Meeting with Major Haddad
SAMUELS, GERTRUDE
THE STRUGGLE IN SOUTHERN LEBANON Meeting with Major Haddad ^gertrudes? Metulla Founded in 1896, this northernmost Israeli settlement is in normal times a favored vacation and spa resort.Today,...
...My capital is under occupation, and I am struggling to have it liberated...
...The PLO, meanwhile, has been building virtually its own state within a state...
...The artillery exchange, lasting two days, appeared to mark the end of a cease-fire negotiated last August between Haddad's forces and the PLO guerrillas...
...How do I feel...
...He ordered coffee and chain-smoked cigarettes...
...an open-air market was bustling...
...I hate him...
...A few times a day this road??see the holes in it from the PLO bombings???is patrolled by the Lebanese...
...If they did not support us, we would be exterminated...
...He uses the same reason that the Russians now are using to stay in Afghanistan...
...women working in small vegetable gardens or putting out their clean wash to dry...
...Estimates of PLO strength in the south range between 500-2,000 guerrillas operating close to Israel in the so-called Tyre Pocket, plus enclaves in the hills just above the Litani...
...they didn't want their village to be in the hands of the terrorists...
...The Lebanese are fighting to have their patrie given back to them...
...Israelis were able to show him, he wrote, that the terror squad, whose sabotage killed four, "must have passed within close range of an outpost manned by Nepal-ese soldiers from unifil...
...On a recent misty morning I drove here from Jerusalem for an interview the Major agreed to give me, but first I visited the area under his command in an attempt to get a picture of his position...
...That the peace is strong enough...
...What I am asking from them is to stop the infiltration of the terrorists...
...They show it...
...But the villagers looked tired, too, and watchful as they waved us on...
...It is written in their Koran...
...I told the...
...Q. Do you consider the southern part of Lebanon independent of the Beirut government...
...They have hit Metulla and all the villages in this area...
...This was from the beginning of their coming...
...The UN finally took action in March 1978, when it created the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (unifil) for the purpose of "restoring international peace and security" and assisting in the return of "effective authority...
...Our name is Free Lebanese Forces...
...Our area is the only free area in Lebanon...
...The villagers drove out the PLO themselves, he continued, "but we can't forget, so we keep the warning there...
...Q. You don't seem to like Mr...
...In addition, it is pursuing its "Good Fence" policy: In clinics all along the barbed-wire and sandbagged border, Israeli doctors and Lebanese nurses work side by side tending the sick and wounded brave enough to cross over...
...Metulla is also where Israeli authorities and Major Sa'ad Haddad, commander of the Lebanese Christian forces opposing the PLO, meet to coordinate some defensive activities...
...They have to use all their diplomatic ways to convince the other force not to infiltrate...
...I hope that it will succeed...
...A lawyer in civilian life, Ze'ev was more than a little apprehensive about the trip...
...Q. In different villages I noticed slogans on the walls against the Norwegians...
...Because they see the sort of support which is coming from all kinds??from the Communist and the Moslem worlds...
...Driving along the stoney dirt roads one has a feeling of deja vu, for the villages are cousins to Israeli Arab villages like Jish near Dovev??with their one-and two-level limestone structures topped by flat earthen roofs that seem to grow out of the hills, and their small, crowded general stores...
...He is supporting the terrorists, the PLO...
...I wonder why they don't think to establish this sovereignty in Beirut...
...and they will enter Iran, and they will enter Pakistan, and America will stay just shouting, shouting, shouting...
...I am not being psychological, but they feel proud of themselves...
...That's a good question...
...That's right...
...Shiite Moslems, Druzes, as well as Christians...
...They seem to shoot up everything at will...
...Waldheim . . . Haddad...
...How do you feel about the Egyptian-Israeli peace accord...
...How many men does the PLO have here...
...youngsters tending goats and some sheep...
...But unifil is confined to patrols south of the Litani River, leaving the PLO and other related factions free to function at will...
...Q. About their reputation...
...How do you feel about what he is urging...
...a general store was doing a brisk business in groceries, blankets, medicines, toiletries, and toys...
...Q. What do you mean when you say that yours is a free Lebanese army ??that it's not just a Christian army...
...A London Times correspondent, touring the area, reported that in Dir Mimas hillside houses were wrecked by explosive charges: "The booby traps had been planted by a Palestinian squad which had waded across the nearby Litani River, and walked more than a mile to plant them...
...But they may only shoot in self-defense, so the terrorists are trying always to infiltrate...
...Syria's mission is to annex Lebanon to Syria...
...Q. You surely are aware that the UN Secretary-General, Kurt Waldheim, has asked Israel to stop helping your Christian forces...
...and you see the Arab countries now are supported by the Soviet Union...
...In answer to a question about the large slogans scrawled on several walls near the market that read, "Norwegians Go Home," "Norwegians Stay Away," he replied earnestly: "The Palestinians came in with the Norwegian unit of unifil...
...They may just decide to shoot, even though it's Monday morning...
...We are from all religions, fighting together...
...You've spoken about the Christian world, what about the Jewish world...
...I feel that I am disappointed by the free and by the Christian worlds...
...Back in Metulla that afternoon, Major Sa'ad Haddad came striding into the tea-garden that fronts the Hotel Arazim for the promised interview...
...They say there is no PLO, there is no infiltration...
...They will have to go back to their country...
