Visitors or Conquerors?

By Marguerite Johnson

The motives of Israel's forces in Lebanon remain unclear

Along the coastal highway north of the Israeli border, road signs in Hebrew point the way to Beirut, Nabatiyah, Sidon and other cities. Israeli military policemen with red armbands and white helmets direct traffic at key intersections, and the road has been newly blacktopped to speed the transport of Israeli men and materiel. As the highway approaches Beirut, it passes several large encampments of Israeli soldiers.

Israel's invasion of Lebanon has evoked fears that Israeli troops have come to stay, just as they did in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which Israel has occupied since 1967. The Lebanese note that although Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin declared shortly after the invasion of Lebanon last June that Israel did not want any Lebanese territory, Jerusalem has insisted that a 25-mile-wide strip inside the Lebanese border be subject to international guarantees under a multinational force. To complicate matters, the Israelis have said that they will not leave until the estimated 30,000 Syrian troops that are based in the Bekaa Valley withdraw from Lebanon. The Israelis have strongly hinted that if negotiation fails they will force the Syrians' withdrawal by military means.

Yet, except for directing traffic and moving military equipment, the Israelis have tried to keep a relatively low profile in Lebanon. The groups of Israeli soldiers that wandered around East Beirut in mid-June like so many gawking tourists are now mostly out of sight. Israeli troops are permitted to buy only soft drinks, candy and cigarettes from street stores and vendors. Fraternization with the Lebanese is prohibited, and Israelis are barred from the restaurants and cafes of East Beirut and Jounieh, a few miles to the north. The army authorities have also warned Israeli soldiers to avoid Lebanon's plentiful supply of hashish.

As a rule, the Israelis have left municipal governments alone. Says Ibrahim Adnan, underprefect of the Nabatiyah region: "Frankly, the Israeli troops don't interfere at all in our affairs." But that, to some Lebanese, is precisely the problem. A Lebanese police officer who has not received a paycheck from Beirut since the invasion complains bitterly that the Israelis are not doing enough to restore order. Says an Israeli officer: "We had to find a way not to be a military government, but at the same time to get things done."

Israel's most pressing problem in southern Lebanon is that of the displaced Palestinian refugees. United Nations officials estimate the number of homeless at 80,000, many of them women and children who are encamped in schools and public buildings. (More than 7,000 Palestinian males are being detained as P.L.O. suspects at Ansar, a village near Sidon.) Israeli forces have denied Palestinians permission to return to the camps that were once their homes, though last week Jerusalem finally relented and agreed to let the U.N. bring in 11,000 tents for hous ing before the October rains begin. Ultimately, however, the Israelis would like the camps to disappear, and for the 150,000 to 200,000 Palestinians presently living in southern Lebanon to be resettled in other Arab countries or in other parts of Lebanon. Says a senior foreign ministry official in Jerusalem: "If we once more rebuild the squalid camps, they will become spawning grounds for terrorism."

Many Lebanese react nonchalantly to the Israeli presence. They fondly recite the long list of foreign armies that have conquered and occupied Lebanon over the past 3,000 years. The history lesson is usually given with a wry smile and a knowing look, as if to say that armies have come and gone but Lebanon has always prospered. The newest occupiers are judged in comparison with their predecessors, a distinct advantage. The Syrians, who have been in Lebanon since 1976 as the main component of an Arab Deterrent Force, are generally disliked because of their heavyhandedness. Similarly, many Lebanese will not regret the departure of the P.L.O., which has run sizable parts of the south as a state within a state.

Still, Lebanese officials are becoming increasingly concerned about Israel's economic intentions. Despite its fratricidal troubles, Lebanon has had a relatively healthy free-market economy. The Lebanese pound can be freely exchanged for Western currencies, inflation has been running at a relatively modest 23%, and in 1981 Lebanon had a balance of payments surplus of $1.2 billion. In contrast, the Israeli economy is controlled, the shekel is not readily convertible, and Israeli inflation is in triple digits.

The Israelis are profiting from some ventures in Lebanon. Near the military headquarters in Sidon, for example, they have set up an El Al airline office. Every day, between 50 and 150 Lebanese buy tickets from Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport to distant parts of the globe. With the cooperation of the Israeli authorities, several travel agencies in Sidon are also doing a brisk business operating one-week tours of Israel at $200 a head. A senior Lebanese official last week charged that the Israelis had looted Beirut International Airport, emptied its duty-free shops and even confiscated the big reservations computer of Lebanon's Middle East Airlines. Warns a Christian shopkeeper: "If the Israelis remain after the war, they will have no friends here."

Between Metullah in northern Israel and Nabatiyah in southern Lebanon, a winding road passes through two P.L.O. minefields. The Israelis have made no attempt to clean out the mines, a tedious and risky job that they would have to take on if they stayed. The Israelis are apt to find that Lebanon itself is a political minefield that poses ever greater dangers with each passing day.

--By Marguerite Johnson.

Reported by David Aikman/ Jerusalem and Roberto Sum/ Beirut

With reporting by DAVID AIKMAN, Roberto Sum

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