Miami Herald

More in Israel urge pulling out of Lebanon By JOHN DONNELLY Herald Staff Writer JERUSALEM -- Israel's long-running war in Lebanon, a battle with no end in sight and a death toll that has escalated sharply, faced strong criticism from the left and right on Sunday. For the first time, many prominent right-wing politicians argued for a unilateral withdrawal. The country's best-known hawk, Ariel Sharon, who as defense minister led Israel's invasion of Lebanon in 1982, said Sunday that it was time to find a way to end the costly fight. Sharon was joined in his criticism by other Likud members of the Israeli Cabinet, including Public Safety Minister Avigdor Kahalani, and by one of Israel's most prominent doves -- Yossi Beilin. Beilin, a former peace negotiator, announced a new bipartisan movement ``for the peaceful departure from Lebanon.'' The sudden get-out-of-Lebanon push follows a botched raid in south Lebanon on Friday that ended with the deaths of 11 naval commandos and a missing commando who is presumed dead. On Sunday, there was another fatality: A mortar bomb killed an officer in a bunker in south Lebanon. This year's toll stands at 30 dead Israeli soldiers, already the highest number of deaths in any year since Israel established a security zone in 1985. In the last five years, 126 have died, compared with 53 deaths in the five-year period before that. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at his weekly cabinet meeting Sunday that the talk of pulling out of Lebanon would hurt negotiations. ``All of us want to get out of Lebanon, but only under the right conditions,'' Netanyahu said, according to Israel Radio. ``But the rash talk of a hasty departure under pressure only encourages the Hezbollah and fuels the Hezbollah's rocket engines.'' Hezbollah, the Iranian-funded Party of God, has been waging a guerrilla war against the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon for a dozen years. Israel established the zone to try to protect its northern settlements from attacks by Hezbollah. The fighting on the last active Arab-Israeli war front will be on the agenda of Secretary of State Madeleine Albright when she visits the region for a weeklong trip beginning Wednesday. The subject is sure to arise in talks with Netanyahu in Jerusalem and with Syrian President Hafez Assad in Damascus. Syria's hegemony in Lebanon -- it has an estimated 40,000 soldiers there -- includes allowing weapons and materials to travel to Hezbollah fighters in the Bekaa Valley and in villages north of Israel's security zone. The question in Israel today is not so much whether to get out of Lebanon -- but how. Sharon, and others such as Beilin, say that a unilateral withdrawal may be Israel's best option. Others want the option of withdrawal used as a bargaining chip in negotiations with Damascus, which is demanding the return of the Golan Heights captured by Israel in 1967 Middle East War. ``In the next six months, I think we will see a change,'' said Gerald Steinberg, a senior research associate at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies. ``Almost every political leader is getting involved in this.'' The public also has expressed its dissatisfaction. A poll conducted by TV's Channel One on Saturday showed that 52 percent of those questioned were in favor of withdrawal, 34 percent were opposed and 14 percent weren't sure. The poll's margin of error was 4 percent. But Steinberg believes the next step is not easily predictable: ``We could see an intensification, an escalation, less of a war of attrition and one where there's use of heavier equipment and air force bombings. Or, we could have a decision to implement a unilateral withdrawal.'' One major factor is whether Netanyahu begins receiving blame for the deaths. ``The combination of Lebanon and the terror attack in Jerusalem on Thursday [in which four Israelis were killed] is a greater sign of weakness in Netanyahu than all the corruption investigations,'' said Steinberg, who has many friends in the Netanyahu government. ``That is what he was elected on, peace and security. There is a great deal of talk now in Israel that the government is failing to protect us. The talk is that this government is not any better than the previous government.'' Sharon, writing in the Yediot Aharonot newspaper Sunday, argued for the separation of ``our problems'' in Lebanon and negotiations with Syria because there never would be a guarantee that Syria would stop using Hezbollah ``as an instrument in political negotiations.'' He suggests two possible solutions: Stay in south Lebanon but change strategy with more air strikes and abandoning reliance on ground troops; or pulling out ``without paying Syria any political-security tribute.'' ``One thing is clear: It would be wrong and unjustifiable to discontinue the current policy, which depends upon the heroism of the soldiers,'' Sharon said. ``. . . All minds should be mobilized immediately because in Lebanon a costly battle is going on.''

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