.On Israeli Border, a Surprising Optimism
METULLA, Israel (AP) - For years, whenever Asher Greenberg left his home in this frontier town to work in the orchards along the Lebanon border, he took his M-16 rifle in case Hezbollah guerrillas attacked. Since Israel's war with Hezbollah ended in August, Greenberg's rifle hasn't left his closet once.
At Zarit, a nearby farming village where chicken coops and red-roofed houses hug the border fence, farmers are beginning to return to orchards they abandoned during the years when Hezbollah guerrillas controlled the Lebanese side of the line.
More than two months after the war ended in stalemate, many Israelis have come to see it as a costly failure. Those who live closest to Lebanon, though, say it altered their lives dramatically for the better.
"The war erased a threat we lived with for years," Greenberg said. "We aren't afraid of snipers or kidnappings anymore. We can breathe."
Today, he said, he sees more U.N. peacekeeping troops and, for the first time, Lebanese soldiers, 10,000 of whom have been deployed in south Lebanon since the war ended with a cease-fire on Aug. 14.
The sentiment is echoed in other small farming communities where Israelis have for decades lived with occasional barrages, infiltrations and Israeli army invasions and withdrawals.
In 2000, when Israel pulled out of south Lebanon after an 18-year occupation, Hezbollah guerrillas, not the Lebanese government, took control of the border. At Zarit, villagers got used to the Shiite group's armed men and its yellow flags flying from a base overlooking their homes from a nearby hill.
In 2004, a Hezbollah sniper picked off two Israeli soldiers fixing an antenna next to Zarit, in one of the sporadic flare-ups that punctuated six years of uneasy quiet along the border. During those years, the army closed off some fence-side areas, and some Zarit farmers had to abandon their crops.
In May, two months before the 34-day war began, Yossi Milgram of Zarit climbed on his roof to hang an Israeli flag for Independence Day. "I felt that the Hezbollah men were looking at me," he recalled. "I could feel the crosshairs on me. It's a feeling we had for six years."
Zarit with its 70 families was at the epicenter of this summer's war, ignited on July 12 when Hezbollah guerrillas crossed the border nearby and attacked an Israeli army patrol, killing three soldiers and capturing two others. And it was here, after fighting that killed more than 150 Israelis and more than 850 Lebanese, that the last Israeli infantrymen came through on the way home from Lebanon on Oct. 1.
But the bitter debate in Israel over the war erupted before the last soldiers had returned, with critics slamming the army's perceived disorganization and the country's failure to defeat Hezbollah or get back the two captives. The government's popularity plummeted, one senior officer has already stepped down, and the army and the government are investigating the handling of the war.
But Zarit residents see Hezbollah's flags gone, and its nearby base destroyed, along with many of its fortifications.
"Instead of Hezbollah, we see the Lebanese army and the U.N.," said Rachel Varkatt, 58. "We have a real sense of relief."
The mood is similarly upbeat at Manara, a kibbutz to the east. In May, its vulnerability was felt when a soldier in the kibbutz was wounded by a Hezbollah sniper.
The situation is different now. "I think the war critics are right in many ways, but they have created the impression that we lost," said Shabtai Mayo, the kibbutz's secretary general. "There were mistakes, but from here this looks very different from a defeat."
Lt. Col. Ishai Efroni, a senior army officer in an Israeli border unit, said his men along the fence also feel a marked change for the better, now that Hezbollah men with grenade launchers are no longer a few yards from Israeli tanks.
Efroni said Israeli soldiers trade pleasantries with UNIFIL troops along the border, and that even the Lebanese soldiers sometimes wave. "They're still hesitant - this is new for them," he said.
The army sometimes has to deal with Hezbollah supporters throwing stones over the fence at soldiers, but Efroni said he only has to call a U.N. liaison officer and "within half an hour" U.N. or Lebanese troops arrive.
