Behind the Headlines High Drama in Foley Square

The Federal Courthouse at Foley Square is an exceptionally busy place these days, with the eyes of the world centered on two major trials taking place. Daily, the imposing front steps are laden with reporters and cameramen waiting to catch General William Westmoreland and General Ariel Sharon as they enter the courthouse to begin another round in their libel suits against CBS Inc. and Time magazine, respectively.

Sharon instituted a $50 million libel suit against Time magazine last year, charging that an article that appeared in the publication in February 1983 libeled him. His suit charged that the article had suggested he had encouraged the massacre by the Christian Phalangist militia against Palestinian refugees in the Sabra and Shatila camps in Beirut in September 1982. An Israeli commission of inquiry in early 1983 said Sharon did not do enough to prevent the massacre.

An attorney for Time argued last November before a federal judge that the article did not accuse Sharon of encouraging the massacre but had only reported the findings of the Israeli commission. The lawyer for Time also argued that Sharon was “libel-proof.” Sharon charged that the article “heavily damaged” his reputation.

The Sharon trial, which began last week, after the Westmoreland litigation had started, is held in Room 905, a small size courtroom, about which the complaints mount daily. Since the trial in which Sharon is suing Time for libel began, spectators have begun lining up before 9 a.m. to gain entrance and claim the few seats available, after having endured an interminable wait for the elevators to bring them upstairs.

COURTROOM ATMOSPHERE IS THEATRICAL

When finally one does gain admittance, the courtroom seems less like a formal hall; rather, it feels closer to that of a theater. The air is tense with excitement, with the crowd, like a Broadway audience, waiting for the curtains to go up.

The Israeli correspondents all know one another and loudly greet each other in Hebrew. The American correspondents sit together and compare notes. The spectators delight in pointing out the television reporters they recognize and there is a gasp when Sharon, his striking wife, son and relatives enter the room.

The participants in this high drama all come from varied backgrounds, which gives the trial a cosmopolitan flavor. The Judge, Abraham Sofaer, a former law professor, was born in India, educated at Yeshiva College, New York University Law School, and clerked for Justice William Brennan of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Thomas Barr, the lawyer for Time magazine, is a Midwesterner, hailing from Kansas City, Mo, ith his perfect attire, one can’t but think of him as the quintessential corporate lawyer, with a degree from Yale Law School and partner status at Cravath, Swaine and Moore, a leading New York law firm.

Milton Gould, Sharon’s attorney, projects an air more of a country lawyer than the name partner at Shea and Gould, a large firm in New York. But a New Yorker he is, who received his education at Comell Law School, and is active in Jewish affairs.

And then there is Sharon, who looks strangely uncomfortable in his well pressed suit. Last week, while testifying before the six-member non-Jewish jury about his experiences during the Yom Kippur War, it seemed slightly incongruouswhy wasn’t he wearing his battle fatigues with a bandage wrapped around his head as he described the horrors of that war?

TESTIMONY IS EMOTIONALLY-CHARGED

Later, on that particular day, the testimony was to take an especially emotional tone, when Sharon began to describe his role as commander of a force which crossed into the village of Kibya in 1953. He recalled how a small group of 70 soldiers entered what was then Jordanian-held territory, 20 miles from Jerusalem, and sought to assault the terrorists there who were daily attacking Israeli border settlements.

After recounting how he and his men did all they could to prevent civilian casualties, his voice rose and he whipped out a copy of a Time magazine article of that year which depicted the raid as an indiscriminate massacre of civilians by a 600-man force. The trial was to end on an exciting note, with Sharon declaring: “If I could have tried Time magazine then — I would have,” as the lawyers and judge argued over the admissability of that article and his testimony.

When the trial session adjourned, individuals lined up to greet Sharon. The courtroom soon resembled more of a reception hall than the imposing center of justice it had been a few moments before. As the people filed out, one woman was heard to remark: “Only in America could one find such a conglomeration of people — an Israeli General Cabinet Minister suing in federal court in New York an American magazine because of what an Israeli-born reporter wrote about him.”

In his testimony yesterday, a fiery Sharon denounced the Time magazine report as “a lie, nothing but a lie,” when it said that he had encouraged Phalangist leaders to take revenge for the assassination of Lebanese President-elect Bashir Gemayel. Sharon termed this “a blood libel,” and said his reputation had been besmirched by the article.

In Tel Aviv, meanwhile, Time appealed to the Israeli Supreme Court in an effort to obtain testimony from high government and military officials for its defense. Israel Radio reported that Time asked the court to overtum an order of Attorney General Yitzhak Zamir, who ruled that a secret annex to the commission of inquiry report could not be released.

The Sharon trial continues for another month.