June Thursday 01-2000:

Introduction

Head of Bloc of Loyalty to Resistance vowed that Hizbullah would reject rewards in the form of government positions after spearheading the resistance against "Israel", and instead demanded economic justice on a national scale. He added that the resistance would not lay down its arms, vowing to continue attacking "Israel" until all of Shibaa Farms were returned to Lebanon.

Meanwhile, the UN cartography team deviated from its mission by asking the Lebanese to ignore parts of Lebanese territory still occupied by "Israel" in a number of places, an unnamed Lebanese official said.

However, South Lebanon may be free of "Israeli" troops but it remains littered with land mines and unexploded ordnance, which have already killed at least two civilians and wounded nineteen in the past week alone.

Elsewhere, "Israel" has been incorporating Lebanese land and stealing precious water from a river in southern Lebanon in clear breach of international law.

Sayyed: Resistance would continue until all Lebanese lands are liberated…(1)

The head of parliamentary Bloc of Loyalty to Resistance vowed on Wednesday that Hizbullah would reject “rewards” in the form of government positions after spearheading the resistance against "Israel", and instead demanded economic justice on a national scale.
Addressing an extraordinary session of Parliament in Bint Jbeil, MP Ibrahim Amin Sayyed also announced that the resistance would not lay down its arms, vowing to continue targeting "Israel" until all of the Shibaa Farms were returned to Lebanon. The Baalback-Hermel MP lambasted what he said was the government’s uneven social and economic development and its failure to begin rebuilding recently liberated areas. “It’s clear that the government’s program is merely fit for a village or town beset by domestic conflict,” he said. “We want to talk about the greater notion of justice, namely development in Lebanon.
“What we want is a comprehensive development plan for all Lebanon, beginning in the ‘resistance’ South and reaching every ‘resistance’ village and town in the north, the South and Mount Lebanon,” he demanded. “Every home in Lebanon is part of the resistance, every village is part of the resistance.
“It’s completely inappropriate to speak of charitable overtures and mercy when some villages have been completely destroyed,” Sayyed responded to government promises of aid to the former "Israeli"-held areas.
“We don’t want medals placed on the tombs of the resistance’s martyrs, or on the chests of our fighters. What we want is Lebanon ­ its government, state, people, institutions, parties, free political forces ­ to rise to the level of this victory.
“We won’t turn our backs to the enemy, and we won’t seek out state positions,” he vowed.
Sayyed also said that the government was insufficiently protecting Lebanese water sources, saying the solution “doesn’t lie in providing cisterns.”
“The government hasn’t taken any step toward giving the liberated detainees top priority,” he added, claiming that freed prisoners had not been given posts in state-run institutions. “And the wounded, who number between 10,000 and 15,000, who is responsible for them?” he asked.
Sayyed also said that the resistance would “carry on launching armed jihad until the last meter of Lebanese land, including the Shibaa Farms, are liberated.”
“The resistance movement is not concerned with UN rulings. The Shibaa Farms will be the resistance movement’s last battleground as long as the Lebanese government continues to claim ownership over the territory,” he said, adding that Hizbullah would continue its resistance activities as long as "Israel" occupied Palestine and other Arab territories.
Sayyed also cautioned against showing leniency toward former collaborators.
“We hope the state and its bodies will ... deal with this matter not with mercy, but justice. In this case justice is served through punishment,” he contended.
Sayyed thanked Syria and Iran for their support for the resistance and attacked Hizbullah’s political opponents who, he claimed, tried to undermine the resistance group’s victory.
“There are political forces that … didn’t want victory but rather sought defeat for Lebanon. There is no place for such people after this victory.”

Lebanese cartographers accuse UN colleagues of bias…(2)

" Relations between UN cartographers and their Lebanese colleagues monitoring the completeness of "Israel's" withdrawal were strained Wednesday because of what a Lebanese official statement described as the UN's "biased" attitude.

"The UN cartography team deviated from its mission by asking the Lebanese to ignore parts of Lebanese territory still occupied by "Israel" in a number of places, in particular near the region of Odaisseh and Wazzani in the eastern sector of the previously occupied border strip," said a statement issued by the official ANI news agency, quoting an unnamed Lebanese official.

