MIDDLE EAST: Battles, Plans and Travels

Battles, Plans and Travels

Nearly everyone was getting into the action

The tiny desert outpost of Abu Darbah changed hands last week as Israel yielded a third slice of the Sinai Peninsula in accordance with the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty. Indicative though it was of continuing progress, it went virtually unnoticed in the flux and fury of events elsewhere in the region.

Only a day before, sonic booms and cannon fire reverberated in the clear blue sky as Israeli and Syrian jets clashed over Lebanon. Flying U.S.-built F-15 fighters, Israeli pilots shot down four MiG-21s in a 90-sec. dogfight apparently provoked by the Syrians. The Israelis claimed that all their planes went unscathed. The dogfight underscored the fragility of the Lebanese ceasefire.

At the U.N. General Assembly, Secretary of State Cyrus Vance cited the clash and announced a U.S. initiative for a "broader truce" in southern Lebanon. The American plan had actually been hatching since late August, when a series of heavy bombings convinced State Department officials the time might be ripe. Washington policymakers felt the Israelis were concerned that reports of civilian casualties in Lebanon were undermining their support in the U.S. The P.L.O., riding the crest of a successful diplomatic wave, might be amenable to moderation. The Syrians were believed eager to withdraw some of their troops in the face of mounting political problems at home. The State Department therefore drew up a set of general principles calling for a pullback of all forces from southern Lebanon, reinforcement of U.N. peacekeeping troops, and a larger role for the Lebanese government.

The U.S. had no specific step-by-step plan for the truce, nor was it seeking an all-parties truce conference involving direct negotiations between Israel and the P.L.O. "We're not that stupid," says an Administration source. "We will deal with the Israelis and the U.N., and we will deal with the Lebanese. The Lebanese will deal with the Palestinians and with the Christian militia."

Initial responses to the plan have been positive, though somewhat skeptical. The Israelis, for instance, have indicated they would abandon their policy of pre-emptive shelling if the P.L.O. would pledge similar restraint. Some faint hopes for broader cooperation between these two groups eventually were also raised by Israel's Foreign Minister, Moshe Dayan, who hinted in New York last week that Israel might even consider direct dealings with the P.L.O. one day. But only if it were to transform itself from a "military organization" into a "political framework," he was careful to insist.

U.S., Egyptian and Israeli representatives meanwhile met in Alexandria for a sixth—and noisy—round of talks on Palestinian autonomy. The opening session turned stormy when Egyptian Prime Minister Moustafa Khalil pounded his fist on the table and barked that "good faith" had been "shattered" by the Israeli decision to allow its citizens to purchase land on the West Bank. Israeli Minister of the Interior Yosef Burg sarcastically retorted that the Egyptians were "using a big gun to shoot a small bird."