A Violent War of Nerves

By Marguerite Johnson

Dangerous and demoralizing days for Israeli forces in Lebanon

"It is hostile country, and death lurks in every corner and behind every door. You can see the hatred. You can feel it."

--An Israeli officer in Lebanon

It was a bright and seemingly placid Sunday morning. A two-vehicle Israeli patrol was traveling along a winding road in the barren foothills of the Chouf mountains southeast of Beirut. As the troops rounded a sharp curve, they passed a white Mercedes parked by the side of the road. Suddenly four men in the car jumped out and sprayed the patrol with automatic-weapons fire. Two of the soldiers were killed instantly and three others wounded. The attackers escaped.

That brazen daylight attack on Israeli forces last week underscored the urgency behind Prime Minister Menachem Begin's pledge to the Knesset, delivered three days later, "to bring our sons home from Lebanon." It also drove home a harder truth to the Israeli public: one year after the Israeli invasion that was launched with the intention of transforming Lebanon into a friendly neighbor whose soil would never again be used as a base for attacks against Israel, Israeli forces in Lebanon have become bogged down in an increasingly violent war of nerves. Three days after the Chouf ambush, an Israeli convoy was fired upon from a passing car, this time on a main street on the outskirts of East Beirut. Said an Israeli officer in southern Lebanon: "A certain increase of terrorist activities was noticed right after the ratification of the Israeli-Lebanese agreement. Now they shoot at anything that looks Israeli."

In the past month alone, seven Israeli soldiers have been killed and 60 wounded in 33 guerrilla attacks. The new casualties bring to 490 the number of Israelis killed and to 2,700 those injured since the invasion on June 6, 1982. Many of the attacks are believed to have been launched by Palestine Liberation Organization guerrillas who slipped into Israeli areas from bases in the Syrian-controlled part of Lebanon or from hiding places in West Beirut. But a variety of Lebanese groups are also sniping at the Israelis. The Lebanese National Resistance Front, an underground organization composed of leftists sympathetic to the P.L.O., claimed responsibility last week for the Chouf ambush. In the far south, near the Israeli border, pro-Iranian Shi'ite militiamen have carried out repeated attacks against Israeli forces.

In one of the tightest security sweeps since the invasion, members of the Israeli Defense Forces responded with intensive postmidnight house-to-house searches in the southern Lebanese cities of Sidon, Tyre and Nabatiyeh. At least 100 people were arrested. Checkpoints along the coastal highway were the scene of huge traffic jams throughout the week as Israeli soldiers searched all vehicles. Even so, one bomb was set off near an Israeli outpost south of Sidon, wounding a soldier, and a rocket-propelled grenade was fired at an Israeli truck on the highway. Reflecting the jittery atmosphere, an Israeli colonel in Sidon pointed at an open window and barked at a visitor: "Either put on a bulletproof vest or stay away from that window!"

Even before the recent spate of attacks, Israeli forces were under strict orders not to frequent local shops or cafes. Based in camps that are located outside the major cities and ringed by barbed wire, sand embankments and manned machine-gun positions, they are rarely seen on city streets. Not surprisingly, duty in Lebanon, which usually consists of a 35-to 45-day tour, is not popular, and some soldiers have refused to serve. They have been court-martialed and sentenced to jail for the equivalent of a tour of duty. When a group of reservists shared a plane with an Israeli delegation traveling to withdrawal negotiations, they made no secret of their views. Said one of the diplomats: "Not one soldier hesitated to tell us to 'sign a treaty and get us out.' "

Israel's hopes of making friends among the Lebanese, particularly in the south, seem never to have been translated into a coherent policy. Although many Lebanese initially welcomed the invasion as an antidote to the heavyhanded P.L.O. presence, the Israelis proved incapable of building a lasting relationship. They bypassed traditional village leaders and armed young men whom they tried to use as informants and enforcers. The exercise backfired. Charging that the Israelis were exacerbating divisions among the Lebanese, Sheik Mohammed Chamseddin, spiritual leader of the Shi'ite community, the largest sectarian group in the south, decreed collaboration with the Israelis a sacrilege. "The Israelis' approach to developing allies in Lebanon has been haphazard at best," notes a senior European diplomat in Beirut. Says a Lebanese government official: "The Israelis have a great deal of information about Lebanon but very little understanding."

The Israelis have also become embroiled in conflicts among Lebanon's many armed militias and religious groups. Troops stationed in the Chouf have found themselves caught in the middle between the warring Druze and Christian militias. Explains Colonel Sammi Muzafi, an Israeli officer in Sidon: "Whenever a foreign force has penetrated Lebanon, the fragile fabric of coexistence has been torn. This violates the internal balance that holds the country together." The one promising area for Israeli-Lebanese cooperation seems to be trade, which has been booming along at the rate of nearly $2 million a month since Begin unilaterally opened his country's border with Lebanon last November. Even so, the Lebanese would no doubt prefer to do business with Israel as a neighbor rather than as an occupying force.

--By Marguerite Johnson. Reported by David Halevy/Jerusalem and Roberto Suro/Beirut

With reporting by David Halevy, Roberto Suro This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.