The team "asked (Lebanon) to respect "Israel's" needs and take into account the peculiar characteristics of the region," the statement said.

"The Lebanese side refused to accept this biased view considering that it contradicts the UN role," it added.

Lebanese sources have said that throughout the years, "Israel" had seized patches of Lebanese territory at 16 different locations along the two countries' borders.

Sharaa: Shibaa Farms must be returned to Lebanon…(3)

"Syrian FM Sharaa told Syria's official news agency SANA that Shibaa "must be returned to Lebanon (...) or "Israel" must withdraw from it under UN Security Council Resolution 242 demanding a pullout without delay from Syria's Golan Heights."

Sharaa later telephoned Lebanese Prime Minister Salim Hoss to tell him that on the issue of sovereignty, "Syria reaffirms that the Shibaa farms are Lebanese" and that "Lebanon has the right to request that they be returned," an official Lebanese source said.

"This has been Syria's steadfast position" and "has not changed," Shara added.

"Israel" has refused to withdraw from all of Shibaa as part of its pullback from south Lebanon, insisting it was Syrian territory and must be dealt with in negotiations with Damascus.

One of Hizbullah's MPs in the Lebanese parliament warned Wednesday that armed resistance would continue "in order to free every last inch of Lebanese territory occupied by "Israel", including the Farms of Shibaa."

Berri calls for Arab help as Nijmeh moves to Bint Jbeil…(4)

MPs abandoned their plush headquarters in Nijmeh Square on Wednesday and thronged to the heart of the liberated South in a show of support for a population that endured 22 years of occupation and isolation.
The special session in Bint Jbeil took up nearly three hours, culminating in a set of nine resolutions aimed at providing relief for the South’s people and facilitating their reintegration. The decisions also reiterated Lebanon’s right to regain every inch of its territory, including the Shibaa Farms. Baalback-Hermel MP Ibrahim Amin Sayyed, head of Hizbullah’s Parliamentary bloc, stole the limelight from Speaker Nabih Berri with a speech that blasted the government’s inadequate promises of relief and development projects. Berri had called for the session to be held in Bint Jbeil.
The Hizbullah MP also pledged that it would not lay down arms until the Shibaa Farms were liberated.
In all 109 MPs attended the session, including a complete government. There was unanimous praise for the resistance among those who took the podium, calls for the army to be deployed to the newly liberated villages and concern over the fate of Lebanese detainees in "Israeli" prisons.
Among the other recommendations endorsed was a call on the international community to assist Lebanon in implementing its development projects for the south.
Speaking in the dark as the electricity was off for most of the session, Berri urged Arab countries to abide by their commitments to give financial aid to Lebanon and underscored the importance of the return of the government’s sovereignty to the area. “The sacrifices of the Lebanese should not be rewarded by loans or small grants; our Arab brethren must pay the financial aid they pledged,” he said, speaking at a makeshift parliament in a public school.
He was referring to a pledge made at an Arab summit in 1980 to give the South $1 billion and the rest of Lebanon an equal amount in compensation for losses inflicted by "Israeli" attacks and the civil war.
“Government departments must take control of all public facilities in the South, local councils must be in charge of development projects in their municipal areas, and the Council of the South must be given an immediate advance to start rebuilding destroyed and damaged homes,” Berri said.
“The government must increase the ceiling of tobacco production, exempt the liberated areas from taxes, encourage tourist projects on the coastal area and carry out the Litani Project,” he added.
The government, which monopolizes tobacco purchases and sales, sets a ceiling for what it buys from tobacco farmers. The commodity is vital in the south.
The Litani Project, launched in the 1950s, includes power generation and irrigation plans. The project was frozen at the beginning of the civil war.
In an impassioned speech, which was received with thunderous applause from the House, Sayyed said the resistance would continue until all Lebanese territory has been liberated, a clear reference to the Shibaa Farms, which he insisted would not be “freed through negotiations.”
Turning his attention to "Israel's" former proxy militia, Sayyed called on the government to deal with the situation not “with mercy but with justice.”

