Middle East Heading Home

At 5:57 a.m., the order came over the radio: the last Israeli soldiers on 6,450-ft. Mount Baruk and along the once fortified slopes of Lebanon's Bekaa Valley were to mount their tanks and armored personnel carriers and head south. There came a shout: "To the trucks!" A whoop rose from the troops, and with that the Israeli army began withdrawing from the southeast sector of Lebanon, where 8,000 Israeli soldiers had faced 30,000 Syrians since the 1982 Israeli invasion.

As the troops left, villagers sang and danced in the streets, showering Lebanese soldiers with rice and flowers as they moved in. The pullback was a Syrian success of sorts--Syrian forces are remaining in Lebanon--but Damascus so far has refrained from moving its units into the territory abandoned by Israel. Said Israeli Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin as he watched the pullback: "I hope the Syrians understand we have certain limits, and we will not be able to stay on the sidelines if they exceed them." Earlier in the week the Israeli Cabinet had voted to complete the three-stage withdrawal from Lebanon by early June, but the Israelis were also setting up observation posts and positions just north of the border.

Israelis celebrating the 37th anniversary of independence the day after the pullback were gratified, on the whole, that their country's most disastrous military conflict was drawing to a close. They could also rejoice that a possible "major disaster," as Prime Minister Shimon Peres put it, had not disrupted the festivities. Peres was referring to the Israeli navy's earlier sinking of a freighter that both Israeli officials and the Palestine Liberation Organization confirmed had carried P.L.O. commandos. Their mission: to blow up a major target, believed to have been the defense ministry in Tel Aviv.

The Israelis said they sank the vessel on the high seas about 100 miles west of Tel Aviv. Eight guerrillas were captured, one body was washed ashore, and 19 others aboard were presumed to have drowned. In Jordan, Khalil Wazir, also known as Abu Jihad, the deputy commander of Fatah, the largest P.L.O. guerrilla group, claimed that the commandos were killed in onshore battles with Israeli forces. He said the ship was heading out to sea when it was sunk.

Meanwhile, potential political troubles were averted in Lebanon. Prime Minister Rashid Karami, who stepped down from his post two weeks ago to protest a battle between various Muslim groups for control of West Beirut, withdrew his resignation. The move should stabilize the government, but fierce factional fighting continued around the southern port city of Sidon.