Lebanon
Red

The haunting quagmire
known as Israel's Vietnam
just got worse.

ERIC SILVER

Israel Col-respondent

Jerusalem

new coded message has
entered the chillina b lexicon
of Israeli anxiety. "Heavy
fighting is taking place in
Lebanon," intones the news reader.
Hundreds of mothers and fathers with
soldier sons serving across the north-
ern border know immediately what
that means. There are casualties, but
the families have not yet been notified.
All the parents can do is sit, wait
and pray that no grim-faced officer
comes ringing at their door. At 3 a.m.
last Friday, the call came to the
Beersheva home of Moshe and Naomi
Cohen. Their son, Eyal, a 20-year-old
staff sergeant, had been killed by
Hezbollah, the Shiite Muslim militia
waging an escalating war of attrition
in the "security zone," a narrow band,
up to 10 miles deep, stretching from
the Mediterranean to the Hermon
foothills.
Eyal, a tank commander who died
trying to rescue wounded comrades,
was one of seven Israeli soldiers killed
there in 11 days of hit-and-run com-
bat. That compared with 16 over the
previous 11 months.
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin
Netanyahu cut short a European tour
and flew home for urgent consulta-
tions. The prime minister "did not
rule out" a unilateral withdrawal,
though he quickly amended it to
exclude an "unconditional" pullout.

A

Moshe Cohen, the bereaved father,
was bursting with anger and grief. "I
want to scream on behalf of the silent
majority," he told reporters, "the par-
ents of all the soldiers who are in
Lebanon, those who were there and
those who will be there. ... Our sons
there are sitting ducks. We have been
in Lebanon for 16 years and nothing
good has come of it. What's our goal?
Why are we there? To defend our own
bases there? For what has my son been
killed?"
More and more Israelis, including
those like Moshe Cohen who have
served long years in uniform, are ask-
ing the same questions. Military
funerals, leading the prime-time televi-
sion news bulletins with teen-age sol-
diers openly weeping for their fallen
comrades, keep the issue at the top of
everyone's agenda.
Dozens of mothers demonstrated
last Sunday outside the prime minis-
ter's office, where the Cabinet was
debating what to do.
A Gallup Poll, published in
Ma'ariv last weekend, found 40
percent of Israelis favoring with-
drawal, even without a security
agreement with Lebanon or its
Syrian godfather. Although 50
percent opposed a unilateral pull-
back, the "yes" vote was double
that of a year ago. They under-
stand that Israel has to protect its
northern communities against
hostile Lebanese and Palestinian
militias, but they want the gener-
als to find a way to do it from
this side of the border.

As the debate continued, however,
the prospect of unilateral withdrawal
receded. The military came out vigor-
ously against it, warning that it would
look like a surrender to Hezbollah's
campaign of roadside bombs and
give Israel's other enemies bad ideas.
Israeli analysts, in the army and the
media, were almost unanimous that
Syria held the key. Intelligence officers
were convinced that Damascus,
Hezbollah's patron along with Iran,
was calling the shots. President Hafez
al-Assad signaled.that he was ready to
rein in the bombers, but only if Israel
resumed negotiations aimed at return-
ing the Golan Heights, held since the
1967 war, to Syria.
Interestingly, Foreign Minister Ariel
Sharon, who as defense minister mas-
terminded the 1982 invasion, urged
unilateral withdrawal. His plan corn-
bines a phased evacuation with warn-
ings to Lebanon and Syria that Israel
will retaliate in force if attacked.

Sharon came out strongly, howev-
er, against negotiating Lebanon with
Syria. "If we make the security situa-
tion in Lebanon dependent on the
negotiations with the Syrians," he
said, "our soldiers in Lebanon and
the northern communities will be
hostages in Syrian hands and targets
for terror attacks, which will only
increase."
A harsher alternative, advanced by
another former war hero, Internal
Security Minister Avigdor Kahalani, is
for Israel to make Lebanon pay mas-
sively for every Israeli casualty. The air
force would bomb power plants and
water lines serving Beirut and other
centers outside the battle zone.
Such actions are not without prece-
dent. Washington was alarmed enough
this week to urge Israel and Syria to
back off. For now, the warnings seem
to have been heeded. But if Hezbollah
persists with its bloody offensive, the
brakes could soon come off.

❑

Above: Israeli women outside
the prime minister's office in
Jerusalem call for Israel's
withdrawal from south
Lebanon.

Left: Prime Minister Binyamin
Netanyahu speaks to Israeli
soldier David Nterboim at the
Rambam Hospital in Haifa.
Nurboim was wounded in
Lebanon more than a year and
half ago and since then has been
treated to rebuild one of his legs.

12/4
1998

Detroit Jewish News

31

