Middle East State Of Siege

Through the week, tension mounted in Bethlehem. The colored lights strung near Manger Square were brazenly destroyed. After receiving several threatening phone calls, Mayor Elias Freij, a Palestinian Christian, canceled his annual cocktail party for Israeli and Arab notables. Angry slogans appeared on walls. One read, JESUS CHRIST, HOW CAN WE BE EXPECTED TO CELEBRATE YOUR BIRTHDAY WHEN THE SOUL OF OUR HOMELAND IS RINSED WITH THE BLOOD OF OUR MARTYRS? Nervous soldiers in riot gear stood guard as tourists filed into the Church of the Nativity, built in the 6th century on the spot where Christ is believed to have been born. Troops with assault rifles and tear-gas launchers patrolled the market area, while soldiers ringed the perimeter of the picturesque hilltop village. On Christmas Eve, the heavy military presence combined with a cold rain to keep Bethlehem unusually quiet. Those pilgrims who did venture into the town were frisked before boarding their buses.

Christmas is always an anxious time in Bethlehem, a tempting target for terrorists who might want to send the world a violent Yuletide message from the Israeli-occupied West Bank. But never in recent memory has the town, home to 30,000 Arabs, been more of an armed camp than this year.

Nerves tightened throughout Israel and the occupied territories last week as government soldiers continued to battle crowds of enraged Palestinian protesters. The confrontation took an ominous turn when the 740,000 Arabs who are citizens of Israel joined their brethren in the occupied territories in a general strike. The United Nations Security Council registered its indignation by voting 14 to 0 to "strongly deplore" the Israeli tactics. The U.S., Israel's most loyal defender, abstained rather than veto the resolution, marking one of the few times the U.S. has failed to back Israel in the Security Council. What particularly upset the Reagan Administration was Israel's use of live ammunition in confronting protesters. "Order must be maintained without the use of lethal force," declared State Department Spokeswoman Phyllis Oakley. "Techniques are available to accomplish this, and we urge they be employed."

But the criticism only deepened the resolve of Israel's hard-line Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir to crack down on the rioters. Four thousand soldiers swept through towns and refugee camps, arresting as many as 1,000 Palestinians and carting them off to hastily erected detention centers. Then, in an angry speech in the Knesset, Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin announced that Israeli soldiers would continue to shoot at the "leaders of disorder, throwers of fire bombs." Rabin added that his men would aim to injure, not kill, but he left little doubt that the government would not tolerate the loss of Israeli life. "As Defense Minister, I have responsibility for the lives and safety of the soldiers and border police," he said. "It is my duty to give them the means to protect themselves . . . to hurt those out to hurt them."