Earlier, Hoss, whose address was concise, said the government was making the necessary contacts to call for an international conference to assist liberated areas. “The government is doing all it can,” he said.
Hoss said it was time to push aside selfish considerations and commit to national unity.
“We shouldn’t cloud this historical achievement by highlighting and exaggerating individual incidents,” he stressed, praising martyrs and all those who fought for the victory.
The premier reassured the House that the government remained committed to the release of prisoners in "Israeli" jails, to regaining the Shibaa Farms, and to securing the needs of the people of the South. “They are owed at least this, and peace and stability,” he said.
Describing the emergency plan for the short term ­ along with a long-term plan being examined by government ­ Interior Minister Michel Murr said implementation required more funds. “The emergency plan needs LL50 billion to assist those whose homes were destroyed,  and $10 million to secure 50-75 percent of water to the villages for a one-month period,” said Murr, announcing that electricity would be provided by June 10.
Like Hoss, former prime minister Rafik Hariri had also called for unselfish acts.
In a surprisingly conciliatory tone, the Beirut MP, speaking on behalf of his parliamentary bloc, expressed support for all the efforts deployed by President Emile Lahoud and the government.
“Backing Lebanon is a responsibility, not a duty,” he said. “All Lebanese, opposition or loyalists, are the children of this cause. The occupation left the country with a major economic and social catastrophe which needs the efforts of everybody.”
Seizing the opportunity to demonstrate his goodwill, Hariri called on "Israel" to withdraw from all Syrian territory, and stressed the importance of settling the land mine issue immediately, “or else the South could become a daily catastrophe.”
Among the host of other speakers who took to the podium, Metn MP Nassib Lahoud called on the government to deploy the army while Batroun MP Butros Harb stressed the importance of consolidating national unity.

MPs’ recommendations…(5)

1- Immediately begin works to rehabilitate and expand infrastructure ­ water, power and road networks ­ to encourage refugees to return to their homes.
2. Immediately begin the rebuilding of homes that were partially or completely destroyed by "Israel" and coordinate the reconstruction process with the rehabilitation of infrastructure so that the two processes take no longer than six months.
Funds must be given within days to the Council of the South to start paying compensation to the owners of damaged homes.
3. Call for an Arab or an Arab-international meeting to raise grants and soft and regular loans for Lebanon under an economic revival and reconstruction program for the South, and coordinate efforts with the Arab League and the UN Development Program to achieve results as quickly as possible.
4. Put forth a practical policy to face all the repercussions of normalization policies imposed by "Israel" during the occupation, to undermine all material and cultural aspects of normalization, and to re-link the liberated areas with the Lebanese economy.
5. Call on the private sector and Lebanese and Arab businesspeople to contribute to the revival of economic life in the liberated areas, and provide incentives for this process, including subsidies, loans and tax exemptions. The government should remove red tape faced by the private sector and start setting up industrial and tourist zones in the liberated areas.
6. Implement the first stage of the Litani Project, providing irrigation to several parts of the South. The plan will encourage agricultural and industrial projects that can provide thousands of jobs.
7. Encourage residents to work in their native areas and develop the educational sector, especially the technical branch, to prepare young people to take up jobs and consequently put an end to migration from the area.
8. Increase the ceiling of tobacco production to at least 2 million kilograms a year; half of which is to be produced in the South alone.
9. Give local councils control of all municipal facilities and launch public works in every municipality.

Fadlallah overjoyed by absence of predicted chaos…(6)

