Costly War (I)

Israel counts its dead

When the American folk group Peter, Paul and Mary sang the 1960s anti-war classic, Blowin' in the Wind, at a concert in Jerusalem last week, the audience reacted with emotion. A crescendo of applause welled up as the trio reached the lines, "How many deaths will it take till he knows that too many people have died?" Mary Travers later said that she had been so choked up by the response she could hardly continue singing.

It was only one sign of the way many Israelis felt as the death toll from last year's war in Lebanon and the subsequent occupation reached 500. Protesters continued a seven-week vigil outside the residence of Prime Minister Menachem Begin. The opposition Labor Party called for an official inquiry into the Begin government's handling of the war. It was joined, ironically, by former Defense Minister (and now Minister Without Portfolio) Ariel Sharon, who is said to have told the Cabinet, "I'm not prepared to wear the mark of Cain or have people wave 'murderer' placards at me. I'm not prepared to take all the blame." The Knesset voted against setting up another commission of inquiry, but the protests continued.

The Begin government's dilemma is that it does not know what to do about the occupation. Last week, amid a series of scattered bombings and mortar attacks, several more Israelis were wounded in Lebanon. A group called the Lebanese National Resistance Front, whose members reportedly range from far left to extreme right, claimed responsibility for the incidents. The Israeli armed forces acknowledged that the attacks were not made by Palestinians or Syrians but by Lebanese, though the Front undoubtedly receives some support from the Palestine Liberation Organization.

To reduce casualties, the Israelis could stage a unilateral withdrawal to more defensible positions in the south. Such a tactic would probably lead to the partition of Lebanon, with Israel occupying the south and the Syrians remaining embedded in parts of the north and east. The Begin government may eventually take that step, but for the moment it is fighting off all opposition efforts to bring about a partial withdrawal, arguing that this could only make the Syrians more intransigent. Says Defense Minister Moshe Arens: "If the Syrians reach the conclusion that Israel may withdraw unilaterally, then they will certainly not leave Lebanon."

Early in the week the Lebanese Parliament voted 65 to 2, with four abstentions, to endorse the Lebanese-Israeli withdrawal agreement. Many members made the point that Lebanon had no alternative but to accept the agreement if it wished to get Israeli troops out of the country. Nonetheless, the vote drew sharp rebukes from Syria. Damascus Radio declared that Lebanese deputies who voted for the agreement had "sold their country to the devil." Perhaps coincidentally, shooting subsequently broke out in the northern port city of Tripoli in a renewal of fighting between Sunni Muslims and Syrian-backed Alawite Muslims.

One of the problems in dealing with the Syrians on the withdrawal issue is that they have been giving mixed diplomatic signals for some time. Syrian President Hafez Assad has consistently denounced the Lebanese-Israeli agreement, but at the same time he has hinted to Washington that he would welcome talks with U.S. negotiators, though not with U.S. Special Envoy Philip Habib. He would probably like to meet directly with Secretary of State George Shultz, who believes that preliminary discussions should be conducted by lower-ranking officials. Some U.S. experts on the Middle East feel that if the Syrians are really ready to talk now, Shultz should move quickly to take advantage of the opportunity.

The Reagan Administration was saying little about the Middle East at the moment. Ostensibly, the U.S. was waiting for Arab moderates, notably Saudi Arabia, to exert influence on Syria to accept the withdrawal agreement. In truth, it looked as if U.S. policy was slowly shifting into an election-year mode. With the withdrawal agreement between Israel and Lebanon a reality at last, the Reagan Administration accented the recent improvement in U.S.-Israeli relations by inviting Begin to make his long delayed visit to Washington. This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.