“Israeli”-proxy militia’s disintegration ends Israel's dream of a militia at its service

 The disintegration of the “Israeli”-proxy militia’s ended Israel's long-held dream of having a militia at its service in its northern neighbour, a force that could protect the Jewish state from attacks launched by its enemies.

In 1949, just after the peace agreements that ended the first Arab-”Israeli” the then “Israeli” prime minister David Ben Gurion brought up the idea.

Ben Gurion thought Israel should "establish a state in the south bordered by the Litani River and then form an alliance with it.

"We should find a Lebanese Christian officer, at the rank of captain or higher, and win him to our cause or, if necessary, buy him, so he can proclaim himself the savior of the Maronite population," Israel's first foreign minister, Moshe Sharett, wrote in his journal published in 1978.

"Then, the “Israeli” army could penetrate into Lebanon to occupy the territory in question and install a Christian regime that would form an alliance with Israel," Ben Gurion believed, according to Sharett.

When Lebanon erupted into civil war in 1975, Israel was able to find the man it was looking for -- Saad Haddad, commander of a military camp in a Maronite village near the “Israeli” border.

In October 1976, as the head of what he called the Free Lebanon Army (AFL), Haddad and his force of Lebanese Christian officers, with quiet support from Israel, took over an army base at Marjayoun, from which they could control the road connecting Palestinian military positions on Mount Hermon to the Mediterranean Sea.

In 1977, confrontations grew with the Palestine Liberation Organization, a major force in the south, and “Israeli” army officers came to the AFL's assistance.

But it was in 1978 that Ben Gurion's idea was able to come to fruition. The “Israeli” army launched its first invasion of southern Lebanon, financing and arming Haddad's force, now rechristened the South Lebanon Army (SLA).

When the 25,000 “Israeli” soldiers left, Israel handed control over not to the 6,000 UN troops that had just arrived, but instead gave its proxy army a five to 10 kilometer (three to six mile) "security zone."

The Lebanese army tried to return to the south on the tails of the UN force in July 1978 and again in 1979, but each time Haddad's forces bombarded them. Twice Haddad was court martialed in his absence for "collaboration with the enemy" and twice he was cashiered from the Lebanese army.

In the summer of 1982, Israel's ambition was even grander. Its army advanced to Beirut and lent its strong hand to Christian militia leader Bashir Gemayel, who then became president of the Lebanese republic.

But Israel's hopes of finally having a friendly Lebanese government faded quickly. Gemayel was assassinated in September and replaced with his brother Amin, who under Syrian pressure refused to sign an “Israeli”-Lebanese agreement in May 1983.

Israel's army, attacked ever more frequently, decided to retire gradually to an 850 square kilometer (340 square mile) "security zone" in Lebanon's extreme south. The area was trusted to the militia, which after Haddad's death in 1985 was led by Antoine Lahad.

The 2,500 militia soldiers were deployed to advance posts throughout the occupied zone and from 1985 on, without the “Israelis”, controlled the 40 square kilometer (16 square mile) Christian zone of Jezzin.

Israel paid the militiamen handsomely, giving base soldiers salaries going up to 500 US dollars a month, and granted militia members' families the right to work in Israel.

The security from the collaborators left Israel comfortable enough to station only 1,000 men in southern Lebanon -- a move that also diminished “Israeli” casualties.

In the past few days, members of the militia have been giving themselves up to Hezbollah, while others have chosen voluntary exile. Some have gone to Israel, while Lahad, the group's leader, is now in Paris.

AFP 23/05/2000