BY MARTÍN KOPPEL

Despite worldwide outrage at an Israeli massacre in a refugee camp in southern Lebanon, Tel Aviv continues to rain destruction on the population in that region. The U.S.-backed terror campaign, however, has failed to quell Lebanese resistance, led by fighters from the organization Hezbollah.

Israeli warplanes and gunboats are targeting Lebanon's vital infrastructure. Shelling from Israeli warships has turned the coastal highway connecting southern Lebanon to Beirut into a shooting gallery. The bombardment has prevented most deliveries of food and medical supplies to the ravaged south, virtually cutting the country in half and leaving tens of thousands stranded.

On April 23 Israeli warplanes destroyed a reservoir that supplies water to 20 villages near the city of Tyre. The week before, air strikes on electrical stations knocked out power in Beirut, the country's capital.

As Hezbollah guerrillas responded by firing Katyusha rockets across the border, Tel Aviv's forces shelled the hills south of Beirut April 22. Just a few hours before, the entire city had come to a halt in a moment of silence to honor the 100 people killed the previous week when Israeli gunners destroyed a United Nations-run refugee camp in Qana.

"How can this happen on such a day?" shouted Zuhair Zan, 19, after the Israeli shelling of his village south of Beirut. "How can they expect us to make peace now?"

The April 18 massacre in Qana led to a new wave of refugees fleeing southern Lebanon to the north. Since the Israeli assault began in mid-April, more than 400,000 people have been driven from their homes - one-tenth of the country's population.

Washington backs Tel Aviv
U.S. president William Clinton refused to criticize the Qana massacre. His only response was to insist on "an immediate cease- fire." The U.S. government has backed the Israeli assault on Lebanon from the beginning, justifying its position by claiming Tel Aviv is simply defending itself against rocket attacks by Hezbollah.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah stated on CNN April 21 that "if attacks on the people of Lebanon stop we have said on more than one occasion that we will stop firing Katyushas" into northern Israel.

The guerrilla organization, based largely among the Shiite population in southern Lebanon, arose in response to the 1982 invasion and subsequent 14-year-long occupation by Israeli troops. By leading the resistance to the Israeli bombing campaign, Hezbollah's prestige has soared among working people throughout Lebanon.

As the bombs continue to drop, U.S. secretary of state Warren Christopher has been meeting with Israeli, Syrian, and Lebanese officials to try to secure a settlement favorable to the U.S. rulers. Tel Aviv and Washington hope to pressure the government of Syria - which has tens of thousands of troops in Lebanon - to crack down on Hezbollah and the resistance there. While calling for a cease-fire by Hezbollah and Israeli troops, the U.S. plan would not touch Tel Aviv's military occupation of southern Lebanon.

Paris intervenes
Meanwhile, the French government is pursuing its own interests in the region. Foreign Minister Hervé de Charette has been shuttling around the Mideast with its proposal. Unlike Washington's plan, Paris calls for an eventual Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon - in exchange for "security guarantees" -

and drawing the Iranian government, which has ties to Hezbollah, into the negotiations.

Lebanese foreign minister Fares Bouez described the French proposals as "very realistic" as a starting point for negotiations. Washington, however, visibly irritated at Paris, insists it is the only power that can broker a settlement. Tel Aviv has refused to meet with de Charette, and Israeli prime minister Shimon Peres demanded other parties recognize Washington as the sole mediating channel.

The bombing campaign and the resistance in Lebanon have fueled debate and polarization within Israel. Some have been shaken by the massacres, while Peres tries to rally support for his government's war.

While condemning the assault on Lebanon, Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) chairman Yasir Arafat is engaged in an effort to make concessions to the Israeli government in exchange for further steps toward Palestinian autonomy.

Speaking before a meeting of the Palestine National Council, which for years has served as a PLO-led parliament-in-exile, Arafat proposed eliminating clauses from the PLO's historic charter that call for an end to Israel as a Jewish state. Tel Aviv and Washington have long pressed the PLO leadership to make such concessions and to settle for a Palestinian-run territory alongside the Zionist state.

"One inch of Palestinian land and our presence on the land of Palestine is more dear than words on paper," Arafat told the 600 members of the council at the meeting. The Israeli regime gave permission for all members of the Palestinian body to attend the gathering, which was held in Gaza.

Anger among Palestinians at Tel Aviv's savage bombing of Lebanon and its two-month-old closure of Gaza and the West Bank made it a little harder for Arafat to make his case that it was time to "start a new era with good relations between us and the Israelis," as he told the council. Earlier, Palestinian cops attacked demonstrators in Gaza protesting the Israeli terror campaign against Lebanon.

Threat of U.S. nuclear strike on Libya
As the war unfolded in Lebanon, Washington escalated its war threats against Libya. U.S. defense secretary William Perry warned in an April 18 speech that the Pentagon was prepared to use "preventive measures" against the Libyan government, accusing it of building an underground chemical arms plant 40 miles from Tripoli, the capital. Libyan officials deny the 10-year-old charge, saying the facility will serve to bring fresh water to the desert.

Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon was more explicit than Perry, stating that Washington would be considering "a series of military options" against Libya if other pressures failed.

One of those military options, New York Times columnist A.M. Rosenthal revealed in an April 19 piece, is "the use of a `small' nuclear weapon" against the Libyan plant. In the column, titled "Relaying Warning to Libya," Rosenthal indicated that he had been fed this information by Clinton administration officials, who warned that "next year is the cutoff point" before a U.S. assault on Libya.  
 
 
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