Workers World June 8, 2000: Lebanon: How people's war defeated high-tech occupation

Email this article

------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the June 8, 2000 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------

LEBANON

How people's war defeated high-tech occupation

By Joyce Chediac

May 25, the day the last Israeli soldier was chased out of south Lebanon, is now called National Resistance Day.
The people of Lebanon remain jubilant over their important victory. This win belongs not just to the Lebanese but to all who fight racism, national oppression and injustice.
The Lebanese infliction of a Vietnam-like defeat on one of the most technologically sophisticated militaries in the world shows the potential of working people everywhere. It demonstrates that even in this period of worldwide reaction the struggle of workers and the oppressed is the fundamental determiner of history.
The oppressed people of Lebanon were victorious over their Israeli occupiers despite the collapse of the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union had given political, economic and military support to progressive governments and liberation struggles in the Middle East. And it served as a counterweight to U.S. imperialism in that strategic area.
Therefore this victory in Lebanon is a further testament to the power of an armed national-liberation movement rooted deep in the population.
Lebanon has a total population of only 3 million. There were never more than a few thousand Lebanese liberation fighters at most. Yet a people's army did what no bourgeois Arab army could.
Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah called this "the first glorious victory in 50 years of Arab-Israeli conflict."
The leading resistance organization Hezbollah, whose flags now fly over the south, gets the lion's share of the credit for the victory. But the media noted six groups involved in the armed resistance, including the Lebanese Syrian Socialist Party, Lebanese Communist Party and Amal. In addition there were many people carrying weapons who had no obvious affiliation.
Israel had expected to withdraw from Lebanon by July 7. That gave the Israelis time to prepare their puppet force, the South Lebanese Army, to occupy south Lebanon in its place and to reach an agreement with the Lebanese and Syrian governments.
Instead its puppets collapsed and the Lebanese resistance unilaterally drove out the Israeli military.
'Memories of Saigon'
According to the May 26 edition of the British magazine the Economist, the Israeli army left "with its tail between its legs. The troops pulled out in such a rush that the air force had to fly in and blow up all the equipment they left behind.
"Near Houla, villagers pointed out a tank left smoldering in the road. Its occupants, they claimed, had jumped out and fled the last few hundred meters to Israel on foot. Later, helicopter gunships bombed the vehicle to stop it falling into Hezbollah's hands."
No wonder analogies with the humiliating 1975 U.S. withdrawal from Saigon abounded in the Israeli press.
"Caught with our pants down," read a headline in the newspaper Yediot Aharonot. "A Day of Humiliation," announced another publication. "Memories of Saigon," said the newspaper Maariv.
Maariv columnist Hemi Shalev wrote, "Yesterday's images will be seared into Israelis' memories just as the picture of the last helicopter leaving the rooftop of the American embassy in Saigon has become part of the American collective memory."
A retreating Israeli soldier quoted by the Israeli-run state radio on May 25 said, "We are happy that we are alive." Another lamented the loss of a number of his comrades, saying, "They died in vain."
"Sitting on his tank, Omri Israel said fighting Hezbollah guerrillas had become an exercise in futility. 'You can't win a guerrilla war,'" he was quoted as saying in the May 25 New York Times.
And that is the whole point.
The most modern and sophisticated weapons in the Pentagon's arsenal proved useless against a people's war. The Lebanese resistance killed over 900 Israeli soldiers in its 22 years of struggle. This spurred an anti-war movement that resulted in 70 percent of Israelis supporting a withdrawal from Lebanon.
Especially heartened by this victory are the people of the Arab world who have suffered so much at the hands of U.S. imperialism and all of its proxies, especially Israel.
The Palestinians have most warmly received the Lebanese victory.
