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How
Lebanese Civilians Thwarted Israel's War Plans
By JAMES MARC LEAS
By simply returning to their homes Lebanese
civilians played a key role thwarting Israel's plans in its most
recent war in Lebanon. As the Associated Press reported on August
14, immediately upon the start of the UN sponsored cease fire
tens of thousands of Lebanese families defied orders from Israeli
commanders, took to the roads, and returned to their villages
in southern Lebanon . Their courageous action stifled any hope
the Israeli government may have had for accomplishing its grand
vision for southern Lebanon with this war.
As the Los Angeles Times reported in an article, "Old Feud
over Lebanese River Takes on New Turn," August 10, 2006,
three of Israel's founding fathers, Chaim Weizmann, David Ben-Gurion,
and Moshe Dayan, all favored occupying and annexing southern
Lebanon up to the Litani River. Israel launched massive attacks
on Lebanon in 1978, 1982, 1993, 1996, and now in 2006, each time
ultimately failing.
Features of Israel's most recent attack reveal a military plan
similar to that used in the 1967 war to acquire the Golan Heights
from Syria. The massive bombing of Hezbollah positions along
the border was designed to weaken or destroy Hezbollah's ability
to resist Israel's coming ground attack. The bombing of population
centers and civilian infrastructure in this region was designed
to frighten and drive out most of the civilian population that
would support the guerrilla fighters. The mobilization of 30,000
reserve soldiers meant that Israel intended to invade and occupy
the region south of the Litani with sufficient ground troops
to drive out remaining civilians and isolate surviving Hezbollah
guerrilla fighters from support and resupply. Then those ground
troops would destroy all remaining isolated guerrillas, entirely
clearing the land between Israel's northern border and the Litani
River. Finally, fully replicating Israel's successful depopulation
and repopulation of the Golan Heights, Jewish settlers would
be brought in to secure Israeli control of the land and guard
against return of Lebanese villagers so Israel could ultimately
annex the region.
But Israeli bombing went much further than the region south of
the Litani. Israel also intensely bombed residential apartment
buildings, schools, power plants, bridges, roads, and hospitals
in most other parts of Lebanon, including in densely populated
Beirut.
The bombing of the civilians and the civilian infrastructure
south of the Litani succeed in driving out 3/4 million people,
nearly emptying that region. But Israel aroused world wide condemnation
for the part of its bombing campaign that focused on civilians,
particularly the seemingly gratuitous part of the bombing extending
far beyond the border region that seemed way out of proportion.
That civilian targeting could only be explained by an Israeli
goal that was far more sinister then Israel's stated goal of
retrieving its captured soldiers or driving Hezbollah from Israel's
northern border region. The devastating bombing of houses, apartment
buildings, power plants, fuel storage, roads, and bridges as
far away as Beirut, and the killing of over one thousand civilians,
was seen as intentionally directed toward civilians throughout
Lebanon. Its purpose appears to have been to demonstrate such
a level of ruthlessness as to discourage villagers from returning
to their homes in southern Lebanon once the expected UN cease
fire was finally imposed.
While the depopulation portion of its bombing in southern Lebanon
succeeded, Israel found that its first two weeks of bombing did
not dislodge Hezbollah rocket launchers or substantially weaken
Hezbollah's ability to resist the coming ground assault. Thus
Israel was forced to delay the ground offensive while extending
the bombing campaign. When Israel finally launched its big invasion
on August 11, intensely negative worldwide public opinion had
already forced the UN Security Council to impose a cease fire
and only three days remained before that cease fire took effect.
Despite the month of bombing Israel found that its tanks and
infantry met fierce resistance from Hezbollah which inflicted
heavy losses and kept most of the Israeli ground troops locked
in a region close to the border. Only by airlifting troops with
helicopters could Israel expand its presence to the region near
the Litani River but not in a sufficient numbers and not with
sufficient supplies and equipment to have any hope of both protecting
themselves from guerrillas and guarding the river to stop returning
civilians.
Perhaps it was the inspiring ability of Hezbollah to withstand
the bombing and continue to resist. Perhaps tens of thousands
of civilians just knew that if they hesitated after the cease
fire, like the Palestinians, they would become long term refugees.
Whatever the reason, despite the pulverizing bombardment for
33 days, amazingly the civilian population was not so shocked
and awed that they were immobilized. By the tens of thousands
a flood of Lebanese civilians boldly took to the roads in an
enormous act of civil disobedience to the occupying Israeli troops.
Hezbollah's well executed guerrilla strategy combined with the
massive display of civilian courage crushed all hopes for Israel
of getting any benefit at all from this war. The nearly solid
Israeli support for the war shattered immediately after the cease
fire began, and a powerful wave of criticism exploded, especially
among returning soldiers, many of whom announced refusal to remain
in the reserves. Extreme right wing factions called for resuming
the war with even more devastating strategies for dealing with
Lebanese civilians. For example, an editorial in the August 20
right wing Gamla newsletter states, "The IDF could have
crushed the resistance within days. It is true that instead of
600-800 civilian deaths, there would have been much more. But
when you have in your hands the very future of our people, you
cannot think about how things will 'look' or what they will say
to you in the mainstream media."
Stopping the next war, whether it is again directed at Lebanon
or whether it is directed against Syria or Iran, will require
a sustained world wide campaign calling on Israel to immediately
withdraw all its forces from Lebanon and abide by the cease fire.
Whether the next war can be prevented depends on the ability
of people all over the world to deny Israeli and US attempts
to find pretext to destroy the cease fire and resume or expand
the war. Because Israeli troops continue to occupy southern Lebanon
and blockade its ports and because elite Israeli commandos continue
military attacks in defiance of the cease fire resolution, Israel
provides ample grounds for building this worldwide campaign.
Lebanese civilians have already played a crucial role. Now its
up to the rest of us.
James Marc Leas is a patent lawyer in South Burlington,
Vermont. He is a member of the National Lawyers Guild and is
a board member of the Refuser Solidarity Network. He has long
been active with Jewish peace groups opposing the Israeli invasions
of Lebanon and occupation of Palestine. He can be reached at:
jolly39@juno.com
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