The Associated Press, 6
19 September 1997


"Israelis Demand Lebanon Pullout,"

JERUSALEM (AP) -- Some 200 Israelis with placards reading "Let's get out of Lebanon'' protested outside the home of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday, a day after 11 soldiers were killed in a bungled commando raid in Lebanon. An Israeli TV survey said 52 percent of the respondents wanted Israeli troops to pull out of Lebanon, and a prominent opposition figure said he would lead a grassroots campaign to push for a speedy withdrawal. The opposition to government policy gained new momentum after Friday's commando raid which ended with the highest number of Israeli soldiers killed in Lebanon in more than a decade. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would only withdraw troops as part of a peace settlement with Syria and Lebanon. Leaving unilaterally would only enable Shiite Muslim guerrillas to move closer to Israel's border and endanger Israeli civilians, he said. However, Netanyahu and his defense minister, Yitzhak Mordechai, said this week there was room for rethinking policy -- perhaps to change the shape of the so-called security zone, the area occupied by Israel to prevent guerrilla raids across the border. The debate over Israel's role in Lebanon cuts across political lines. The most prominent advocate of a unilateral withdrawal is Yossi Beilin, a leading figure in the opposition Labor Party. Beilin also has some supporters in Netanyahu's Likud Party, including Science Minister Michael Eitan. Beilin said Saturday that he would lead a grassroots movement pushing for a speedy pullback to the international border. This spring, four mothers of Israeli soldiers serving in Lebanon began the campaign for a withdrawal and have collected more than 10,000 signatures. On Saturday evening, some 200 Israelis demonstrated outside the home of Netanyahu to demand a quick pullout. The group carried torches and placards reading "Peace Now'' and "Let's get out of Lebanon.'' Many of the demonstrators were members of the Peace Now group formed after Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon. In the TV survey, 35 percent of the respondents said they opposed a unilateral withdrawal. It was conducted among 495 adults. No margin of error was given. In Friday's commando raid near the southern Lebanese port city of Tyre, 11 Israeli soldiers were killed and a 12th is missing and presumed dead. Netanyahu suggested he was open to offers by the Shiite Muslim guerrilla group Hezbollah to swap prisoners for the remains of the soldier. Such swaps have been negotiated in the past. .

Back