Word: syrians
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...special envoy in the Middle East, was reportedly hammering out a detailed version: the P.L.O. would go to Tripoli in northern Lebanon, while the Israelis would withdraw to Damur, twelve miles south of Beirut. This would be the first stage in a phased withdrawal of all P.L.O., Syrian and Israeli forces from Lebanon...
There is no time to lose. Begin last week pledged to American Jewish leaders visiting Jerusalem that, one way or another, the P.L.O. guerrillas would shortly be cleared out of Beirut, and indeed out of Lebanon. Late in the week, Israeli bombs and shells fell again on Syrian positions in the Bekaa Valley and P.L.O. strongholds around West Beirut. That new fighting seemed to be a pointed warning that Israel would not tolerate endless stalling over a P.L.O. evacuation of Beirut...
...Arafat's headquarters, located in the Fakhani neighborhood south of the center of the city, and P.L.O. positions near the Burj el Barajneh refugee camp on the outskirts of Beirut's paralyzed international airport. Some 20 to 30 miles to the east, Israeli air force planes bombed Syrian and Palestinian positions at Baalbek in the Bekaa Valley, as well as Syrian armored positions in the center of the valley. On Saturday, Israel lost its second warplane of the conflict, when a Phantom F-4 jet was hit by a Syrian SA-8 missile over Bekaa...
...Israel from occasional P.L.O. attacks, break the organization's leadership and perhaps even create pressure on the Palestinians to make Jordan their homeland. If Syria attacked Israel's invasion force, so much the better, because Sharon was prepared to carry his anti-Palestinian offensive all the way to the Syrian capital, Damascus...
That Utopian vision glosses over a number of subtle problems. Even if Syria appears to be the most likely haven for P.L.O. guerrillas, Arafat remains reluctant to place all of his forces under the repressive thumb of Assad's regime. For its part, the Syrian government, already trou bled by internal dissent, scarcely wants to court the risks of playing host to thousands of Palestinian guerrillas. Moreover, the Syrians, who still have at least 35,000 of their own troops in Lebanon, may simply refuse to leave because of strategic considerations: they insist upon control of the Bekaa Valley...