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The failure of efforts to break the Lebanese political impasse has produced a disappointment in Beirut that is almost palpable. Says former Prime Minister Salam: "People had so much hope in the Americans when they first came. Now they are disillusioned." As sporadic fighting broke out again, there were fears that the informal cease-fire that has generally prevailed since Sept. 26 was breaking down. Druze gunners again shelled Christian-dominated East Beirut and the Marine positions around Beirut International Airport. This in turn provoked a response from the 5-in. guns of the battleship New Jersey and the destroyer Tattnall. Then, following reports that the Iranian-trained terrorists were preparing for kamikaze missions against American naval vessels off Lebanon, the U.S. placed its forces there on alert and rushed Stinger antiaircraft missiles to the area.
In southern Lebanon, Israelis mourned the death of their best Lebanese friend, Major Saad Haddad, 45, who died of cancer two weeks ago after a long illness. Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir and other senior officials took time off from their other duties to fly by helicopter to the Lebanese village of Marjayoun to attend the funeral of the man who had been their close ally and in effect their proconsul in southern Lebanon.
Meanwhile, King Hussein of Jordan reconvened his parliament after a recess of ten years and renewed his invitation to Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat to join with him in forming a united front for future negotiations with Israel over the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. A closer link between Hussein and Arafat, who only last month reconciled his differences with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, would further isolate Syria, whose only real friends in the Arab world are Libya and South Yemen. Syrian agents, in an apparent effort to unnerve Hussein, are thought to have been behind the shooting of several Jordanian diplomats in Europe and Asia over the past year. In spite of this, Hussein seems determined to press ahead. To strengthen the
King's resolve, the Reagan Administration has renewed efforts to ask Congress to authorize $220 million for training and equipping an estimated 8,000-man Jordanian force that could be used as a deterrent in the event of a crisis in the Persian Gulf.
The King also called for a reconciliation between Egypt and the other Arab states, and last week there were signs that this process was well under way. At the meeting of the fourth Islamic Conference Organization in Casablanca, attended by delegates from 42 countries, including 25 heads of state, the liveliest issue was not even on the formal agenda: the readmission of Egypt, whose membership was suspended after the late Anwar Sadat signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979.