- 1

4/

One Mom's March

A movement to get the troops out of Lebanon
was born almost by accident.

LARRY DERFNER
Israel Correspondent

Rosh Pina, Israel
n the night of Feb. 4,
1997, two Israeli Army
helicopters on their
way to the fighting in
the south Lebanese "security
zone" crashed in northern Israel.
Seventy-three soldiers were killed
— the worst military accident in
Israel's history.
It. was a turning point in the
22-year war with Lebanon, the
event that caused an upheaval in
public opinion, the disaster that
convinced people the war was just
too costly to carry on, and that
the soldiers had to be brought
home.
The protest group that galva-
nized Israeli public opinion was
called "Four Mothers." When the
organization began, nobody was
protesting Israel's presence in the

0

security zone. No politician was
calling for withdrawal.
By the time the army pulled
out on Wednesday, May 24, the
few remaining politicians who
objected were keeping a low pro-
file. A poll found that roughly
three-quarters of the public
endorsed the move.
It's hard to think of another
antiwar movement anywhere that
achieved such a meteoric success
as did Four Mothers.

Personal Upheaval

Rachel Ben-Dor, 42, a secular
teacher of Talmud at a college in
the north, a wife and mother of
three, went through her own per-
sonal upheaval that night the two
army helicopters went down.
She was at home in the pas-
toral village of Rosh Pina when it
happened, and she heard the
huge crash.
The wreckage lay about a mile

one. One boom followed another," she said.
The eerie quiet that descended this week was a
pleasant surprise.
"It is almost hard to get used to the quiet," said
Meir Shaked, 41, of Kibbutz Adamit on the western
section of the border with Lebanon. "For the first
time in years, there are no helicopters in the sky and
no sounds of shelling."

from her son Or's high school.
Ben-Dor stood outside her house
and watched the inferno. "It was
like chaos in the skies," she
recalled in an interview at her
home the day after the pullout.
Barefoot, bespectacled, wearing
the Four Mothers' "Get Out of
Lebanon In Peace" T-shirt, she
raced between phones to accept
congratulations from friends,
neighbors, politicians and sol-
diers. Even the army officer who'd
gotten the last two "kills" of
Hezbollah guerrillas before the
pullout called to thank her. "He
told me we'd given him a lesson
in what it means to be a citizen in
a democracy.
"I told him, 'Why did you have
to kill those two Hezbollah guys
— you're pulling out, aren't you?'
But he told me they were a real
danger to the troops," said Ben-
Dor, an ex-army officer herself
MARCH on page 9

water company cut off the water supply to Adamit.
Why?
"Because we were behind paying our water bill,"
said Shaked.
Voicing a concern shared by many other Israelis in
the region, he added, "The scariest Katyusha rocket in
the world does not frighten me half as much as the
fear that one day I will find my bank account closed."

Alan Baker, ambassador
and legal counsel to Israel,
speaks diplomatically.

HARRY KIRSBAUM
Staff Writer

33

ven if he didn't play the game, you'd
still be foolish to face Alan Baker
across a poker table. His eyes give up
nothing.
He has been in the front line of peace negoti-
ations as a legal advisor to the Israel Ministry of
Foreign Affairs for the past four years, with
stakes much greater than money.
A few weeks ago, he came to the U.S. to
negotiate with the United Nations on the vari-
ous aspects involved in Israel's withdrawal from
southern Lebanon
Just days before Israel pulled out of south
Lebanon, Baker was in town, filling in local
Jewish groups and leaders on the issues. He also
sat down with the
Jewish News to dis-
cuss the latest in
negotiations, and
described what it's
like searching for
compromise.
While he talked
of sou - Lebanon
and

ati ,4 1
14.

Xl

Future Fears

Government Plans

But while he and numerous other northern residents
praised the withdrawal, there were many who fear
what the future will hold.
And these fears center on economic issues
in
some cases, more than on concerns for security.
In recent days, the residents of Ad _ amit have had to
deal with just such fears.
Adamit is a small kibbutz of 38 members, located
on a cliff in the Upper Galilee. With a magnificent
view of the Gulf of Haifa, it is certainly one of the
more beautiful spots in Israel.
But it is a kibbutz struggling for its life — not
because of Hezbollah, but because it can no longer
pay its debts.
"We were hoping that being a border settlement,
facing Hezbollah, the government would show some
understanding," said Shaked. But so far, he added,
there has been nothing.
On a recent day, when hundreds of Hezbollah
grenades fell in the vicinity of the kibbutz, the Mekorot

—

The economically weak kibbutzim and moshavim
along the border fear that they will not hold out
because of their economic burdens.
They maintain that there is a wide gap between
the government's statements about being committed
to helping the northern settlements and its actions to
help the settlements keep their heads above water.
Meanwhile, Yair Neustein is convinced that it is
only a matter of time until the IDF will be forced
back into Lebanon.
In fact, he is rather disappointed that when he
joins the army in two years, he will nor be able to
serve in Lebanon.
"I wanted to serve in Lebanon. I wanted to be
there, to defend my home, not to stand on top of an
observation post, not doing anything."
But people like Yair are really an exception. After
several days of tense quiet along the border, there was
an air of cautious — very cautious — optimism that
Israel would not have to return to Lebanon. El

Jr

6/2

