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As president, Barak balks on pullout he advocated as candidate

By Steve Rodan
SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Tuesday, February 22, 2000

JERUSALEM -- For months, candidate Ehud Barak was a prominent ally of those demanding an Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon. He pledged a pullout of troops from southern Lebanon by July and as casualties mounted he suggested that such a move could be implemented in May.

Today, Barak has had a change of heart. The prime minister still intends to withdraw troops from Lebanon. But sources close to Barak said he is being more cautious with his promises and is urging his supporters to end their pressure for a pullout.

Barak's fear, the sources said, is that the Hizbullah, Iran and Syria will simply maintain guerrilla attacks on Israel to ensure that the Jewish state withdraws without a peace agreement. That aim might reflect an assessment that Israel can be pressured through military means without any need to negotiate with the Jewish state.

Quietly, the sources said, Barak has urged his political allies to be patient. The prime minister stressed that Israel must exhaust all possibilities to achieve an agreement for withdrawal.

"There is a very high preference for an exit in the framework of an agreement," he said. "Because an agreement doesn't only change the conditions and creates apparently a peace agreement, or at least an address on the other side that can stop terrorism. It is simply an agreement that saves casualties."

"Without these types of treaties, we will find ourselves in a conflict, even if it takes five or ten years,'' Barak added. "And the youth who will have to fight in this battle have the right to know that Israeli governments tried all avenues to reach an agreement so that this would not happen."

Sources close to Barak said the prime minister was stunned by the affect of what they termed the limited lobbying effort for an immediate withdrawal. They said efforts by such groups as the Four Mothers, mothers of soldiers killed in Lebanon, have been amplified by the media and adopted by many politicians.

Barak warned a conference of religious activists aligned with the Labor Party on Sunday night that unless Israel learns how to deal with casualties in southern Lebanon, its Arab enemies might realize that the Jewish state can be pressured throughout negotiations. He attributed the current Arab backlash against Israel to frustration by Hizbullah's allies over the effectiveness of Israeli military operations in southern Lebanon.

The sources, including several ministers in the Cabinet, said Barak's pledges to withdraw from Lebanon have resulted in pressure within the coalition for an immediate withdrawal. Several ministers, including Industry and Trade Minister Ran Cohen, are calling for such a step.

At a meeting of the left-wing Meretz Party, activists hissed chairman Yossi Sarid when he warned against immediate withdrawal. Sarid, an education minister, said Israel must first prepare for such a withdrawal and implement plans to build new bases and increase security for more than 350,000 residents along the northern border.

"I see a possibility that the exit from Lebanon in this manner will be an exit just to return again," Sarid said. "And I see a scenario where more soldiers and more civilians fall."

Sarid immediately ran into opposition. "What is in July 2000 that isn't in February 2000," Meretz parliamentarian Zehava Galon said.

At the conference, Uriel Safra, a high school senior -- scheduled to be drafted in the military next year -- told the Meretz leadership that he "is scared to serve in Lebanon. I want to stress how important it is that the withdrawal take place soon."

Earlier on Sunday, at a conference of senior officers, Barak said Israeli withdrawal plans depends on the intentions of Syria and the United States. He said the peace process could strengthen Israeli's intentions to withdraw from southern Lebanon.

Maj. Gen. Yaacov Ami-Dror, head of the war college and a former director of research at military intelligence, warned against a unilateral Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon. He said a military pullout prompted by fears of casualties would leave Israel defenseless on every front.

Ami-Dror said this position is not moral because it leaves Israeli civilians to fend for themselves on the front as the government prefers risking them rather than soldiers. The general said he supports a public debate on how to defend Israel's northern border that stresses the technical aspects of security.

The general said the military has been unable to present its side of the debate regarding Israel's interests in southern Lebanon. "We have to explain the truth to the public," he said.

Tuesday, February 22, 2000


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