"Israel's" frenzied retreat from south Lebanon last week has ended an era of war and tragedy that is not likely to recur, despite the stalemate in the Middle East peace process, according to Sayyed Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah.
The leading cleric is basking in the glory of victory. As the spiritual father of the Islamic Resistance, he is proud of his “sons,” who crushed the myth of "Israel's" might, sending the occupation troops scurrying across the border as their militia allies crumbled.
But something is coloring Fadlallah’s euphoria. It is the perpetual suggestion that the South would plunge into civil strife, even though the past week has proved wrong all those who had gambled on such “negative developments.”
Fadlallah spoke in an interview with The Daily Star at his home in Haret Hreik a week after the liberation of the south.
“Lebanon has stunned the world. The country which has been branded as a base of terrorism has proved that even in the most sensitive of times, when it is very possible for people to lose their balance, the most civilized humanitarian conduct is being observed by all,” he said.
"Israel's" hurried withdrawal, completed on May 24 and coupled with the disintegration of militia, could be attributed to the joint efforts of the people and the resistance, he said.
“The resistance pressured the enemy militarily and the people turned up the heat on the political and humanitarian levels,” he said. “This is why I believe that it was the people of Lebanon who sealed the liberation after the resistance had prepared the atmosphere for it.”
The shooting on Sunday in which a Christian in Rmeish was killed was a one-off incident, he said. The ability of both the resistance and locals to swiftly contain its potentially dangerous repercussions was proof of the high degree of discipline among both groups.
“I wonder, if there was a similar crush of people in Washington or London, would we have seen the same degree of discipline?” Fadlallah asked.
The withdrawal, he said, had come as a surprise to all. But the personal initiatives of senior government officials countered some of the problems that could have surfaced, even though filling the security vacuum proved to be complicated.
Fadlallah was not against sending the security forces, including the army, to the South, but not until certain political conditions had been met to avoid turning the Lebanese into a border police for the Jewish state. The Lebanon experience would make "Israel" think hard before embarking on another adventure, he stressed, even though there were no signs of an early resumption of the Middle East peace process.
This process, he said, was launched to achieve “decisive results and would eventually do so. But I don’t think the time is ripe for resuming decisive negotiations between Syria and "Israel" and ultimately Lebanon. Not even on the Palestinian track.
“This is partly due to the US preoccupation with the upcoming elections and also because the stature of  the enemy’s prime minister has been shaken by problems within his ruling coalition and as a result of a mounting opposition onslaught,” he said.
Ehud Barak rode to office carrying “the peace card,” Fadlallah continued. “His chances now appear dim. But no one really knows what’s happening behind the scenes.”
Would Lebanon’s victory serve as an incentive for the Palestinians to revive their own intifada against "Israel"?
“It’s natural that this formidable collapse of the "Israeli" enemy and its agents has created among the Palestinians a new sentiment that the chances of success for their intifada are no longer as poor as they were before,” replied Fadlallah.
But, he cautioned, the Palestinians needed to change their strategy to mobilize public opinion against the "Israeli" government.
“It is possible to revive the intifada with new planning and a new strategy following the example of the Lebanese resistance. This would mean staying away from all events that could provoke an international outcry such as explosions in public places,” he said.
As for the future options of Hizbullah, Fadlallah decried efforts to “always force the resistance show all its cards, without chasing the enemy’s designs. It’s as though we’re obsessed with weakness. As though we want to rest at any cost. Let the resistance be.
“Let the resistance make its threats and let it say it will not disarm until full liberation,” he said. “Man has to be politically clever and disregard all the political analyses that mislead the weak and spread fear.”

NGOs race to alert South to peril of mines…(7)

