MIDDLE EAST: Israel Loses a Round

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Less than 24 hours after the Cabinet's angry pronouncements, 30 Israeli jets bombed and strafed Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, leaving at least 100 dead and more than 150 wounded —the heaviest death toll in such raids since February 1973. During attacks on refugee camps near Nabatiyeh in southern Lebanon, the hamlet of Kafr Tabnit was razed almost to the ground. Israeli military spokesmen said the targets were terrorist bases, including the headquarters of the Syrian-backed Saiqa guerrillas who are thought to be responsible for a Nov. 21 raid on the Golan Heights in which three Israeli militiamen were killed. Some form of Israeli reprisal had also been expected for a terrorist bombing in Jerusalem earlier in November that killed six people and wounded 46. The timing and intensity of last week's air strikes, however, led many observers to conclude that they were an expression of Israeli outrage at the Security Council action.

Clumsy Raids. The Israelis suffered no losses in the raids, which initially served to defuse the tense and angry mood in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Later, though, there were some second thoughts. "The use of massive airpower increases the danger of hitting civilians and merely fuels the present anti-Israel campaign in the world," warned Ha 'aretz, the country's leading paper. "The price we may have to pay may be far above what we have achieved in greater security." Even one foreign ministry official conceded that the raids had been "clumsy and ill-timed."

Arab leaders were more vehement.

Lebanese Premier Rashid Karami said the attacks "demonstrated Israel's perplexity after the victories scored by Syria and the P.L.O. at the U.N." P.L.O. Spokesman Abu Sharar also attributed the strikes to Israeli "desperation" over the Palestinians' diplomatic success. Criticism came from less predictable sources as well. Pope Paul VI, in a message of condolence cabled to the Lebanese government, called the raids "an inadmissible gesture of violence."

The Israeli action placed Egypt in a particularly uncomfortable position. The day before the raids, Egypt had taken over the Abu Rudeis oilfields, which Israel had given up as part of the second Sinai accord. The Egyptians thus regained a $1 million-a-day resource, but the takeover made them appear to be on embarrassingly good terms with Israel at a bad moment. Privately, the Egyptians were furious at the Syrians for having undermined President Anwar Sadat's attempts to ease tensions in the area. As one high government official told TIME: "They have called a Security Council debate that will accomplish nothing but has given the Israelis an excuse to get tough."