Israel's Lebanon Lesson T Philadelphia . he recent rocket attacks coming out of Lebanon and directed against Israeli troops, followed by a tough Israeli response, serves as a poignant reminder that the Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon a year ago this week did not exactly live up to its expecta- tions. It may be useful to recall jnst how high those expectations were. 13y a nearly 4-1 margin, Israelis endorsed the retreat from Lebanon as an excel- lent strategic move. On the left, Internal Security Min- ister Shlomo Ben-Ami thought that Syria's president was "very stressed by Israel's decision to withdraw from Lebanon." On the right, Foreign Min- ister David Levy declared that th1/4.. pullout would weaken Syria's position. Others speculated further. Dan Mar- galit of the Haaretz newspaper forecast that it would "spur Syria to come back to the negotiating table." Novelist Amos Oz boldly predicted about Lebanon's most aggressively anti-Israel organiza- tion: "The minute we leave South Lebanon we will have to erase the word Hezbollah from our vocabulary' , A year later, how do things look? The idea that an Israeli retreat would scare Damascus into restart- ing negotiations turns out to be as silly as it sounds. Hafez al-Assad went to his grave without returning to the bargaining table and his son Bashar has so far shown no willing- ness to talk. The expectation that Israel would enjoy a peaceable northern border proved similarly misguided. Hezbol- lah concocted a new claim to a piece of Israeli-held land (the Shebaa Farms) to justify continued hostili- ties. No longer restrained by Israel's security zone in Lebanon, it threat- ens to use Katyusha rockets against Israel proper, prompting an alert as far away as Israel's third-largest city, Haifa. Hezbollah has already attacked Israel seven times, attempted many infiltrations, abducted three Israel sol- diers and killed two others. In response, Israel's government has deployed helicopter gunships and attacked a Syrian radar site, killing three Syrian soldiers. In brief, "Hezbollah" has hardly Daniel Pipes is director of the Middle East Forum. His e-mail address is pipes@MEForum.org been erased from the Israeli vocab- ulary. Trickle-Down But the greatest consequence of the Israeli retreat was felt among the Palestinians. DANIEL PIPES That impact is Special partly practical, Commentary with Hezbollah providing instruction and arms to the Palestinian Authority (PA). For example, Hezbollah reached an agreement with the PA "to train fighters and provide weapons against tanks and aircraft" reports the Middle East Newsline. Palestinians took up Hezbollah's distinctive tactics and tools — suicide bombings on the one hand, roadside bombs detonated by mobile phones on the other. They even adopted the Hezbollah technique of filming them- selves carrying out attacks on Israelis, then making the film available to the Arab and Muslim media. The impact is also psychological. Palestinians watched Hezbollah impose every last one of its demands on Israel, without having to sit around a table with Israeli diplomats; this served as an object lesson. Palestinians concluded that if they used enough violence, they too could get all they wanted from Israel, without having to compromise. This "Lebanon-ization" of the Palestinians has had major conse- quences. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon draws a connection between the Israeli retreat from Lebanon and "what happened later on" with the Palestinians. The head of Israel's for- mer Lebanese allied force puts it more strongly; Israel's every conces- sion to Hezbollah, he says, has been - "very costly" for it in dealing with the Palestinians. Specifically, Hezbollah's success first inspired the Palestinians to turn down even the amazingly generous terms that Prime Minister Ehud Barak sub- sequently offered them, confident that they could do better on the battlefield. It prompted the Palestinians to aban- don the bargaining table and revert to violence against Israel. It helps account for the escalation in that vio- lence, which started with rocks and now includes long-distance mortar shellings. A Hollow Hope The great majority of Israelis a year ago lived in the sweet delusion that unilateral concessions to neighbors would eventually win acceptance and quiet. After eight months of Palestin- ian violence, violence partly attribut- able to their withdrawal under fire from Lebanon, the hollowness of this hope is becoming increasingly appar- ent. As they shudder back to reality, Israelis can console themselves with the knowledge that by abandoning their Lebanon delusion, however painful that process is, they are taking the necessary first step toward dealing with today's crisis. The second step will be to understand that acceptance by neighbors will result not from Israel's making unilateral concessions but from its being respected and feared. ❑ What Israel Means To M • • • Representative Gilda Z. Jacobs Democratic Floor Leader My first real awareness of Israel was when the movie "Exodus" was released. What I learned in Sunday school and what I had heard over the din- ner table clicked. Israel was the Jewish homeland, a safe refuge for displaced Jews. In college, being Jewish was important to me. I knew that I wanted to build a Jewish home and have a family connect- ed to Jewish culture. I didn't visit Israel though until my oldest daughter became bat mitzvah age. Then we all went and my understanding of Israel's impor- tance expanded. I felt connected to a larger con- cept - "Peoplehood." My family and I saw the Bible come to life and our Jewish past became a living history. My most recent trip during a "Partnership 2000 Women's" trip - helped reinforce the personal connection for me. At that time, I met women just like me. I felt right at home. AWN AI WWI A message brought to you by the American Jewish Committee Metropolitan Detroit Chapter In Celebration of Israel Visit our Website www.ajc.org For Membership Information, call (248) 646-7686 ofN 5/25 2001 33