South Lebanon may be free of "Israeli" troops but it remains littered with land mines and unexploded ordnance (UXO), which have already claimed the lives of 6-year-old Alaa Adnan Madi and 14-year-old Lama Ahmad Hamadi, and wounded 15 people in the past week alone.
The problem of mines in Lebanon is no novelty, but the liberation of the South brought with it a new danger, with an influx of people returning to their villages or visiting the region for the first time.
In their excitement, people parked their cars on roadsides and posed for photographs with abandoned tanks and artillery or tore down signs written in Hebrew, including signs warning of minefields.
Such behavior put people and their adventurous children at great risk and revealed the need for large-scale land mine and UXO awareness campaigns. Parallel to the army’s efforts in mine clearance in the liberated south and its northern border, awareness is important in preventing accidents.
International organizations have worked closely with local NGOs and community leaders in an effort to create awareness about mines around the country. But in light of the recent withdrawal, emergency task forces were set up to focus special attention on the villages in or near the liberated zone.
One of the programs already in existence held a three-day training program for 24 young volunteers in Tyre in mid-April. The volunteers, who come from STC Youth Clubs in Siddiqeen, Zibqeen, Srifa, Deir Kifa, Sidon and Tyre, as well as a number of local youth organizations, were instructed in mine awareness by the Lebanese Army’s National De-mining Bureau and STC trainers who had attended a mine-awareness conference in Yemen in 1998.
Similarly, the World Rehabilitation Fund has financed mine-awareness projects here since 1998 but events prompted it to mobilize to make more of an impact in the country’s southern region.
“We’re printing flyers, stickers and posters to be distributed by the Red Cross in the South and the western Beqaa,” said WRF’s land-mine project coordinator Toufik Rizkallah. The Red Cross will also be replacing mine warning signs, Rizkallah said, while warning brochures were being distributed in Rashaya by the Vision Association for Development, Rehabilitation and Care.
WRF emergency meetings began last week, with lectures held in Jibsheit and in high schools in Qaroun. The Scouts and Red Cross workers in Tyre also got a crash course in mine-awareness last Saturday.
Explaining the STC’s focus on training for children, Christine Nelke, the mine-awareness program officer in Lebanon, said: “Children are the most common victims of land mines and UXO. This is because these things attract children’s curiosity.”
Newly trained STC youth volunteers return to their communities and formulate mine-awareness programs together with children from their youth clubs and with the help of leading members of their community.
“STC doesn’t believe in intervening as outsiders to lecture people about the dangers of mines,” explained Nelke. “We try to involve key people in the community, like health workers, educators and religious personalities.” Such people command respect and credibility in their communities and are more likely to have an impact on others.
The STC is also an advocate of the child-to-child educational approach, which, according to Kamal Shayya, community development specialist at STC-US, is a faster way to spread information.
As its name suggests, it elicits children’s participation in their own learning process. Photos, videos, games, drawing, storytelling and role-playing are some of the less traditional educational methods used by STC to change children’s attitudes and behavior toward mines and UXO.
After identifying community needs, youth club members collect information from their environment, analyze it and plan their own mine-awareness programs. They implement the program in their environment, spreading the warning message to parents, siblings and friends. Finally, they evaluate the success of their work.
Experience has shown that when children are asked to think through the mine problem and discover their own solutions, sound behavior and attitudes are more likely to result.
The warning message varies slightly for different age groups, depending on their intellectual development, but anyone in an area where it was suspected there could be mines should heed the following rules:

•ask for the safe path
•stay on the safe path
•if you find something unusual, don’t touch it!
•mark a suspected mine with a light object
•report your finding
•keep out of signed mined areas
•recognize warning signs
•recognize warning clues

“There’s no use raising awareness if nothing is done about the mines,” said Heba Hajj, STC-US’s Education Program Coordinator. “That’s why it’s very important to notify someone, preferably the army, when you find a mine or UXO.”
Without reporting, which assists in the army’s mine-clearance task, land cannot be declared safe or put to use.
“Farmland, grazing pastures and roads remain inaccessible and useless if there are mines on them,” said Nelke, highlighting another facet of the mine problem.
For the time being, it is highly recommended that everyone visiting the south to stay away from fields or unpaved roads. If these can’t be avoided, it is good idea to know the key indicators that there are mines in the vicinity, say Hajj and Shayya. These are:

•mounds of earth
•electric cables on the ground
•protruding metal
•planted stick or pile of stones (may be a mark left by others)
•bare patches in otherwise grass-covered terrain
•anything irregular in the land’s topography

“We all knew the "Israelis" would eventually leave,” Nelke said. “This is why we began preparing, with the conference in Yemen, in 1998.”
Although good results have been achieved though the youth club awareness projects, especially in the villages of Zibqeen, Saida and Tyre, Nelke felt that the awareness campaigns were not being implemented fast enough now that access to the south has opened up.
“It’s natural that people want to explore the south,” said Hajj, “but the role now of mine-awareness workers is to quickly spread danger warnings to people.”

