Israeli-Backed Militia to Vacate Enclave

In a trial run for Israel’s eventual withdrawal from southern Lebanon, an Israeli-backed militia announced Monday that it is vacating a strategic enclave there it has held for 14 years.

The pullback by the South Lebanon Army, or SLA, Israel’s proxy in the region, will leave the mostly Christian Jezzine pocket open for takeover by Lebanese forces--or by Islamic Hezbollah guerrillas who are waging a war of attrition against Israel. Israeli officials are watching closely to see which scenario unfolds.

Antoine Lahad, the 70-year-old former Lebanese general who commands the SLA, said his militiamen--reeling from casualties and suffering from devastated morale--will begin abandoning Jezzine today because it has become too dangerous. They expect to complete the operation within two weeks, he said; already, SLA forces have reportedly pulled out of some posts, removed weapons and dismantled fortifications.

In Jerusalem, Israel’s defense minister, Moshe Arens, demanded that Lebanon--and its master, Syria--step in to protect the people of Jezzine.

“I hope the Syrians will tell the Lebanese army to enter the region, guarantee the security of its citizens and prevent acts of revenge,” Arens said. “If the Lebanese enter [Jezzine] and prevent Hezbollah from taking over the area, it’s a good sign for the future.”

Israel’s incoming prime minister, Ehud Barak, has repeatedly promised to end Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon; what happens in Jezzine is likely to shape Barak’s course of action.

Lahad announced the start of the humiliating Jezzine retreat at a news conference in Marjayoun, a Lebanese city in the so-called security zone that Israel has occupied since 1985 along Lebanon’s southern border. Jezzine is a mountainous salient that lies outside the zone, to the north, but is under SLA control.

Lahad said SLA militiamen are leaving because they can no longer staunch the “slow death” of the enclave, which is home to barely a tenth of its 1985 population of 40,000. He called on Lebanese forces to occupy the positions his troops vacate and to guard the residents of Jezzine from retaliation by Hezbollah forces or others who consider the SLA and its followers to be collaborators with Israel.

“Our decision to [withdraw] places the Lebanese state before the hour of truth,” Lahad said.

Although it is unclear how Hezbollah will react to the pullout from Jezzine, Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah over the weekend urged SLA militiamen to turn themselves in to Lebanese authorities. And Lebanon, while offering reassurances to Jezzine residents, does not want to do anything that would appear to accommodate Israel’s security concerns.

The 2,000-strong SLA, which was formed and financed by Israel, has fallen victim to an increasingly efficient Hezbollah that is fighting to oust Israel from southern Lebanon.

Israel first occupied Lebanon more than 20 years ago and then established the 9-mile-deep “security zone” in 1985 to protect its northern border communities. Today, southern Lebanon is Israel’s last active war front. Israeli warplanes routinely strafe suspected Hezbollah positions in the area--as they did again Sunday--and Hezbollah attacks with artillery and roadside bombs.

On Monday, an Irish soldier serving with United Nations forces who monitor the border was killed and two others were wounded by mortar fire. A U.N. spokesman blamed the shelling on the SLA, firing apparently in response to an earlier Hezbollah attack.

Barak, elected May 17 and working to form a government, is interested in reviving peace talks with Syria as part of a security deal that would allow Israel to withdraw from Lebanon. Syria, however, is demanding that Israel withdraw unconditionally and return to Syria the Golan Heights, which Israel captured in the 1967 Six-Day War.