What's Peace Got to Do With It

By Bruce W. Nelan

There is something both frightening and familiar when the guns begin to boom in the Middle East. Was this the start of another Israeli invasion? The end of the peace talks -- again? Israel, which launched the brutal assault in southern Lebanon -- in retaliation, of course, for ambushes on Israeli occupation troops there and rocket attacks on northern Israel -- insisted it was none of the above. Just Operation Accountability, intended to make the guerrillas of Hizballah and Ahmad Jibril's Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine -- General Command cut it out.

So why were 300,000 Lebanese civilians fleeing for their lives? After five days of nonstop bombardment, army Colonel Ali Fawaz, who administers a small ( hospital in Tibnin, a Lebanese village just 7 1/2 miles from the Israeli border, was bleary-eyed but still clearheaded. "The Syrians and Iranians," he explained, "are fighting a war against the Israelis here in southern Lebanon. The Lebanese pay . . . pay . . . pay." As he spoke, high-explosive shells shook the walls of the hospital. "We Arabs say the strong always devour the weak," he shouted above the din. "Lebanon is the weakest country in the Middle East."

In spite of the dizzying roar of gunfire, Fawaz seemed to have it right. Israel was theoretically blazing away not at the Lebanese nation but at the guerrilla groups supplied and paid by Iran and assisted by Syria. Those groups have been engaged in a long-running low-grade war with Israeli occupation troops in southern Lebanon and have attacked Israel from wadis in the area. Israeli-government spokesmen claimed that their forces were counterattacking them with great precision, targeting guerrilla bases and homes, offices and training centers. In fact, Israel was pounding the country with a blunt and heavy instrument, reducing much of southern Lebanon to rubble. The onslaught was so fierce and went on so long that the U.S. and key Arab states wondered uneasily if the resumption of Middle East peace talks might yet be in peril.

Those talks are supposed to resume in late August, if Secretary of State Warren Christopher can nudge the players from their deadlock when he visits the region this week. That prospect provided the background for the seven-day barrage. Both guerrilla groups targeted by the Israelis -- Hizballah and Ahmad Jibril's Popular Front -- are dedicated to the destruction of Israel and violently oppose the peace process that began 21 months ago.

Before each round of talks, the fireworks in southern Lebanon have tended to pick up. But this time, Israel decided, the gunplay had gone too far. In the course of only two weeks, Hizballah and Palestinian fighters killed seven Israeli soldiers in attacks in the self-proclaimed "security zone" that Israel occupies in southern Lebanon. In recent months Hizballah launched Katyusha rockets into Israel proper and generally stepped up its operations. The group has got much better at what it does, more energetic and more professional. Israeli intelligence says the guerrillas have acquired improved armaments, including Russian Sagger antitank missiles. They have learned to coordinate several feints to mask a swoop on their real target. "They are now more sophisticated in their modus operandi," said a senior Israeli officer.

The Hizballah offensive was intended as a provocation -- and Israel allowed itself to be provoked. Jerusalem's response began early on July 25, when air force fighter-bombers ranged across southern and eastern Lebanon, rocketing villages, guerrilla training centers and suspected bases. Helicopter gunships hovered low over the area north of the security zone, blasting buildings. Heavy artillery fired thousands of shells into towns in the same area, while gunboats bombarded the coastal cities of Sidon and Tyre. Hizballah replied with hundreds of the inaccurate Katyushas, which are lofted blindly toward the border, killing two Israelis and sending 100,000 residents of northern settlements scurrying into shelters.

In a week Israel fired tens of thousands of artillery rounds and missiles at almost 100 towns and villages. More than 100 Lebanese were killed and 500 wounded, but fewer than 10 of the dead were confirmed to be guerrillas. At an Israeli artillery emplacement in the security zone, a gunner fired off scores of shells, then stopped. "Are you finished?" a reporter inquired. "No," the soldier replied, "the village is."

On Thursday and Friday, Israeli infantry and tank units moved into the security zone, but Foreign Minister Shimon Peres told correspondents no ground attack was coming. "This is not a war," he insisted. The assault "has limited purposes, and the minute Hizballah stops shelling the north of Israel, the operation will be over." As the week wore on, that proposition looked less and less simple. Certainly Israel wanted to teach Hizballah a lesson, but decision makers were aware that they could not crush the guerrillas with missiles and shells. The Katyusha is equally difficult to stop. "It's so easy to launch," says a U.N. official. "You put a motorcycle battery on it, attach a $10 Mickey Mouse watch and go home. It'll go off."

So the Israeli objective was broader: to flood Beirut with refugees who would put pressure on Lebanon and its overlord Syria -- which keeps 40,000 troops in the country -- to clamp down on Hizballah. Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin publicly declared that his plan was to drive Lebanese from their villages in the south and push the refugees north. Rabin's ultimate audience was Damascus. "If the Syrians want Hizballah to stop," said an army spokesman, "then nobody will so much as cough up there."

Far more than the fighting, the calculated use of suffering refugees set off protests around the world. The longer the bombardment went on, the louder the criticism of Israel grew. But Washington had a more immediate reason for pressing Jerusalem to desist and appealing to Syrian President Hafez Assad to restrain Hizballah. Christopher was still due to arrive in the Middle East this week, and he wanted, his spokesman said, "to focus on the peace process." He did not want to find his efforts sidetracked into a cease-fire negotiation.

From Washington, Christopher worked the phones, calling Lebanese, Syrian and Iranian officials, and apparently proved persuasive. On Saturday a gathering of the Arab League in Damascus promised that Hizballah would cease firing Katyushas into Israel -- the minimum required to placate Jerusalem. Plainly, it was Syria's role that counted. "Anyone can break an agreement," said Israel's Peres, "but our experience is that the Syrians keep theirs." At 6 p.m. Saturday the guns were silenced, but the setback to Lebanon's fragile recovery from years of civil war will take many months to repair.

The Arabs had naturally protested Israel's fierce and prolonged response, but they recognized that it was a response, to attacks that were intended to disrupt the talks. The mutual interest of Arabs and Israelis in that peace process helped bring the fighting to an end; the existence of a framework for regional negotiation should make it easier for both Israel and Syria to get back to the table.

With reporting by Lisa Beyer/Kiryat Shemona, Dean Fischer/Cairo and Lara Marlowe/southern Lebanon