Beirut: A Fortress Under Heavy Fire

The fiery glow of exploding shells and rockets flared across the night sky, illuminating the ghostly city. From high ground behind the Lebanese capital, tanks and artillery pounded away at nearby strongholds of the Palestine Liberation Organization. The surrounding Israeli army had all but cut off food, water and incoming traffic to West Beirut. The 500,000 residents of that encircled area of the city could do nothing but anxiously hope for some resolution to the impasse.

But as the battle of Lebanon moved into its second month, what most engaged the world's attention during a week of unoptimistic reports was the surprising announcement from Washington that "under certain circumstances," the U.S. was prepared to send troops to Beirut to help arrange the safe removal of P.L.O. fighting forces from the country. First word of the U.S. plan came from Israeli radio, which had apparently been told of the top-secret offer by officials in Jerusalem. Annoyed by the premature disclosure, President Reagan promptly confirmed that he had agreed "in principle" to contribute a contingent of servicemen, most probably about 1,000 Marines, to a temporary, multinational force that would oversee the withdrawal of some 6,000 P.L.O. guerrillas from West Beirut. At week's end five ships from the Mediterranean-based Sixth Fleet, with 1,800 Marines aboard, were poised just over the horizon, about 60 miles from Beirut.

The announcement sent nervous tremors around the world. Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev fired off a letter to Reagan, warning vaguely that any move to put U.S. troops in the Middle East would influence Soviet policy toward the area. P.L.O. Chairman Yasser Arafat publicly scoffed at the U.S. offer, saying, "The weapons and the fleet that helped kill our women and children cannot protect us," although in private his aides hinted that they would welcome U.S. assistance in arranging a safe and orderly withdrawal of Palestinian forces from Lebanon to other Arab lands. In Washington, some members of Congress voiced doubts about the wisdom of sending American servicemen on a rescue mission to Lebanon for the second time in less than a quarter-century.* In Beirut, meanwhile, intermittent Israeli shelling and the blockade of West Beirut at times kept the leaders of the various Lebanese factions from meeting with one another, and indeed brought U.S. Special Envoy Philip Habib's delicate negotiations to a virtual standstill.

By midweek, TIME has learned, Reagan's enduring patience with the Israeli government began to crack. The President drafted a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, accusing him of obstructing U.S. efforts to reach an agreement over Beirut and warning Begin that the U.S. could even be forced to deal directly with the P.L.O. if he did not stop making it so difficult for Habib to negotiate with the Palestinians through intermediaries. When U.S. Ambassador to Israel Samuel Lewis delivered the letter to Begin in person, the Israeli leader promised to cooperate, but he remained silent at the threat of U.S.-P.L.O. negotiations, especially at Lewis' news that Habib might be ordered to deal personally with the P.L.O.