MIDDLE EAST: NO CLOSER TO UNITY

For the third time in little more than three months, a coup d'etat shook the Arab world last week. Hard on the upheavals in the Sudan and South Yemen, leftist army officers in Libya seized the oil-rich kingdom of King Idris and proclaimed "the Libyan Arab Republic" with the Nasser-style slogan, "Freedom, Unity, Socialism."

The coup in Libya (see following story) reduced the number of reigning Arab monarchs to three, and only one of them seems reasonably secure--Morocco's King Hassan II. Jordan's Hussein is under pressure from Palestinian commandos, who use his territory as a base, and from Israeli retaliation. Saudi Arabia's King Feisal forestalled a coup by young air force officers only six weeks ago. Since then, he reportedly jailed hundreds of plotters and condemned 30 to death by beheading.

More significant than the relentless shrinkage in royal regimes is the fact that the shift in Libya gives the 14-nation Arab League a leftist majority for the first time. Before, the league was equally balanced between radical and conservative states--or, as the leftists put it, between the "free Arabs" and the "kept Arabs." Now there are eight left-leaning states (Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Algeria, Sudan, the two Yemens and Libya), and six conservative governments that accept Western support and admit Western influence (the three kingdoms, plus Lebanon, Kuwait and Tunisia).

Though the League now has a clear-cut majority, it is no nearer to unity as a result. While the tanks were rolling in Libya, an Arab summit of sorts was assembling in Cairo under the leadership of President Nasser. Algeria's President Houari Boumedienne described the main subject of discussion as "the battle of destiny"--the campaign against Israel. The secret talks were aimed at finding ways of better coordinating operations of the units from eight Arab armies that are arrayed (or rather disarrayed) along Israel's frontiers.

Even so, only four other countries saw fit to send representatives. Jordan's Hussein was there, and so was Syria's head of state, Noureddine Atassi. Iraq sent only a Deputy Premier because of its quarrel with Syria over the true interpretation of Baathist socialism, but Sudan sent its new ruler, Major General Jaafar Nimeiry. The oil-soaked Kuwaitis, Saudis and Libyans, who already donate $378 million a year to war-damaged Egypt and Jordan, stayed away, lest they be touched for even bigger donations. Sure enough, the leaders at the mini-summit made a blunt demand for more money, declaring that "present economic aid is considered less than what is needed."

Also conferring in Cairo last week were seven of the eleven competing Arab guerrilla movements. The guerrillas, however, were even busier along Israel's beleaguered borders--and beyond. In clashes and rocket attacks in the Jordan Valley, on the Syrian heights and near the Lebanese border, twelve Israeli troops and civilians were killed. The Israelis hit back with Mirage and Skyhawk jets--three times in Jordan, twice in Lebanon. Despite a U.N. Security Council condemnation last month for bombing Lebanese villages used by guerrillas, the Israelis struck harder there last week. In their first infantry sortie into the country,* they swooped down on a village two miles within Lebanon, leveling twelve houses and killing six guerrillas. During the 90-minute night raid, the Israelis also discovered what they described as a "saboteurs' supermarket" of arms and explosives. Once more Lebanon, which has been without a government for nearly five months and has an ineffective army, found itself in a vise between guerrillas and Israelis.

In one case, the Israelis suspended their retaliation policy and relied on cool tactics, as they awaited Syria's response to their demand for the release of two Israeli men. The two were aboard TWA's Flight 840 when Palestinian guerrillas forced the jetliner to land at Damascus (see box). Obviously worried by the furious international reaction, the Syrians quickly released 99 of the 101 passengers, among them four Israeli women. To satisfy the guerrillas' sympathizers, however, Syria might hold the Israeli men until the political heat dies down. Whether Israel's patience will last that long is another question. At week's end, there was a reminder to Arab governments of Israeli strength when the first of 50 U.S. Phantom jets began arriving at bases near Tel Aviv.

* Last December's Israeli attack on Beirut Airport, destroying 13 Arab airliners, was carried out by helicopter-borne commandos.

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