual withdrawal took longer. Tiger-suited fedayeen hurried out from Beirut in commandeered Mercedes-Benz cabs to join the action. Near Hebbariyeh, where fedayeen control ends, Lebanese troops also took part in the fight. Not until 34 hours after they had entered Lebanon did the last troops withdraw. Israel reported no dead and eleven wounded. Behind, they left 39 houses demolished and from 30 to 100 guerrillas killed.

In addition, three Syrian MIGs that had appeared eight hours after the attack began were shot down. (The Israelis also claimed to have shot down seven Egyptian planes during clashes over the Suez Canal for a week's total of ten Arab aircraft--one of the biggest bags since the Six-Day War.) At sea, meanwhile, Israel pursued the same tit-for-tat strategy that it applied in Lebanon. After an Egyptian naval missile sank an Israeli fishing trawler and killed two crewmen, Israeli jets sank an Egyptian destroyer and missile boat.

Lieut. General Haim Bar-Lev, Israel's chief of staff, ordered the troops returning from Lebanon to parade with their prisoners and captured booty through the streets of Kiryat Shemona. Even so, it was not an unvarnished Israeli victory. Israeli troopers admitted later that the fedayeen had fought well; one guerrilla calmly fired 16 rockets at advancing tanks before he was finally killed. Fedayeen Leader Yasser Arafat, who directed some of the battle, promised that raids against Israel would continue. "The Israeli attacks," he said, "will only step up, not diminish our determination to strike at them."

No Volunteers. The confrontation between Israelis and guerrillas generated new trouble for Lebanon. At week's end 650 Syrian guerrillas, members of the Al-Saiqa group, suddenly appeared in the Mount Hermon area aboard Syrian army vehicles. Lebanon's President Charles Helou, after a helicopter visit to the area, angrily informed his Cabinet: "Syria has violated Lebanon's sovereignty. The presence of Syrian forces no doubt provides Israel with an excuse for fulfilling its ambitions in Lebanon. It will involve Lebanon in a war it is unable to bear." Lebanese lawmakers approved an increase in the army's authorized strength, from 15,000 to 25,000 men. The action was important only in a symbolic sense, for the army's present strength is now 11,000. As Interior Minister Kamal Jumblatt admitted dolefully: "There simply are no volunteers these days."

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