Cease-fire shaky as Israelis raid Lebanon

This week after 34 days of intense bombing and massive Israeli destruction, tens of thousands of Lebanese refugees streamed south to rebuild their homes from the rubble. But the U.S.-brokered United Nations cease-fire of Aug. 14 that allows them to return is increasingly uncertain and near collapse.

In a new attack in the central Bekka Valley—far from the positions of the Israeli occupation troops in South Lebanon and in blatant disregard of the cease-fire—Israel staged a commando attack. The Israe lis were turned back by a local village unit of the well-organized Hezbollah Lebanese Islamic resistance.

The whole operation was a howling blunder, a complete rout for Israel’s most elite military unit, the Sayeret Matkal. This highly secretive unit is famous for its secret operations, comparable to a U.S. Delta unit.

Israeli Lt. Col. Emanuel Morano, the commander of the entire force of approximately 100 trained commandos, died in the attack. Another Israeli officer and a soldier were wounded.

Wearing Lebanese Army uniforms and shouting in Arabic, the Israeli commando unit drove in two military vehicles into the village of Boudai. There, a local guerrilla force repelled them fiercely. Its commander killed, the remains of the Israeli unit made a desperate call for help and had to be evacuated by helicopter, while Israeli aircraft bombed the Lebanese resistance and destroyed a bridge.

Boudai is near the historic ruins of Baalbek in the central Bekka Valley, far from the Israeli border. It is an area that has long been a center of resistance.

Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora called the Israeli attack a “flagrant violation” of the cease-fire. UN Secretary Gen eral Kofi Annan said he “was deeply concerned about a violation by the Israeli side of the cessation of hostilities.”

Lebanese Defense Minister Elias Murr said the raid showed to the whole world who was violating international resolutions. He also threatened to halt the deploy ment of Lebanese troops to southern Leba non if Israel carried out any more raids.

Israeli officials tried to justify the raids as “defensive actions” and claimed that there would be more such actions.

Cease-fire unravels

The United States and Israel are finding it difficult to accomplish with diplomacy what they utterly failed to do through the most brutal military measures. Their goal had been to divide Leb anon, ignite another civil war and disarm Hezbollah.

After the failed raid, the cease-fire that Washington had cobbled together with the aid of France continued to unravel.

On Aug. 20, the European powers that were to be the backbone of the cease-fire agreement delayed committing any substantial forces to the effort. No country believes that these “peacekeepers” could succeed in disarming Hezbollah if the Israeli Army could not do it in 34 days of bombing and an invasion. UN resolution 1701, the basis for the “peacekeepers,” includes the goal of disarming Hezbollah.

France was to command the UN force and provide 3,500 troops, but so far has committed only 200. On Aug. 21, Italy announced it would supply 2,000 troops and possibly lead the UN contingent. Within a day Italy’s Lower House Vice Pre sident Pierluigi Castagnetti declared, “Without France we cannot go to Lebanon … and in any case we have to wait for clari fication because the resolution 1701 is still ambiguous to some extent.” (AGI news, Aug. 22)

The UN agreement calls for 15,000 foreign troops. The Lebanese Army is to provide another 15,000 soldiers.

Israel has rejected forces from three Muslim countries that have committed troops—Malaysia, Indonesia and Bangla desh. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert declared that any country that did not recognize and have diplomatic relations with Israel could not participate.

Minefields pock the land

Many thousands of tiny cluster bombs dropped by the Israeli military have turned homes, schools, hospitals, streets, farmland and orchards into minefields.

Most of the cluster bombs used in Lebanon release 88 small bomblets per shell in midair, and spread them over a wide area. They are powerful enough to penetrate heavy armor.

Up to 40 percent of the bomblets fail to explode on contact. Lebanon’s reconstruction work is complicated by the thousands of unexploded bomblets packed with tiny razor-sharp slivers littering the ground. Disturbed by a breeze or a touch, they can explode.

They are inside bombed homes, in front of a major hospital in Tibnin, in tree branches, in cars, on main streets and buried in fields.

Expert mine clean-up crews need 15 to 30 minutes to safely detonate each one of these shiny silver canisters, which are no bigger than a flashlight battery and especially attractive to children. The rate of injur ies, especially among children, is rising.

Officials fear the civilian toll could eventually stretch into the thousands—far higher than the number of those who died in last month’s Israeli bombing.

