A Test of Intentions

THE MILITANT SHI'ITE GROUP HIZBALLAH, DETERmined to do all it can to sabotage ongoing Arab-Israeli peace talks, has scored its best shot in that battle so far. Hizballah operators in Israel's self-declared security zone in southern Lebanon detonated a roadside bomb as an Israeli army convoy passed by on patrol, killing five soldiers. The blast -- and Israel's retaliatory attacks on Hizballah and Palestinian positions in Lebanon -- brought new tensions to the table as Arab and Israeli negotiators conducted their seventh round of talks in Washington.

The fighting resulted in the death of 13 Israelis and Lebanese, including civilians on both sides. Hizballah managed to fire a Katyusha rocket into northern Israel, killing a teenage boy, while Israeli air, sea and artillery attacks likewise claimed a handful of innocent lives. At week's end Israeli tanks were poised along the Lebanese border, and Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah was calling for a general mobilization of his 3,500 fighters.

Despite the flare-up back home, the Washington negotiators continued to plod along in relatively civil discussions. Israel charged that Syria, the dominant power in Lebanon, could stop Hizballah violence if it tried. The Palestinians decried Israel's attack on a refugee camp in north Lebanon that Jerusalem claims is a base for terrorism. Still, all parties have apparently invested too much in a year of negotiations to quit over what is a regular cycle of skirmishing in southern Lebanon.