Camouflaged explosive wounds four in eastern Baalback…(8)

An explosive device went off in eastern Baalback on Wednesday while workers were clearing a road, wounding four of them, police said.
The device, camouflaged with fiberglass and painted to look like a rock, detonated when it was hit by a bulldozer in Assira.
The wounded were identified as Maher Awar, 20; his father Suleiman, 50; Hassan Amhaz and Hussein Steif, whose ages were not given.
The Awars sustained minor injuries, while Amhaz and Steif‘s wounds required surgery. Their conditions were said to be stable.
Police said that the device “was probably left by "Israeli" commandos a few weeks ago. Baalback residents recall that last month, "Israeli" surveillance planes hovered above the town.”
Last summer, a similar device was found by Assira residents and exploded while Hizbullah experts were trying to defuse it, killing Ghassan Ahmad.

UN experts fly in to aid army against scourge…(9)

UN land mine experts have arrived for talks with the Lebanese Army over a plan to clear south Lebanon from land mines left after 22 years of "Israeli" occupation, a UN spokesman said on Wednesday.
The team from New York landed in Beirut on Tuesday evening and was expected to meet army officers, said Timur Goksel, spokesman for the UN Interim Force in Lebanon. The talks were meant to “study a plan of action to clear the area of land mines,” he said.
In Jerusalem, the Defense (War) Ministry said the "Israeli" Army had provided UNIFIL officials with a detailed map on Wednesday on where its troops buried land mines in south Lebanon.
Goksel said land mines were mainly located around army positions evacuated by the "Israeli" troops and their allied militia at the Jewish state’s pullout on May 24.
Mines were also spread along the international border and on the frontline of the former border zone occupied by "Israel" in south Lebanon from where resistance guerrillas operated, he said.
Goksel said the valleys of Wadi Slouqi, Wadi al-Hujeir and Wadi al-Nafkha at the edge of the central sector of the former occupied zone “contained hundreds of land mines because they were passageways for the resistance.
“We have to clear these areas, particularly since dozens of shepherds wander there every day because of the water and the greenery,” he said.
Goksel said UNIFIL needed a special team to remove the land mines after its deployment in the southern border zone once the UN officially certifies the "Israeli" withdrawal.
He said UNIFIL has removed 30,000 land mines from the frontline along the edge of the former occupied zone in south Lebanon in the last 15 years.
“But the area is still filled with mines,” said Goksel who did not give an exact figure on the number.
If it is mainly Lebanese civilians who fall victim to mine explosions, UNIFIL troops have also suffered casualties, the first being a Swedish peacekeeper in 1978 when the force first deployed in the area.
 

"Israel's" theft of Lebanese water revealed on camera…(10)

"Beirut is accusing "Israel" of stealing precious water from a river in southern Lebanon. The government is to make an official complaint to the United Nations. Southern Lebanon's water fell into the hands of the Jewish state 22 years ago when "Israeli" troops invaded Lebanon.

" The Wazzani River, for years part of occupied southern Lebanon, is now back in Lebanon proper following the "Israeli" withdrawal. People from the small town of Wazzani say "Israel" has been stolen the water for years. Now they warn the pumping must stop. An APTN cameraman was taken to this spot by local people. The pipes can clearly be seen running from the river, across the border fence to a small pumping station guarded by "Israeli" soldiers. The local Lebanese are in no doubt the water belongs to them. They say that water tankers arrive every few days to take the water away. The latest pictures have brought the water issue back near the top of the political agenda in southern Lebanon. (Prime Minister Salim Hoss saying: "Well two things should be done, actually. We would complain to the UN about this. It's our water and they should not be taking it away. If the peace talks should resume, this would be one of the topics that would be on the agenda, as far as Lebanon is concerned. After the area is completely liberated- and we hope this come about soon- I think we would recover our rights to water"). A spokesman for the "Israeli" army first claimed "Israel" did not steal Lebanese water, but when approached by APTN again, he said the matter was being dealt with by "Israeli" Prime Minister Ehud Barak's office".

"Israel" incorporates Lebanese land…(11)

""Israel" has been incorporating Lebanese land into its territories in clear breach of international law. Villagers in Odaisseh and Maroun al-Rass along the border with "Israel" revealed to Future Television large estates that belong to Lebanon but have been seized by the Jewish state.