“We already had a major land mine pro blem from previous Israeli invasions, but this is far worse,” said Chris Clark of the United Nations Mine Action Coordi nation Centre in Tyre, standing before a map filled with flags indicating bomb sites. UN High Commission for Refugees teams are finding unexploded ordnance a major problem even north of the Litani River. Farmers cannot return to their fields before unexploded munitions are removed.

A decades-old campaign to ban these weapons has failed. The United States is the world’s biggest manufacturer of cluster bombs. According to the Aug. 19 New York Times, U.S. contractors supplied these bombs to Israel.

Meanwhile, the death toll from the 34 days of bombing continues to rise.

In Srifa, a village east of Tyre, rescue workers pulled another 32 bodies from the rubble, said Mayor Afif Najdeh. Air strikes had flattened 15 houses in the village on July 19.

Municipal authorities in Tyre expected to bury more than 120 war victims in a mass grave on Aug. 24.

Returning refugees who once again witness the devastation of their towns and villages along the south Lebanon border report feelings of pain and loss tinged with a glow of victory. This time, despite the heaviest bombardment ever, Israel was unable to hold even a single village within Lebanon.

Israeli blockade continues

Despite the cease-fire, thousands of Israeli troops still patrol South Lebanon. The Israeli military continues to blockade the country, requiring ships to get Israeli approval before docking in Lebanese ports, and allowing flights only between Beirut and Amman, Jordan. According to a Aug. 21 Associated Press report, Leba nese officials are increasing demands to end the Israeli air and sea blockade.

A cabinet minister representing Hezbollah said the Lebanese government may ask ships and aircraft to travel to Lebanon without prior approval from Israel. He said that anything less than complete freedom of movement is a violation of Lebanese sovereignty. Lebanon’s foreign minister also called on the international community to end the blockade.

The state vs.
a people’s organization

Fadel al-Shalaq, head of the Lebanese Council for Development and Reconstruc tion, told CNN on Aug. 21 that the recent conflict was “probably the most intense” in terms of firepower and devastation since the start of the Lebanese civil war in 1975.

He said that Lebanon needs about $3.5 billion to repair buildings and infrastructure damaged during the bombing. Civilian sectors such as housing, transport, communications and water treatment were among the hardest hit.

Al-Shalaq said that financing the reconstruction effort is not the major problem. Lebanon has received substantial commitments in aid from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and an Arab fund. He said that the government lacks a plan, “and I think what we have is lack of leadership.”

Decades of French and U.S. interventions and Israeli invasions, bombings, occupations and the resulting civil wars have left the Lebanese government a barely functioning coalition of religious blocs.

In contrast to the government, Hez bollah was quick to offer immediate aid and to begin the clearing of rubble and reconstruction work. Hezbollah is able to work with the UN and international relief efforts in distributing tarpaulins, plastic and metal roofing, and in providing emergency food and water, fuel stations and medical centers.

While continuing to be on guard against Israeli raids, the resistance organi zation has taken on organizing the national relief mobilization.

In a televised speech just after the Aug. 14 cease-fire, Hezbollah Secretary General Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah pledged to help rebuild Lebanon. He said Hezbollah would provide money for civilians who had lost their homes to pay rent and buy furniture, some $12,000 to each claimant.

Hundreds of residents of the southern suburbs of Beirut turned out at makeshift registration centers two days later to sign up for the financial aid, which was immediately distributed in crisp $100 bills handed out by Hezbollah members. Peo ple were also called by phone to come and collect their financial assistance.

Hezbollah’s international standing has soared, based on its ability to organize the population for both resistance and for reconstruction.

Solidarity

Internationally, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s defiant trip to Iran at the height of the Israeli bombing, his embrace of Iranian President Ahmanajad, and Vene zuela’s call for the withdrawal of Israel’s ambassador aroused millions of people to the potential of international solidarity.

Iran also showed this solidarity by sending assistance to the resistance and stating, as Israeli bombs reached the bridges on the Syrian border, that any attack on Syria would be considered a strike against Iran. This also played a role in the Lebanese united victory.

Secretary General Khalid Kadadh of the Lebanese Communist Party, a participant in the united resistance, called Hasan Nasrallah “our Arab Che Guevara with a turban” and described Hezbollah as “the party of the downtrodden and oppressed and the vanguard of the resistance.” Such statements have helped unify the secular and the religious resistance to imperialist aggression.

The wheels of history turn. But history does not just endlessly repeat itself. It moves forward. This is Israel’s fifth invasion of Lebanon. This time unity and solidarity, organized resistance and mobilized solidarity moved the struggle forward, and have created a new mood throughout the region.