Agony for a Troubled Land

'It's hard to watch and not feel sorry for us all"

A terrible civil war that never really ended exploded anew last week.

Syrian military forces, which had moved into Lebanon in 1976 to control Palestinian and Muslim leftists then threatening Christian political elements in the country and had stayed on as part of an Arab peace-keeping force, were now waging war against the Christians they had once rescued from defeat. After six days of heavy fighting around Beirut that left more than 200 dead and 500 wounded, a shaky cease-fire went into effect. But not before the conflict had nearly triggered the resignation of President Elias Sarkis and threatened to engulf the region in a deadly confrontation between Israel and Syria.

The renewed fighting was touched off by a bitter feud involving the country's three major Christian factions: Pierre Gemayel's Phalangists, Camille Chamoun's National Liberals, and forces loyal to former President Suleiman Franjieh, a close ally of Syrian President Hafez Assad. The dispute centers on the fact that Gemayel and Chamoun would like to create a separate Christian state in northern Lebanon, while Franjieh supports a unified nation. Franjieh also believes the country's sovereignty is best guaranteed by the presence of the Syrian army.

While the Syrians have been maintaining the peace in areas controlled by the Palestinians and Muslim left, Gemayel and Chamoun have seized the opportunity to build up their own military forces. During the past three months, Gemayel's 15,000-man army, which is led by Israeli-trained officers, has tried to extend its influence over areas loyal to the other Christian chieftains. In several incidents, the Phalangists fired on Syrian soldiers, who initially retreated rather than get involved in pitched battles. Boasting about their "victories over the Syrian occupation," the Phalangists last month attacked the resort village of Ehden, killing Franjieh's son Tony, his wife and daughter and 30 other people in a bold attempt to seize control of a sector of Lebanon near the seaport of Tripoli that had traditionally been dominated by the former President.

Angered by this attack on his old friend, Assad decided it was time to crush the obstreperous Phalange. Using heavy artillery and rocket barrages, Syrian forces last week bombarded towns and installations controlled by Phalangist and National Liberal militiamen. The heaviest fire was concentrated on East Beirut, where both Gemayel's and Chamoun's headquarters went up in flames. "This is genocide against the Christians of Lebanon," protested Chamoun. Lebanese Foreign Minister Fuad Butros rushed to Damascus in a vain attempt to arrange a ceasefire. But Syria's tough Defense Minister Mustafa Tlas responded: "The Syrian army will strike with an iron fist to destroy the Phalangist and Chamounist gangs." Asserted Radio Damascus: "Syria is impartial. We fight lawless elements within the Christian community just as we fought the Palestinians--to restore peace to Lebanon."

The renewed fighting, reported TIME'S Abu Said Abu Rish last week, left sections of Beirut looking like devastated outposts of World War II, "with flames on all sides, the clamor of sirens and the convulsions of shells exploding. Nobody can remember it being this bad even during the worst days of the civil war when [predominantly Muslim] West Beirut was under fire. Watching the destruction of East Beirut now is like watching in horror as a neighbor and his house are blown to bits. I managed to telephone one friend who had spent the night in a cellar under intense bombardment. The line was scratchy and the voice indistinct. It simply repeated the word 'hell.' Then the line went dead.

"Many Christian families who survived the civil war in West Beirut had gone to the eastern part of the city to try and start a new life. They said it would be safer there. Now black smoke hangs over it like a cloud smelling of death. Shells land every three minutes. In the Phalangist stronghold of Ain Rumanneh, every house has been hit and many leveled. One man who ran upstairs during a lull to salvage an old family heirloom had his legs blown off. The guns keep firing, the Phalange radio says hundreds are homeless, and it's hard to watch and not feel sorry for us all. You would think we had had enough."

Syria's Assad believes the security of his own country is tied directly to that of Lebanon. If the Christian forces upset the balance of power in the country, and successfully turned half of Lebanon into an Israeli-backed ministate, Israel's forces would be that much closer to Syria by land and sea. For its part, Israel fears that a Syrian-dominated Lebanon, with leftist Muslims in control, would turn the country into another confrontation state.

To make its feelings forcefully plain, Israel sent eight Kfir fighters screaming in over Beirut. The low-flying jets broke the sound barrier, shattering windows and creating panic. The overflight was clearly intended as a warning to the Syrians by the Israelis, who also strengthened their positions along the Golan Heights and their border with Lebanon. Declared Major General Shlomo Gazit, chief of Israeli military intelligence: "Israel will not watch peacefully the Christian massacre in Beirut." In response, the Syrian air force went on alert, and Damascus rushed armored units of its own to the Golan Heights, where its usual three divisions had been pared to one because of peacekeeping responsibilities in Lebanon.

With events rapidly careening out of control, President Sarkis, a Christian, announced that he could no longer exert the authority bestowed on him by the constitution and would resign. The announcement shocked Lebanon; the squabbling Christian leaders, as well as many Muslim spokesmen, urged Sarkis to reconsider.

U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Richard Parker interceded with Damascus, asking the Syrians to accept Sarkis' demands that: 1) all major factions submit to his authority, and 2) the Syrians ease their pressure and give him time to maneuver.

At week's end Assad called Sarkis and promised him that he was ready to accept Sarkis' conditions. There was no immediate response from the Christian factions, but Sarkis reluctantly stayed on for the time being at least.

The renewal of fighting in Lebanon raised the threat of a serious confrontation between Syria and Israel, just as the Carter Administration was seeking to infuse new momentum into Middle East peacemaking efforts. Both the White House and the State Department issued statements deploring the hostilities and appealed to "all parties with influence over the situation" to try to bring about an immediate end to the fighting. Washington conveyed to Damascus its strong disapproval of the Syrian shelling of Phalangist strongholds and also warned Israel not to intervene. Meanwhile, American officials at

United Nations headquarters discussed with other Western diplomats the possibility of convoking an urgent session of the Security Council.

Maintaining stability in Lebanon is essential to U.S. peacemaking efforts in the Middle East. Any clash of Syrian and Israeli forces would almost surely cause the collapse of the forthcoming foreign ministers talks between Israel and Egypt in London. Anwar Sadat is barely on speaking terms with Assad because of their disagreements about the Egyptian President's peace initiatives. Nonetheless, a Syrian-Israeli confrontation would probably compel Sadat to break off peace negotiations in the name of Arab solidarity.

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