" This land belongs to villagers in Odaisseh. But "Israel" incorporated the land into its territory more than a decade ago. The workers are busy installing telephone line in the area which now adjoins the Mesgav Am settlement. Future Television captured these shots of Lebanese villagers asking the workers to stop all construction, saying it is Lebanese territory. [NS: Resident of Aadasieh saying, This is Lebanese land. Even if the "Israelis" are paying you, don't work here. Don't you have any dignity? If you continue working here, you are without dignity.] But construction continued and the workers scoffed at the villagers' desperate cries. This barbed wire border separates two worlds. One of them was liberated after fiercely resisting twenty-two years of brutal occupation. The other world is still struggling for freedom. "Israel" has been occupying some seventeen other chunks of Lebanese territory that fall north of the 1923 internationally-recognized boundaries. In Maroun Ras, a village close to the border, residents told Future Television, entire farmlands were incorporated into "Israel" in 1978. Villagers have documents proving it is theirs. MP Rhayed Khazen of Kesrouan also has documents proving "Israel" illegally seized 500,000 square meters of his land in the village of Wazzani, close to the border. "Israel" this week claimed it withdrew entirely from all Lebanese territories it had occupied since 1978, but a growing number of villagers in south Lebanon have been revealing official documents attesting to "Israel's" incorporation of large chunks of Lebanese territories.

"Israel" reviews list of names of detainees presented by Lebanon…(12)

"UN envoy Terje Larsen said "Israel" is reviewing name-by-name a list of detainees whose freedom the Hizbullah resistance movement is demanding as a condition for an end to fighting "Israel". Hizbullah says "Israel" holds 30 Lebanese hostages, while "Israel" claims it has only been detaining fifteen, including resistance figures Abdel Karim Obeid and Mustapha Dirani. They have been held without trial or charge as bargaining chips for any future negotiations on the fate of missing "Israeli" airman Ron Arad. His plane was shot over Lebanon in 1986. An "Israeli" court has put off for six weeks a decision on the fate of the Lebanese detainees. EU envoy Miguel Moratinus said the European Union is working for their liberation.

Two Lebanese working in "Israel" hand themselves over to Lebanese authorities…(13)

"Two Lebanese who once worked at an "Israeli" hotel came to a border checkpoint Wednesday and surrendered to Lebanese authorities, an AFP reporter witnessed.

The two Lebanese are both originally from Ain Ibel, a village close to the border in the zone formerly held by "Israel".

One of the men, who would not give their names, told AFP they worked in a hotel in the north of "Israel".

"That was the only way for us to earn a living," he said. "But we decided to turn ourselves in so we don't have to live in exile."

Some 30 members of "Israel's" former proxy militia in Lebanon and their family members returned from "Israel" to Lebanon and surrendered to the authorities there Sunday.

Abou 6,000 former members of the "Israeli"-allied militia and their relatives fled Lebanon for "Israel" after the "Israeli" army left its occupied zone May 24.

