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The Occupation Revisited
GOOD FENCE from page 7
Magnolias would like to
-
thank the Birmingham area for showing such
tremendous support over the years, and
announces a storewide inventory liquidation sale.
tverything in the shop will be sold at savings of
20-75%
All furniture, silverware, china, crystal, home design
accessories, gifts, baby, books, and pet items.
Sale includes all lines, such as
• iierend • Royal Cpenhagen
• Saint Louis • Lynn Chase
• Georg Jensen Sillier • Mottedeh
Sale starts June 22nd. Sote hours 9 am to 7 pm
Monday through Saturday
has begun to crack.
In the past, Metulla was the anchor
of the northern "confrontation line" set-
tlements. While the moshavim (coopera-
tive farms), kibbutzim and development
towns complained, whether over
Hezbollah's Katyusha rockets or poverty,
Metulla projected strength.
The town liked to describe itself as
a "Little Switzerland," a high-altitude
village with fresh, relatively cool air
and gorgeous, green hills, and old,
stone houses, and rustic hotels and
earthy people and good relations with
friendly Arabs. Some 1.5 million
tourists came each year.
Now the town is hurting — the
hotels and restaurants are empty.
Some residents are planning to
leave, but that won't be easy. "A house
that could sell for $200,000 two
weeks ago is worth about $150,000
today," Goldberg noted.
Goldberg, who was mayor from
1978 to 1998, said he "promoted
Metulla as Israel's Davos," referring to
the Swiss tourist village and interna-
tional convention site. "Now," he said,
we have to start over from scratch."
Some 2,000 people live permanent-
ly in town, earning their living mainly
from farming, tourism or white-collar
professions. (Another 3,000 security
people reside here temporarily.)
Some, like Metulla farmer Avi
Rauner, are optimistic about the future.
A solid-looking man in a green
trucker's cap, he believes in Barak's mil-
itary strategy, even in Shimon Peres'
"New Middle East." "With peace and
economic development, this whole
region — Lebanon, Syria and Israel —
will flourish," Rauner said.
Goldberg, however, divided the
Simon and Dalit Azoulai at
locals into two groups: those who are
home in Metulla.
"committed to Metulla," like Rauner,
and those who moved here in recent
years for "quality of life."
If Hezbollah starts infiltrating or
firing over the border — and
Goldberg, a former Likud Knesset
member, expects that to begin in a
matter of months — the first group,
he predicted, would stay on, but the
second would leave.
Simon and Dalit Azoulai are defi-
nitely in the second group, and they're
not at all ashamed to say so. They
moved to Metulla six years ago from
the border town of Kiryat Shemona,
where they grew up hiding under-
ground from Katyusha rockets. They
didn't want that for their two teenage
children. They wanted quality of life.
Their house is now dark. Since
"
288 East Maple Downtown Birmingham
ktk
7350 Highland Rd. (M-59), Waterford
h
gur aiture 248-666-2880
just west of Oakland International Airport
"23
2000
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patio
Mon., Thurs., Fri. 10.9; Thurs., Wed., Sat 10-6; Sun. 11.4
Hezbollah replaced the Israeli army
and SLA across the border, the
Azoulais keep their blinds closed all
day. "We don't want any snipers to
take aim at us, if you don't mind,"
said Dalit, 37, a nurse. Out of polite-
ness, she opened the blinds for a visit-
ing reporter and photographer.
Through binoculars they've watched
the south Lebanese villagers whooping
and carrying on at the fence. Theirs is
the closest house in Metulla to the bor-
der, about 150 yards away.
Simon, 42, is a professional commu-
nications officer for the Israel Defense
Forces. For the last two years he's been
stationed in Metulla; for 15 years before
that he was stationed in south Lebanon.
Since the pullout, he sleeps with his M-
16 rifle next to his side of the bed.
They want to move. So, they say,
do many of their neighbors — new-
corners like themselves from kibbutz-
im, moshavim or Kiryat Shemona.
"We wanted a house of our own with
a garden," said Dalit, describing the
modern Israeli dream. "My parents lived
in Kiryat Shemona with ideology. They
used to tell us, `If we're not here, they
[the Arabs over the border] will be.'
"Today there's no more ideology,"
said Dalit. "Ideology is dead."
Asked their opinion of Prime
Minister Ehud Barak's argument that
the northern border would be peace-
ful now, that his determination to
retaliate fiercely against any attack
would give Israel deterrent power, the
Azoulais made faces of scorn.
"I'm worried that the government
is just waiting for something to hap-
pen so they can shoot back — and I
don't want to be a victim of that
`something,'" Dalit said. ❑