With world attention riveted on rising Arab-Israeli tensions, TIME has steadily increased its reporting of the people and events in the center of the conflict. Our coverage has included interviews with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Syrian President Hafez Assad and two talks with Palestinian Leader Yasser Arafat, along with a cover story on the P.L.O. In these and other articles we told the Arab side of the tragic story. This week our cover focuses on embattled Israel. We present an interview with Israeli Premier Yitzhak Rabin, an account of the arms lineup stocked by both sides since the October war and the grim prospects for another conflict.

The week began with reports of a new assault by Palestinian guerrillas in the Jordan Valley town of Bet She'an. TIME Photographer David Rubinger and Reporter Daniel Drooz arrived to cover the story just as a mob of outraged townspeople seized and burned the dead terrorists' bodies. The crowd's hostility soon engulfed the journalists. Drooz's camera was lost, and Rubinger narrowly dodged a large stone aimed at his head.

Meanwhile Jerusalem Bureau Chief William Marmon went to see the Premier, whom he first met in Washington in 1973 when Rabin was Ambassador to the U.S. and about to return to Israel "to learn a little about politics." Marlin Levin, who predicted Rabin's rise seven years ago, joined Marmon for the interview. Levin has lived in Israel since its creation and contributed to 25 TIME cover stories on the Middle East. "The atmosphere here now," he recalls, "is much like it was back in November 1947. In those days, the Jews were worried about the state's survival, just as they are now. But then they had less with which to defend themselves." As for TIME'S full reportage on the Palestinians, says Levin, "Israelis enjoy the give and take of a good argument. Many of them have told me that they are glad to read the other side of the story."

In New York, Associate Editor William Smith received some 150 pages of reports and wrote the story assisted by Reporter-Researchers Sara Collins Medina and Susan Reed, who specialize in the Middle East area. For John Elson, senior editor of the World section, it was his third Middle East cover story in five weeks.

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