Battle Rejoined

MIDDLE EAST

Between Arab and Jew, the taste of blood is not easily forgotten. Even while the U.N. Security Council was debat ing the extent of Israel's blame for its "punitive invasion" of Jordan two weeks ago, both sides were rolling up their sleeves for another battle. Israel, ever more touchy about the incursions of Arab commandos across the River Jor dan, massed troops, tanks and artillery in the Beisan valley south of the Sea of Galilee awaiting an excuse to renew the offensive. Jordan, cheered beyond measure by the fact that its troops had knocked out a dozen Israeli tanks, replied in kind. It evacuated civilians from its own Beisan valley villages, moved in well-trained guerrillas and its Arab Legion troops to face the expected Israeli attack.

It was not long in coming. The Israelis got the provocation they were looking for when a tractor pulling a cartload of kibbutzniks ran over a terrorist mine in the soggy underbrush of a Beisan valley banana plantation. Four men were killed, including the 53-year-old founder of the kibbutz, and four others wounded. Three hours later, the Israeli army opened up with light machine-gun fire on the Jordanian side of the valley. The Jordanians fired back, and the battle was on. Israeli artillery pounded an evacuated village, and Jordanian 155-mm. Long Toms zeroed in on seven kibbutzim. As the duel spread south toward Jericho along a 65-mile front, the Israelis called in their jets, sending waves of fighter-bombers across the river and behind the Gilead mountains deep into Jordanian territory to bomb out the Long Toms.

Cinemascope Production. Israeli farmers got a panoramic view of the battle from slit trenches near the river. They called it "a Cinemascope production." The broad Beisan valley, green with ripening winter crops and blossoming trees, was painted with countless columns of rising black smoke. Israeli planes dive-bombed Jordanian positions, then wheeled west into the sun to confound the aim of Arab anti aircraft gunners. The village of Tel el-Arbain, an El Fatah commando base, was in flames. A Jordanian oil dump near the river burned an ominous red far into the night.

As usual, the Israelis were the apparent victors. Their admitted losses were one jet and one soldier, and they claimed to have knocked out four guerrilla bases and much of Jordan's ar tillery. The battle was, declared Chief of Staff Haim Bar-lev, "a blow greater than the one of Feb. 15"--when Israel unleashed a similar assault. But it is hardly likely to stop the Jordanian terrorists, who are now the heroes of the Arab world, from continuing their own destructive blows against Israel. Since the Israelis have threatened to answer each new terrorist raid with an attack on Jordan, there is every likelihood that the battle will be joined again and again, with all the danger that situation holds for an eventual renewal of major war in the Middle East.

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