Israel Turns to Lebanese Christians : Again Considers Security Links to Protect North Border

Three years after a vision of alliance with a Christian-ruled Lebanon lured it ever deeper into a disastrous war here, Israel is again weighing special ties to the Lebanese Christian minority as part of new security arrangements to protect its northern border.

A highly sensitive internal debate on the question coincides with Israel’s continuing military withdrawal from Lebanon and follows a period of deep disillusionment with the Lebanese Christians during which Jerusalem tried belatedly and unsuccessfully to forge new ties with the Shia Muslim majority in southern Lebanon.

The key issue is how far Israel should go in backing the Christians’ plans to link their enclave just north of the Israeli border with the string of Christian towns and villages that extend from Jezzine west to the outskirts of Sidon. The Israeli army, which invaded Lebanon in June, 1982, is to pull out of the so-called Jezzine Bulge as part of the second stage, now under way, of a planned three-stage withdrawal from Lebanon.

Antagonizing the Muslims

Strengthening the Christians’ hand, some Israelis say, would reinforce the barrier they represent against threats to Israel’s northern border from hostile Shias and Palestinians. Others warn that special guarantees to the Christians would further antagonize the Muslim villages that separate the two Christian sectors and could draw Israel back into Lebanon if its withdrawal leads to another round of factional fighting here.

Israeli officials emphasize that military and political decisions on post-withdrawal security arrangements are still under discussion.

“There is no final decision on anything yet,” a senior government official said.

It is clear, too, that there is strong opposition in the government to any new flirtation with the Christians.

“You have to understand how distasteful we find the (Lebanese) Christians in general, how much we dislike them,” said Yossi Olmert, an expert on Lebanon at Tel Aviv University and a frequent adviser to the government. “We don’t trust them.”

Still, there are numerous signs in the Christian areas of southern Lebanon that Israel is keeping its options open.

Informed sources said the Israelis have supplied the Christians here with more arms in recent months. An important Christian leader in the area said he expects Israel to support a plan to secure Christian strongholds far north of what Jerusalem had previously indicated would be its security zone in the region.

Will Keep Close Watch

The Israelis have made clear that, even after they complete their withdrawal, they will keep a close watch on southern Lebanon and will not hesitate to strike at any forces there that constitute a threat to northern Israel.

The Israeli military recently took the unusual step of arranging for four Jerusalem-based Western reporters to travel here to meet with Nazar Nazarian, regional commander of the Lebanese Forces, the organization of Christian militias that was put together by the late Lebanese leader Bashir Gemayel as the military arm of his Falangist Party. Ordinarily, Jerusalem-based journalists may cross into southern Lebanon only when escorted by Israeli military or U.N. West of Jezzine, near the village of Roum, a sign in Hebrew, Arabic and French advised: “Stop! Frontier Ahead.” This is supposed to be the current limit of the Israeli occupation zone, although, a little farther along the road, an Israeli colonel was seen supervising another South Lebanon Army checkpoint.

Nazarian spoke to the reporters at his command post on the outskirts of Sidon, where the Christian forces are fighting a combination of Lebanese army units, Palestinian refugees and Muslim militias.

Expecting Israeli Help

He said the post-Israeli withdrawal plan is for the South Lebanon Army to secure the Christian corridor from the Israeli border to Kfar Falous, about halfway between Sidon and Jezzine. Local Christians, aided by a handful of Lebanese Forces officers like him, will defend the Christian villages between Kfar Falous and Sidon, he said.

“We don’t know if (the Israelis) will come back,” Nazarian said, “but, in general, we know the SLA is backed by the Israelis, and if the SLA has trouble, we expect the Israelis will help.”

He said relations between the Lebanese Forces and the South Lebanon Army are good.

The Lebanese Forces chief of staff, Samir Geagea, is in revolt against Lebanon’s Christian president, Amin Gemayel, and the Falangist political leadership over the government’s pro-Syrian orientation. Nazarian, who said he backs Geagea, has called openly for a new agreement with Israel to replace the May 17, 1983, accord that Gemayel abrogated under Syrian pressure.

Israeli officials have bitterly criticized Gemayel, but they insist that Israel has nothing to do with the Geagea revolt or with the fighting around Sidon, which the combined Muslim and Palestinian forces say is part of an Israeli plot to drive them out of the south in favor of the Christians.

Despite having some interests in common with the Christians, many Israelis feel betrayed by what they consider the half-hearted support the Falangists gave them after the 1982 invasion, whose aim was driving Palestinian guerrillas from southern Lebanon and, in part, securing Christian rule throughout the country.

As the Israelis sank ever deeper into the Lebanese political and military quicksand, they tried belatedly to improve their relations with the Shia Muslim majority, which had initially welcomed the invasion because it freed them from Palestinian occupation.

According to Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin, the Israeli effort included an offer to the primary Shia political and military organization, Amal, “to give them the whole of south Lebanon on condition they promised that no attacks on our settlements and our territory were carried out.” However, Amal refused to discuss any deal until after the Israeli army leaves Lebanon, Rabin told an Israel television interviewer.

Israel also tried to turn the Christian-dominated South Lebanon Army into a more representative, multi-factional force. That effort has stalled under a recent wave of defections by Muslims that coincides with Israel’s “iron fist” policy of reprisal raids against Shia villages for attacks on Israeli occupation troops.

Given the failure of their efforts to come to some understanding with the Shias, a tilt by the Israelis back toward the Lebanese Christians may seem like the best of some bad alternatives.

But to some Israelis, like Zeev Shiff, a military journalist and co-author of a best-selling book highly critical of the Lebanon war, any commitment by Israel to help defend a Christian corridor up to Jezzine threatens to bring Israel full-circle.

“They are excellent at dragging us into the morass there,” he said.