Israel battles a shadowy enemy
Monday, September 15, 1997
By Barbara Demick
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
AYTA AL JABAL, Lebanon -- They are everywhere, and they are nowhere.
They may be the well-dressed men squeezed into a passing Mercedes, or the
smooth-shaven boys on Yamaha motorcycles. Perhaps they are the doctors in the white
stucco medical clinic in the next village.
The Islamic guerrillas waging a deadly war of attrition against Israel in southern Lebanon do
not advertise their presence. Instead, they are thoroughly integrated and assimilated into
mountain villages. That makes it maddeningly difficult for Israel to root them out or to prevent
them from firing rockets into northern Israel.
As more and more Israeli soldiers die at the hands of Hezbollah guerrillas, the debate over
Israel's role in southern Lebanon has intensified. Senior Israeli political figures, including Ariel
Sharon, the architect of its Lebanon policy in the early 1980s, have called for reconsidering
the occupation of South Lebanon.
``Our own mini-Vietnam,'' Israel's leading newspaper, Haaretz, called the Lebanon situation
in a hard-hitting editorial last week that ridiculed the army for recent disasters, including a
failed commando raid Sept. 5 in which 12 Israelis died in an ambush along the Lebanon
coast. Israel now finds itself negotiating with Hezbollah for the return of the commandos'
remains.
Two Israel soldiers were killed yesterday by a roadside bomb in southern Lebanon. The
deaths brought to 33 the number of Israeli soldiers killed in Lebanon this year.
``The myth of the [ Israeli army ] being the ultimate combination between Einstein's brain and
Samson's brawn is no more. . . . Suddenly we discovered that the legend of Jewish genius
sometimes stops at the gates of an army base,'' the Haaretz editorial said.
Military analysts say the Israeli army, as a conventional fighting force, is at a disadvantage
fighting a guerrilla war -- particularly against an opponent that knows every ridge and wadi of
southern Lebanon's rugged landscape.
Even the Israeli army's chief spokesman, Brig. Gen. Oded Ben-Ami, conceded in a recent
briefing for foreign journalists that Israel was not hopeful of a definitive military victory in
southern Lebanon.
``I don't think there is any military solution. The only solution is a political one,'' Ben-Ami said.
Although a sideshow to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Lebanon situation was discussed
Friday when Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright met in Damascus with Syrian
President Hafez al-Assad. Syria occupies eastern Lebanon and supports Hezbollah -- as
well as the military wing of the Amal movement, a more moderate Islamic resistance
movement -- as a means of pressuring Israel to withdraw from the Golan Heights.
Despite the unpopularity of the Lebanon war in Israel, polls show that few Israelis support a
unilateral withdrawal without some security guarantees -- especially given that Hezbollah has
twice in the last month fired Katyusha rockets across the border at the Israeli city of Kiryat
Shemona.
As the conflict drags on, most military analysts conclude that time favors Hezbollah.
Timur Goksel, a spokesman for the U.N. peacekeeping forces in the region and an 18-year
veteran of the conflict, says Hezbollah has become more wily and better equipped.
``They have some military intelligence. They are bringing in better-educated people. They are
very sensitive politically,'' Goksel said.
In contrast to the Palestine Liberation Organization, which used to advertise its presence with
flags and checkpoints, Goksel says Hezbollah maintains no permanent camps or training
centers in southern Lebanon, making the guerrillas an elusive target.
``It is all very secretive. The Hezbollah wear regular clothes. Most of them don't have beards,
which used to be considered their trademark. Nobody knows when they are coming to the
village, until suddenly you're in the middle of a war,'' Goksel said.
Goksel estimates that there are 400 to 450 hard-core Hezbollah guerrillas operating in
southern Lebanon, but that they can call on a pool of 3,000 to 4,000 supporters at any given
time.
In many villages, Hezbollah leaders ingratiate themselves by providing food and other
humanitarian aid to the poor, predominantly Shiite Muslim population. In Brashit, a village at
the edge of the Israeli-occupied zone, the most modern building in town is the medical clinic
built by Hezbollah, which last week was decorated with colorful streamers from its grand
opening. Down the hill is another new structure, the elementary school run by Hezbollah.
Unlike in Beirut, where Hezbollah has offices and a political party, the guerrillas keep a low
profile in the front-line villages, where locals refer to them simply as the resistance.
One Lebanese businessman, who asked not to be quoted by name, said he knew many
parents who never found out their sons had joined up with the guerrillas until their bodies
were brought home.
In Ayta Al Jabal, a mountain village of about 400 people at the edge of the Israeli-occupied
zone in southern Lebanon, villagers blame the Israelis for the periodic bursts of shelling and
the unremitting sense of unease. Farmers fear straying out on the slopes to pick olives. The
village can't get workers to build its new school because of the danger.
Their complaints are similar to those of civilians living in northern Israel, which has come
under periodic attack by Hezbollah guerrillas firing Katyusha rockets.
``As long as there is occupation, there is resistance. Our children now grow up thinking about
the resistance, training to fight Israel from the time they are 5 years old,'' said Mohamed
Rashid, the muhktar, or mayor, of Ayta Al Jabal. ``It is not that the people want war with
Israel or the Jews -- they just want them out of here.''
Israel mounted attacks inside southern Lebanon in 1978 to stop commando raids into
northern Israel by the PLO. The PLO's military units were driven from Lebanon in Israel's
1982 invasion, and Israel pulled out of the country in 1985 except for the so-called security
zone. The Iranian-funded Hezbollah replaced the PLO in the mid-1980s as Israel's main
adversary in southern Lebanon. Ever since, they've waged a slow, simmering border war
with a constant stream of tit-for-tat violence punctuated by an occasional disaster.
So far, 1997 has been the costliest year for Israel in a decade, with more than 100 soldiers
killed. Seventy-three were killed in a midair collision of two military helicopters in February in
northern Israel, near the border. Five Israeli soldiers burned to death Aug. 28 in a brush fire
that was apparently ignited by their own artillery. According to Israeli television reports, after
the fire started, the victims were refused permission by their superiors to flee the advancing
flames.
In recent operations, Hezbollah has cooperated with the military wing of Amal, a movement
with which it frequently clashed in the past. Also, the growing opposition to the Israeli
presence has attracted a small but significant number of Christians -- unlike in the past, when
Christians often sided with Israel.
Israel's security zone is about nine miles wide in southern Lebanon. It is patrolled by an
estimated 1,000 Israeli soldiers and 2,500 Lebanese who fight for Israel under the banner of
the Southern Lebanese Army. The SLA is a ragged-looking bunch, bare-chested soldiers in
bunkers cobbled together from empty oil drums and plastic crates. Military analysts say poor
morale in their ranks has reduced their effectiveness.
George Haddad, 53, a woodworker and church leader in the village of Safed, said the entire
population of southern Lebanon is looking forward to an Israeli withdrawal.
``Everybody feels the same way -- Christians and Muslims. We need the Israelis to go away,
for the Syrians to go away so that the Lebanese can solve their own problems,'' Haddad
said. He is hopeful, he said, that Albright will bring about some agreement between Israel and
Syria that will facilitate a withdrawal in the near future.
``Ins'hallah, God willing. The time is right,'' Haddad said. ``Then again, when the civil war
started in Lebanon, we thought it would last only one or two months. In fact, it has been 20
years. Maybe it will still take some time.''
Philadelphia Online -- The Philadelphia Inquirer, Page One -- Copyright Monday, September 15, 1997
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