Who needs honor?…(14)
" Chief of Staff Shaul Mofaz is taking measures to support and exonerate himself and his high-ranking comrades. We didn't abandon the South Lebanon Army, he has declared. We left Lebanon honorably, we didn't flee, the IDF's* deterrent capabilities haven't been impaired. So the coopted media has started to praise, exult and glorify this great escape, executed "without a scratch.". None of these praise-makers stopped to ponder whether soldiers and their commanders, who were compelled to behave contrary to the way they were trained, fleeing in circumstances of panic with a sense of abandonment, scratched morale or values.
A few days went by before Hamas leader Ahmed Yassin declared that the Palestinian resistance must deploy Hizbullah methods if it is to succeed. And it was just a matter of hours before a powerful explosive, triggered in a manner reminiscent of the methods of the Lebanese victor, went off near Netzarim, though the blast fortunately didn't hurt anyone.
Yasser Arafat, who was not surprised by the collapse in Lebanon, chimed in. Speaking to a boisterous, celebrating audience, he declared that the adage that Arab lands must be liberated "meter by meter" has been proven anew.
Arabs from "Israel", no less gleeful, traveled to the Lebanon border to wave Hizbullah flags and make "V" for victory signs to their brethren on the other side. They thus furnished further proof of the Chief of Staff's assessment that "Israel's" deterrent capabilities were not impaired.
Major General Amos Malka, Director of Military Intelligence, took an unusual step, issuing a public warning about pan-Arab euphoria that might possibly lead to acts of violent terror. How can this be so, if one accepts his superior's assessment that the IDF's deterrent ability remains intact? Disciplinary action should be taken against the intelligence officer, for rank insubordination (in Major General Malka's favor, it can be noted that politically, he's not in a bad position; about two months ago when the prime minister desperately needed support for a total withdrawal from the Golan Heights, Malka stood by his side, albeit in the guise of a "high ranking officer," declaring "what is the Hermon, after all - it's just a mountain").
As it turns out, justice is on the Chief of Staff's side. The panic-stricken flight did not harm the army's deterrent capabilities in the least. Those capabilities were already gone - first, during the Intifada, and then because of the situation in Lebanon - years before last week's panic-stricken (though honorable) escape.
People who know the Chief of Staff and respect him as a soldier and officer are incredulous. Is this really Shaul? Could it be that the exultation heaped upon him by the Four Mothers group and other defenders of the withdrawal has turned his head, made him lose his balance? Why, those with a clear view of events ask, did the IDF decide to hand over Taibeh, the key army outpost, to the weakest SLA** unit? And why, once it was clear that a withdrawal was in the offing, did the IDF not prepare an orderly pullout, which included the collection of property and equipment? Why were IDF soldiers forced to withdraw by foot, running away as shells blasted along their escape route, prohibited from taking along elementary personal equipment (one soldier was forced to leave behind tradition teffilin phylacteries which had been passed down from fathers to sons in his family for five generations), not to mention more sophisticated and classified army property, and "Israeli" flags?
Who, apart from Ra'aya Hernik, cares about symbols today? Writing in Ma'ariv, Hernik, one of the first to raise the banner of opposition to the involvement in Lebanon, and so someone who would have been expected to join the post-withdrawal celebrations, lamented the indignity of those surrendered flags, and mourned the erosion of national solidarity that the recent events reflected. Hernik recalled a bygone era in which "Israelis" were prepared to give their lives for a cause.
Beyond the role it plays in cultural configurations, "honor" is a strategic asset. An army respected by its enemies has deterrent power. A people, represented by rabbis, learned men, political leaders and even military commanders, who display contempt for honor, generally, and for the national army in particular, evince confusion about their own values, and show doubt about the justice of the course they have followed.
And now, amid cheers from people who only yesterday demanded that he be tossed behind bars, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef himself has risen, declaring, "honor isn't important. It doesn't matter." And the Chief of Staff is being advised to appoint Rabbi Ovadia's son to the IDF Chaplain General post (how could we have failed to think of this earlier?). With all his virtues, Yosef fittingly comes to embody the courageous spirit, the ethos of integrity and truth-seeking, that now animates the IDF.
A few people responsible for the moral and operational fiasco have informed confused, troubled associates that their hands were tied. Maybe that's true. But any man of honor and dignity who anticipated this scenario should have stood up and resigned before it actually came to pass. The fact that the prime minister is ultimately responsible for whatever ominous strategic repercussions stem from the tactical failures does not exempt these officers from any share of the burden for the disgrace and the humiliation.
Somewhere deep in their hearts, some of those foolish, or coopted, supporters publishing praise for Barak know that it was the IDF, not the SLA, that collapsed. This fact must generate some concern among them, as they consider the prudence of the group they so adore

Footnotes:

1-        The Daily Star, 1-6-2000.

2-        AFP, 31-5-2000.

3-        Same source.

4-        The Daily Star, 1-6-2000.

5-        Same source.

6-        Same source.

7-        Same source.

8-        Same source.

9-        Same source.

10-    Future TV, 31-5-2000.

11-    Same source.

12-    Same source.

13-    AFP, 31-5-2000.

14-    Ha'aretz, 1-6-2000.

* It is an "Israeli" nomination we absolutely reject for it contradicts with Lebanon's independence and sovereignty. This army is not but an "Israeli" agent working for realizing "Israel's" goals in Lebanon.(SLA)

* This term is absolutely unacceptable. "Israel's" Army is that of war and aggression for it protects land gained by force, confiscation and war in contradiction with the simplest rights of human confessed by the international laws and conventions.(IDF)