However, Hanan Rubinsky, who grows apples by the border, thinks the change is illusory. Hezbollah wasn't destroyed, he said; it's just lying low.
"The yellow flags are gone, but they'll be back," he said.
MyWay
At Zarit, a nearby farming village where chicken coops and red-roofed houses hug the border fence, farmers are beginning to return to orchards they abandoned during the years when Hezbollah guerrillas controlled the Lebanese side of the line.
More than two months after the war ended in stalemate, many Israelis have come to see it as a costly failure. Those who live closest to Lebanon, though, say it altered their lives dramatically for the better.
"The war erased a threat we lived with for years," Greenberg said. "We aren't afraid of snipers or kidnappings anymore. We can breathe."
Today, he said, he sees more U.N. peacekeeping troops and, for the first time, Lebanese soldiers, 10,000 of whom have been deployed in south Lebanon since the war ended with a cease-fire on Aug. 14.
The sentiment is echoed in other small farming communities where Israelis have for decades lived with occasional barrages, infiltrations and Israeli army invasions and withdrawals.
In 2000, when Israel pulled out of south Lebanon after an 18-year occupation, Hezbollah guerrillas, not the Lebanese government, took control of the border. At Zarit, villagers got used to the Shiite group's armed men and its yellow flags flying from a base overlooking their homes from a nearby hill.
In 2004, a Hezbollah sniper picked off two Israeli soldiers fixing an antenna next to Zarit, in one of the sporadic flare-ups that punctuated six years of uneasy quiet along the border. During those years, the army closed off some fence-side areas, and some Zarit farmers had to abandon their crops.
In May, two months before the 34-day war began, Yossi Milgram of Zarit climbed on his roof to hang an Israeli flag for Independence Day. "I felt that the Hezbollah men were looking at me," he recalled. "I could feel the crosshairs on me. It's a feeling we had for six years."
Zarit with its 70 families was at the epicenter of this summer's war, ignited on July 12 when Hezbollah guerrillas crossed the border nearby and attacked an Israeli army patrol, killing three soldiers and capturing two others. And it was here, after fighting that killed more than 150 Israelis and more than 850 Lebanese, that the last Israeli infantrymen came through on the way home from Lebanon on Oct. 1.
But the bitter debate in Israel over the war erupted before the last soldiers had returned, with critics slamming the army's perceived disorganization and the country's failure to defeat Hezbollah or get back the two captives. The government's popularity plummeted, one senior officer has already stepped down, and the army and the government are investigating the handling of the war.
But Zarit residents see Hezbollah's flags gone, and its nearby base destroyed, along with many of its fortifications.
"Instead of Hezbollah, we see the Lebanese army and the U.N.," said Rachel Varkatt, 58. "We have a real sense of relief."
The mood is similarly upbeat at Manara, a kibbutz to the east. In May, its vulnerability was felt when a soldier in the kibbutz was wounded by a Hezbollah sniper.
The situation is different now. "I think the war critics are right in many ways, but they have created the impression that we lost," said Shabtai Mayo, the kibbutz's secretary general. "There were mistakes, but from here this looks very different from a defeat."
Lt. Col. Ishai Efroni, a senior army officer in an Israeli border unit, said his men along the fence also feel a marked change for the better, now that Hezbollah men with grenade launchers are no longer a few yards from Israeli tanks.
Efroni said Israeli soldiers trade pleasantries with UNIFIL troops along the border, and that even the Lebanese soldiers sometimes wave. "They're still hesitant - this is new for them," he said.
The army sometimes has to deal with Hezbollah supporters throwing stones over the fence at soldiers, but Efroni said he only has to call a U.N. liaison officer and "within half an hour" U.N. or Lebanese troops arrive.
However, Hanan Rubinsky, who grows apples by the border, thinks the change is illusory. Hezbollah wasn't destroyed, he said; it's just lying low.
"The yellow flags are gone, but they'll be back," he said.
MyWay
posted by madtom at 11:53 AM
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