Withdrawing Israelis Leaving Behind a Dubious ‘Security Zone’ in South Lebanon

There’s not much here: a double-bar steel gate, a couple of sagging iron huts, one armored car and a few badly armed men. This, however, is Israel’s forward outpost against renewed Arab terrorism.

The roadblock at Kfar Houne is the northernmost point of the so-called security zone that Israel has established in Lebanon, a strip of land ranging from five to 15 miles wide just north of the border. There are five such checkpoints in the security zone, which runs from the Mediterranean Sea to the Syrian border about 70 miles to the east.

Israel set up the zone after it announced last January that it would end its three-year occupation of Lebanon. Israel invaded in 1982 for the declared purpose of clearing out Palestinian guerrillas and permanently ending their harassment of Israel’s northern border communities. Although Israeli forces went as far north as Beirut, constant resistance and heavy losses, causing major domestic opposition, forced withdrawal.

The security zone and its checkpoints are what are left of the invasion. They are manned for the most part by members of the South Lebanon Army, an Israeli-created and -supported militia force composed largely of poorly trained, ill-disciplined Christian Arabs who carry an assortment of guns and wear badly fitting uniforms, complete with basketball shoes.

Wishful Thinking

Interviews with Israeli officers, commanders of the South Lebanon Army and members of the U.N. peacekeeping forces in the area--made during a four-day tour of both sides of the security zone--indicate that Israel’s expressed hope of keeping the border strip under the control of its client militia may not be well-founded.

According to Israeli officers, the South Lebanon Army totals between 1,200 and 1,500 men, including home guards responsible for security in their local villages. They will replace several thousand Israeli troops whose withdrawal from Lebanon is almost complete and should be finished as early as this weekend.

And while Israel has said it would “maintain a presence” in the security zone, it is leaving little behind but a handful of training personnel, a few observers and members of the Shin Beit, a shadowy group of security agents who prowl the area in civilian clothes and unmarked cars.

Israeli officials say the South Lebanon Army will succeed in its assignment because it will be fighting for its home area, which contains a number of Christian villages, a motivation said to have been lacking in its admittedly poor performances in the past.

Only Logistics, Training

The Israelis say they will provide nothing more than logistical and training support to the Lebanese militia unless it is faced with overwhelming outside forces, such as Syrian troops.

The South Lebanon Army under Maj. Gen. Antoine Lahad, a former Lebanese army officer with a reputation as a political operative with no combat experience, faces a wide variety of forces who are driven by goals ranging from the destruction of Israel to the destruction only of the mostly Christian militia.

The most important of these is Amal, a Shia Muslim group that seeks control of all of southern Lebanon, including the security zone. It has wide support in the region.

Several Israeli officers and some foreign military experts say that the most that can be expected of the South Lebanon Army is that it may be able to hold a small enclave around the Christian city of Marjayoun and the nearby training camp of Majaidiye. There, according to Israeli trainers, the militia has about 40 World War II-vintage tanks, a handful of armored personnel carriers and about 300 reasonably well-trained men.

A question remains, though, about how well-trained the militiamen are.

Unimpressive Demonstration

Even in a demonstration this week for a caravan of Western reporters, the tank corps was not impressive. The vehicles lurched across the countryside, missing their targets badly and firing machine guns in order to save cannon ammunition.

The most embarrassing incident came when one tank commander, trying to rotate his turret, banged the cannon barrel into a structure holding the Israeli training officer commanding the exercise.

Still, the Israeli allies probably will not have to face a regular army, experts say, adding that the militiamen could hold out as long as they stay in their stronghold, a fortress-like compound scarred with bullet and shell holes.

As for the border strip itself, the Israelis seem to be depending far more on the threat of their own re-entry into Lebanon and the desire of most groups in southern Lebanon, Muslim and Christian alike, to avoid that.

So, even though Amal has vowed to destroy the South Lebanon Army, Israel appears pleased that Amal is for now battling the Palestine Liberation Organization in an effort to prevent the PLO from threatening the Israeli border.

Amal’s efforts seem particularly important because most of the Israeli security zone has never suffered extensively from terrorist infiltration. The greatest threat has come from rockets fired from positions well beyond it, in a region now under Amal control.

Deny Agreement but ...

Although both Amal and Israel deny reaching any agreement, tacit or otherwise, they seem anxious to prevent a confrontation. On Wednesday, Israel released 249 Lebanese who had been sent to prison for attacking Israelis during the occupation, and most of the freed men are Shias.

Even in the case of infiltration, Israel is depending far more on a sophisticated combination of sensors, electrified fences and heavily armed but fast-moving patrols, rather than on the South Lebanon Army, to keep terrorists from nearing the border.

Whatever its defensive hopes, Israel clearly is on the way out of Lebanon, at least for now. By late Wednesday, the roads in southern Lebanon were full of Israeli troop carriers and heavy trucks carrying tanks, armored vehicles and even mobile homes, all heading back to Israel.

Military and government officials refused to confirm a report by Israel radio that the Israeli troops were completely out of the western and southern sections of the security zone and that only a couple of thousand remained in the area nearest Syria. However, observation in the zone tended to support the assertion.

As the Israelis sped back across the border, they left behind at Kfar Houne about 15 South Lebanon Army soldiers. Two of them said they were 16 years old; six others were asleep under a fir tree.