Middle East: End of the Beginning

One down, many problems to go, with the exodus of the P.L.O.

"As of today," declared Lebanon's Prime Minister Chafik al Wazzan, "there is no East Beirut and no West Beirut." Of course there were still two Beiruts: one Christian, one Muslim; the first largely spared the summer's fighting, the other pocked with rubble. But last week, as the twelve-day evacuation of the Palestine Liberation Organization from West Beirut was completed with surprising ease 48 hours ahead of schedule, there were signs that life was beginning to return at last to the capital city.

The blare of auto horns replaced the bark...