Palestine-info.net, the web site that summarizes the Palestinian press, published interviews of Palestinians in the street who "called on Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat to emulate Hezbollah in its determination and refuse to budge or cave in to Israeli insolence and arrogance of power. 'Hezbollah has taught us that a combination of unflinching faith, determined resistance and patience can pay off,' said Abdul Kader Hurub, a shopkeeper from Bethlehem. 'The way to recover usurped rights is not through secret talks or security coordination ... it is through resistance and patience,' he said."
Liberation at a walking pace
The May 26 edition of the Economist gives a picture of the truly mass character of the liberation:
"In the end, however, it was unarmed civilians who prompted the occupation's collapse. On May 21, a crowd of Shia Muslim protestors led a march to retake the village of Qantra, on the fringes of the occupied zone. The Israeli army had withdrawn from the nearest front-line fort a week before, leaving a Shia brigade of the SLA to cover their retreat.
"When the demonstration arrived beneath their position, they simply dropped their guns and gave themselves up to the Lebanese authorities. Emboldened, the protesters pressed on, walking unopposed into seven more villages and effectively cutting the occupation zone in half."
The article continued: "For two more days, the Israeli army and the remains of the SLA tried to hold back the surge, throwing up hasty barricades and shooting at people who came too close; seven were killed.
"But the Israelis had left too few troops in the enclave to bolster the faltering SLA. In the space of three days, over half of the SLA's 2,500 soldiers surrendered to the Lebanese army and Hezbollah, leaving the Israeli army exposed. Mr. Barak had no choice but to order an immediate pull-out," the article concluded.
The May 24 New York Times described the liberation as Hezbollah guerillas "trailed by a miles-long parade of supporters, including villagers returning to the south for the first time in two decades."
Other sources describe a liberation that was of such a mass character that it occurred at the walking pace of the population. Some 14 villages were liberated in two days as the huge crowds walked from village to village and entered unopposed.
Liberation of Khiam prison
In a May 25 article headlined "Israeli symbol falls to army of townfolk," the Wash ington Post described the liberation of the Khiam prison. The prison is known for being the site of the torture of Lebanese patriots and for holding people without trial.
"Thousands of local residents surrounded the prison, ordered the guards to leave and pried open locked cell doors with crowbars and saws and hammers," the Post reported.
The jail, now in the hands of Hezbollah, is the main tourist attraction in the south. A sign near the entrance reads, "Morning came, and there was no more prison."
No wonder the puppet South Lebanese Army melted away, many turning themselves in and others fleeing to Israel. In some instances Lebanese soldiers had to intervene to prevent furious villagers from slugging SLA members already under arrest.
The May 24 New York Times reported that "militia soldiers disappeared so quickly that they left tanks with their motors running and stoves with rice cooking on them."
Many of the SLA who had crossed into Israel did not speak highly of their former backers. Noted the May 25 Washington Post: "Charlie Younis, 32, a former lieutenant, said he would not remain in Israel. 'If I stay here I'll be treated all my life like a Palestinian,' he said. 'I'll have nothing. I could live anywhere, but not Israel.'"
Relation of forces changed
The Lebanon victory is part of a protracted struggle.
In the wake of its retreat, the Israeli government is threatening to bomb Syrian positions in Lebanon if Lebanese freedom fighters attack across its now highly exposed border.
Syria, which plays a duel role in Lebanon, has given important support to the Lebanese resistance.
Certainly Israel, which has the latest in Pentagon technology, can and may do just that. The relationship of forces, however, is not the same as it was a month ago.
Israel has suffered its first defeat and must consider a population with its own version of "Vietnam syndrome." Tel Aviv must also take into account a rise in anti-imperialist and anti-occupation sentiment in the entire Middle East, and an upsurge in Palestinian resistance further heartened by the Lebanese win.
The fight will continue. But one fact is indisputable--today south Lebanon belongs to the people.

This article is copyright under a Creative Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
Subscribe wwnews-subscribe@workersworld.net
Support independent news http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php)

HOME :: U.S. NEWS :: WORLD NEWS :: EDITORIALS :: SUBSCRIBE :: DONATE