Israel Pullout Pledge Fuels Lebanon Peace Hopes

It was high noon in this southern Lebanese town, and not a day for the squeamish.

There was a cloying smell of blood in the air, and, periodically, phalanxes of young men, hundreds in all, marched through the streets rhythmically slapping their brows with the palms of their hands or with knives, until blood matted their hair, streamed down their faces and dripped onto the red-flecked pavement.

Although the practice is officially discouraged, some Shiite Muslim believers consider it a sign of devotion to beat oneself in this way on Ashura, the religious holiday that recalls the martyrdom of the Imam Hussein. The grandson of the prophet Muhammad was slain in a doomed battle against a rival Muslim force more than 1,300 years ago.

For many Shiites in this part of Lebanon, Hussein’s struggle against impossible odds has a modern-day parallel in the Hezbollah resistance movement’s long guerrilla war to oust Israel from Lebanon.

But now that Israel has promised to pull out of southern Lebanon by early July, the dominant mood here is not fanaticism but a cautious hope that the tit-for-tat battles between the Hezbollah-led Lebanese resistance and the Israeli Defense Forces might be coming to an end.

Most people interviewed in Nabatiyeh on Saturday said that if Israel does what it has promised--makes a full, unconditional withdrawal from Lebanese territory--they see no reason why Lebanese forces should go on fighting the Israelis.

“I hope Israel goes out, because we need only one thing--peace,” said a woman who gave her name as Eman.

The 23-year-old schoolteacher, watching an outdoor pageant reenacting Hussein’s defeat, said that, after an Israeli departure, “everything will be all right, in all ways. There will be development economically and socially, in schools and agriculture and other areas.”

The Israeli presence in Lebanon dates from 1978, and since 1985, the Jewish state has maintained a 9-mile-deep, self-styled “security zone” in the south and southeast of the country with the stated aim of protecting Israel’s northern towns and villages from cross-border attacks.

But with the Israeli public tired of the costly war of attrition against Hezbollah, the government of Prime Minister Ehud Barak last month committed itself to pulling out by early July.

That, however, has left open a crucial question: whether the Hezbollah guerrillas will then cease fighting or instead continue the conflict and try to expand it into Israel itself.

So far, Hezbollah’s leaders have given vague and contradictory signals about what they intend to do. But on the ground in Nabatiyeh, a town that is situated just beneath Israeli gun positions and has borne the brunt of many Israeli attacks over the years, people appear to favor putting a lid on further conflict if the Israelis leave.

“If Israel hangs on to even one meter of Lebanese land, Hezbollah will keep fighting,” said 40-year-old butcher Mahmoud Hala, attending the Ashura ceremony with his three sons. “But if Israel goes out all the way, that will end it.”

Asked if the Lebanese should continue to fight Israel--even after a withdrawal--to aid the Palestinian cause, 25-year-old Ibrahim Kdouh, an economics student, said that his opinion was no--that each group is responsible for solving its own problems with Israel.

“We remember Hussein, and Hussein has a message for us,” Hala said. “Hussein fights not because he wants to fight. He fights for his beliefs. It’s the same as our position now with the forces of Israel.”

Still, there was widespread skepticism in Nabatiyeh that Israel will withdraw fully.

“Nobody believes it,” said Abdul Hussein Noureddine, 42, a restaurant owner. “Israel has said many times before that it was leaving, but it never has.”

Speaking to an Ashura rally in Beirut, the capital, Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah again was less than clear about what Hezbollah--whose name means Party of God--will do if and when the Israelis pull out.

Addressing tens of thousands of supporters in Beirut’s mainly Shiite southern suburbs, Nasrallah underlined that more than territorial issues are at stake in Lebanon’s dispute with Israel.

He cited the issue of the Lebanese prisoners being held by Israel and its proxy militia, the South Lebanon Army, or SLA.

He said Israel must address the question of reparations for damage it has caused with its attacks in Lebanon since 1978, and he said there also must be a solution to the plight of the more than 300,000 Palestinians in Lebanon, some of whom have been here since 1948.

“As Lebanese, we have a group of problems with this enemy, and the withdrawal would only solve the occupation component,” Nasrallah told the crowd. But he stopped short of saying Hezbollah would fight with Israel over those other issues.

The toughest language in Nasrallah’s speech was reserved for the SLA, a mostly Christian militia paid for and armed by Israel to help safeguard the occupied zone. Nasrallah said the group must withdraw along with the Israelis.

“They can either leave with the enemy, give up to the Lebanese judiciary or be killed,” he warned.