Viewpoint In Lebanon, Israel sees itself as
victim
By NEVE GORDON
I was sitting alone drinking coffee
in one of the cafeterias at Tel-Aviv University, when former Prime Minister
Shimon Peres followed by a few bodyguards suddenly walked up to my table. It
was a few weeks before the 1992 national elections, and Peres was trying to
muster votes for the Labor party.
Will you be voting for us? he inquired.
Shaking his hand, I asked him about Labors accomplishments
during the period it was in government.
In 1985, when I was prime minister, the military withdrew
from Lebanon, Peres casually exclaimed, and went on to list some of his
other achievements. But I had stopped listening. His words were spinning in my
head.
The military had indeed withdrawn several kilometers in 1985, but
even after the redeployment, Israel continued to occupy about 10 percent of
Lebanese soil. I knew because I had been serving in Lebanon in 1985; I was
there in 1986 as well. It was a lethal period -- hospitals, friends returning
home in coffins, parents lives ruined.
I looked up -- Peres was still talking. You are lying,
I said. You are lying.
He seemed taken aback. After a minute, he turned and approached a
new group of students.
Eighteen years have passed since Israel invaded Lebanon, and today
it appears that the government is finally contemplating a military withdrawal.
Most Israelis under the age of 30 have little or no recollection of the
relationship between the two countries prior to the invasion, and countless
others consider the occupation of Lebanon to be completely normal, a natural
part of the landscape. During the late 1980s and early 90s, the
occupation rarely made it into the media, and it seemed that Peres tale
had actually been internalized.
It didnt take long, however, for the Hezbollah to expose the
deception. With the support of Syria and Iran, the fundamentalist resistance
group mounted a guerrilla war against Israel, making sure that every month
Israeli soldiers were sent back from Lebanon in body bags. Since the early
90s, about 25 soldiers have been killed in Lebanon each year, rendering
it extremely difficult for the Israeli government to conceal the
occupation.
Over the years, the government has used these deaths to convince
the Israeli public that Israel, rather than Lebanon, is the victim in this
relationship.
In order to understand the current developments, it is important
to keep in mind that advocates of withdrawal have never challenged the
victim syndrome propagated by the Israeli government. Therefore, it
is hardly surprising that the current debate within Israel eschews the question
concerning the legitimacy of occupying a foreign land or the destruction that
Israel has wrought inside Lebanon.
Jumping out of bed at 2 or 3 in the morning in order to fire a few
mortar bombs was routine in 1986, the last time I was in Lebanon. From time to
time we also conducted deliberately designed operations, raiding
houses or villages that, according to Israeli intelligence, were hiding arms or
terrorists. The work I was involved in has not changed much over
the years.
Israeli soldiers continue to control the region, patrolling the
roads day and night and carrying out ambushes. Civilian life is constantly
disrupted inside the buffer zone as the population is subject to
the whims and regulations of the occupying power, and outside the zone, because
hardly a week passes by without the Israeli airforce bombing targets.
ýAn essential element of the occupation is Israels
mercenary forces Ñ the South Lebanese Army -- that function as the
governing power in the buffer zone. On the margins of the existing
debate regarding Israels withdrawal is the critical question concerning
the armys future.
The South Lebanese Army was founded sometime in the late 1970s,
well before the 1982 invasion. The details of how much Israel spends on arming
the army is a state secret, and the exact character of its relationship with it
has always been presented in vague terms. Yet, an experience I had in Lebanon
sheds some light on how the South Lebanese Army was established.
One day I was told by my commander to serve as a bodyguard for a
man who I now believe was an Israeli secret service agent. Driving a Mercedes
that had been confiscated from a local resident, we traveled through villages
in South Lebanon. Toward the middle of the day, we stopped in a small village,
and the man I was guarding met with the elders. They drank coffee and had what
seemed to be a very cordial conversation. Not knowing Arabic I didnt
understand the discussion, so when we returned to the car I asked the man about
what had transpired.
I told them that I need three additional men for the
SLA, he said, adding that in return he had offered them construction
material for a new mosque. During the ride back to the base, I learned from him
that most villages within the buffer zone needed to fill a quota in order to
remain in good standing with the Israeli military. The village we had visited
had yet to provide the goods, the man said, but he was sure that the situation
would be remedied.
According to the Israeli daily Haaretz, about 1,500
fighters for the South Lebanese Army are currently registered employees of the
Israeli military. Their direct income for service ranges from $500 to $900 a
month. In addition, about 2,500 Lebanese laborers enter Israel each day to work
for Israeli farmers or industrialists. In order to cross the international
border, these low-wage laborers require entry permits, which they can receive
only from the army. Its soldiers, in turn, receive remuneration for each
laborer who works inside Israel. Haaretz estimates that 20,000
Lebanese make their livelihood directly or indirectly through Israels
presence in Lebanon.
These peoples fate is tied to their southern neighbor not
only because they are dependant on Israel for their livelihood, but also
because they collaborated with the occupying power and committed atrocities in
its name. Amnesty International reports that no warrants, court hearings or
sentences are used in South Lebanon, indicating that the prisoners are held in
jail outside of any legal framework. Different torture methods are employed,
including electric shock, suspension from an electricity pole, painful
postures, beating with an electric cable and sleep deprivation. Torture,
Amnesty claims, has, on occasion, resulted in the death of detainees.
Recently, a number of Israeli human rights organizations have
petitioned the High Court of Justice demanding the release of the estimated 160
detainees. They claim that Israel, and not the South Lebanese Army, is
ultimately responsible for the prison compound. Although the rights
organizations seem to have a case, it is unlikely that the Lebanese people,
most prominently the Hezbollah, will exonerate the army. Thus it is to be
expected that soldiers and their families will be in danger following
Israels withdrawal.
Gen. Lahad, head of the South Lebanese Army, recently organized a
news conference within Israel. He notified the press that he and his men intend
to remain in Lebanon and are not thinking of moving to Israel. This statement
contradicts the declarations of other low-ranking Lebanese soldiers who were
previously interviewed by the Israeli press, some of whom even petitioned the
Supreme Court in order to obtain Israeli citizenship.
Considering that Lahad receives his paycheck from Israel and that
Israeli military generals must attain permission before they talk to the press,
it is likely that Lahad had coordinated his statement with Israeli officials.
Lahads statement is both revealing and alarming. Could it be that Israel
intends to withdraw its troops but leave its mercenary army intact?
This sinister scheme is likely to be supported by the majority of
Israelis, who are worried about Israeli troops and the northern settlements but
have little to say about the brutal occupation. What these Israelis ignore is
that the South Lebanese Army is a tool of the occupying power, and that neither
the Lebanese nor the Hezbollah guerrillas will consider Israels
withdrawal complete without the full disbanding of its mercenary army.
Neve Gordon, a former Israeli paratrooper, teaches in the
Department of Politics and Government at Ben Gurion University in
Beer-Sheva.
National Catholic Reporter, May 19,
2000
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