Deceptive calm prevails on Israel-Lebanon border

By Kesava Menon

IBL-E SAQI (LEBANON), DEC. 22. The twin white contrails creep steadily through the clear, sharp, wintry sky over this village on Lebanon-Israel border. Israeli F-16s are clearly visible a little beyond the forward edges of the threaded vapour trails. They swing north- west towards Beirut and the sonic booms thunder down.

It is all very incongruous. The land border between Lebanon and Israel is peaceful and fairly quiet but for the popping sounds of someone hunting partridges in the scrub. Not much farming can be done in the hard scrabble earth in this corner of Lebanon and but for a few Druze shepherds no one seems to be doing much work. There are a few cars out on the roads and interspersed in the traffic are the white painted jeeps and armoured cars of U.N. peace-keepers.

At Fatima Gate, the border-crossing point, a lone car pulls up, the driver gets out and looks across at the Israeli houses a few dozen yards on the other side of the fence. Two girls do the same a few metres down the road. This was the spot at which Lebanese and Palestinian youth, drawn from all over Lebanon, would converge to hurl rocks and insults at Israeli soldiers on the other side for weeks on end after Israel withdrew from Lebanon in May.

The Israelis had shot at the protesters on a few occasions, several Arab youths had been wounded, a few had died. Today, the area hardly looks like a border between two hostile neighbours despite the serious, if under-stated, precautionary measures Israel has put in place on its side of the fence. It looks more like the boundary that wealthier residential colonies erect between themselves and the hoi polloi.

Hizbollah's flags, posters and its portraits of its martyrs are everywhere. Some of the flags are hoisted on the military posts that Israel evacuated and the Hizbollah immediately occupied in May. But those posts are not manned now since the Hizbollah pulled out its cadres two months ago. In fact, but for the U.N. patrols, there is hardly a uniformed presence visible. Soldiers of the regular Lebanese army have not moved up close to the border, though they do man posts deeper inside the zone that was once occupied by Israel. Israeli troops hunkered in their bunkers can hardly be seen.

Yet the contrails of the fighter-jets signify that the aura of peace can be deceptive. Friction might have wound down at the gate for the moment but there are several issues of contention. Hidden behind a fold of the mountainside rising high above Ibl-e Saqi is a place called the Shebaa farms.

Lebanon claims that they own this territory and that Israel's withdrawal will not be taken as complete till it is handed back. Israel claims that it captured this piece from Syrian troops in 1967 and that is to Syria that they will hand it back if and when there is a comprehensive settlement.

The Hizbollah has shot at Israeli positions overlooking the farms on a few occasions in the last seven months and the latter have resorted to artillery fire. Two months back, the Hizbollah staged a well-planned ambush and kidnapped three Israeli soldiers. Germany is trying to mediate a release of the captives but Israel has warned that Lebanon, and the Syrian troops stationed in this country, would face the consequences if there are further provocations. But the Hizbollah is in no hurry to return the captives.

Talk of a possible medium-scale conflict, or perhaps something more serious, has been in the air for the past few weeks. As the sun goes down something that looks like a helicopter can be seen hovering on the western horizon. But it is too far, and the border meanders so much, that it is difficult to say whether it is on the Israeli or Lebanese side.

In the bad old days, the presence of an Israeli helicopter near the skies of Lebanon usually meant that some one was getting a pounding.

The twin contrails and the presence of what looks like an Israeli helicopter signifies that the bad old days are not really over on the Israel-Lebanon border.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : International
Previous : Mitterrand's son held for illegal arms trade
Next     : An ailing economy, but few are complaining