Hassle over Hula

Early this year, land-hungry Israel sent bulldozers and workers to Lake Hula, began draining a marshland of 15,000 acres as a future home for 40,000 Israelis, forcibly evacuated 800 Arab villagers. But the Hula marshes are part of a disputed, 30-mile-long strip on the Syria-Israel border, theoretically under U.N. supervision; the sight of the bulldozers enraged the Syrians. They charged that the Israelis had abused the 1949 armistice agreement, that draining the land would give the Israelis a military advantage. When the Israelis ignored a U.N. order to call off their tractors, the Syrians began taking potshots at them. Syrian troops shot up an Israeli truck, killed seven policemen.

In retaliation, eight Israeli planes bombed Syrian positions. The Israelis later apologized, but by last week, Israel and Syria were involved in small-scale border warfare. Israel charged that a Syrian patrol overran one mile of Israeli ground. Syria charged that Israeli troops provoked the outbreak by trying to steal Arab cattle.

Again U.N. intervened, got both sides to sign a cease-fire agreement described as "complete, final and sincere" (though Israel still refused to yield on the Hula project). But less than four hours later, artillery fire again roared over the Sea of Galilee. Syria claimed that Israel had started it, Israel blamed the Syrians.

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