Old Wounds

More gunfire and bickering

"We have three months to lay down the foundations of a new Lebanon. We should not let this opportunity go." So said Lebanon's Prime Minister, Rashid Karami, last week, while gunfire and explosions in the streets of Beirut added emphasis to his message. In the three weeks since President Amin Gemayel appointed Karami's "last-chance government," as it has been dubbed, at least 50 civilians have been killed in the Lebanese capital and hundreds have been wounded. During that period the ten-member Cabinet, evenly divided between Christians and Muslims, has remained at loggerheads over the same problems that have blocked all previous attempts at reconciliation in the shattered country.

One of the biggest impasses is how to rebuild the Lebanese Army. Muslim Cabinet members, especially Shi'ite Amal Leader Nabih Berri and Druze Chieftain Walid Jumblatt, want a restructuring that would weaken the traditional Maronite Christian hold on senior military positions. Christian leaders, notably Phalangist Patriarch Pierre Gemayel and former President Camille Chamoun, are fiercely resisting that course.

The question is how long Lebanon's new overlord, Syria, will remain patient. Syrian President Hafez Assad has shown little interest in direct intervention in Lebanese politics. But Karami seemed to suggest that the Syrians might start exerting more pressure to break the deadlock.

Another prickly issue is the situation in southern Lebanon. Occupying Israeli forces last week flexed their muscles briefly as tanks and troop carriers surrounded the Palestinian refugee camp of Ein el Hilweh, near Sidon, in a hunt for weapons and explosives. Two people were injured when Israeli troops opened fire, and a house was destroyed as the Israelis arrested about 30 residents. The camp was also the scene of escalating clashes between supporters of the P.L.O. and Ein el Hilweh's 30-member national guard, a local Palestinian militia organized and armed by the Israelis.

Meanwhile, Israelis had reason to ponder the potential for violence in their midst. They were shocked last week by the detention of Rabbi Moshe Levinger, 49, a spiritual leader of Israel's militant West Bank settlers, who was held for questioning as part of a government crackdown on anti-Arab terrorism. No charges were laid against Levinger, but 25 other Israelis, including at least two active officers, some reserve officers, and soldiers from Israeli commando units, are now under arrest. Among the incidents under investigation are the 1980 car bombing of two West Bank Arab mayors, a July 1983 attack on Hebron's Islamic College and a foiled plot last month to blow up six Arab buses.