...and from that, they can make the sovereignty wider and wider to reach all Lebanon, and reach our area in the south...
...if they don't see them, the terrorists succeed to pass through the lines...
...I am using your American knowledge," he said with a fleeting smile, "applying it here...
...Q. Major, President Sadat of Egypt, like yourself, is a relatively isolated man today in the Arab world...
...Just below us flowed the Litani, the natural border between north and south Lebanon...
...Q. What is your relationship with Israel, Major...
...Some days after our talk, for example, violence broke out again in the south...
...Q. The other religions being . . . Haddad...
...On top of that hill is Klea, a Moslem village," Ze'ev noted...
...Since it was Monday morning, Ze'ev explained, we were relatively safe: "They do most of their bombings on Sundays, when the people are going to church, or are all dressed up on their way to weddings...
...Sure...
...Israel is the only country doing this for us...
...Yet despite its history, the village was bouncing with activity...
...They [the press and diplomats] used to call us Christian militia...
...Syrian President Hafez] Assad himself declared, "We came, we entered Lebanon without asking anybody, and we are going to stay until we solve the problem...
...during the awful pre-UNim attacks people fled, so that today only about 4,000 remain...
...I already have given a long time ago my opinion of him...
...It is not civil war today??it is aggression...
...Are you agreeing with that aggression...
...The terrorists opened fire on Klea, Dir Mimas and Marjayoun, shelling them with 160mm mortars and heavy guns...
...Q. Why...
...It was a test for you...
...The Israelis have warned all hostile elements that they cross the river at the risk of retaliation...
...The Norwegian unit did go back and convince the terrorists to leave Qalqiba, but now there is a Nepalese unit for that village...
...So there is something wrong there, and it was so from the beginning...
...They consider that the Moslems should dominate everywhere...
...Nevertheless, the people somehow manage to go on with their lives...
...Her many books include a novel about the Lebanese civil war, Of David and Lisa: A Love Story...
...Q. Do you feel you could get a unified Lebanese government, a unified country...
...Q. How do you feel about the Iranians who volunteered to come here and fight you and fight Israel...
...Why the emphasis on Norway...
...There may not be more than 35 of them in that particular castle," he replied, "but they have the shells and other artillery in the hills...
...Around the capital at least, and around the President...
...The Free Lebanese returned heavy artillery fire on such PLO targets as Tyre, Nabatiya, Arnoun, and Kfar Tibnit...
...He spent the year 1974-75, it turned out, attending the Infantry School at Fort Benning, Georgia...
...Why aren't you against the Syrian aggression in Lebanon...
...Any Lebanese who oppose them are the enemy, be they Christian or Moslem...
...I lost my respect for the UN, because all I am asking them to do is to tell the truth and they are not telling the truth...
...The Israeli Army gave them to Haddad," said Ze'ev...
...Q. Aren't the Syrians there to keep the peace...
...a clinic was crowded with patients...
...Our driver needed no instructions to put on the speed...
...from its observation and artillery post at Beaufort Castle, a Crusader fortress high on the horizon...
...But some days ago there was a big demonstration in Egypt, about 10,000 men...
...schools were in full attendance, although every classroom in one grade school was sandbagged...
...On a personal level, Major Haddad comes across as a man of strong convictions who is speaking his heart...
...If the PLO don't want to put down their weapons, they have to go to other Arab countries...
...There is no problem between the Lebanese...
...The PLO already have about 40 bases??they call them settlements sometimes??and they infiltrate the unifil area and make actions against our positions...
...And they were all around us...
...They understand our FREE LEBANESE FORCES MANNING A SURPLUS ISRAELI TANK problem...
...They know that we are a minority...
...Indeed, the atmosphere in Marjay-oun seemed remarkably relaxed and friendly...
...the Lebanese themselves control here...
...If they will do that, the Lebanese Army, then we are ready to give them our area...
...The difference is that almost every building is shell-pocked...
...Q. What about the Syrian Army that is supposed to be keeping the peace in your country...
...The UN took a clean area, and the terrorists succeeded to infiltrate it...
...And events seem to bear him out...
...When we reached Klea, some French and American tanks went rolling through, adorned with Lebanese flags...
...We went through in a flash to the small village of Dir Mimas...
...We know that the United Nations is mostly under the influence of the Communists...
...The villagers got angry...
...They feel they are the only free Lebanese in all Lebanon...
...Haddad (emphatically...
...And they can take the place of the Syrians and the PLO...
...The country which understands the Middle East is the Soviet Union...
...When the Soviets sent 3,000 men to Cuba, they knew that you are only shouting...
...They are fighting for that freedom...
...So our wish and hopes are to see Lebanon again independent, with only the Lebanese ruling their land...
...When there is no Syria and there is no PLO in my Lebanon, and when we will be unified and independent, as we were before...
...And we see the Christian world calling only for love and peace...
...That is what we are fighting for...
...We are not a Christian militia...
...If there is infiltration from some Dutch unit's area, for instance, the Dutch think it is not good for their reputation, so they deny it...
...He goes to the map hanging on the wall opposite us.] Here at the Litani River it's a pure PLO area, 100 per cent...
...The Jewish people are supposed to be our enemy...
...Q. Thank you, Major...
...Israel has responded to this situation by supporting the resistance efforts of Major Haddad's ragtag Free Lebanese Forces...
...They are making it like their own state...
...Frankly, I am not afraid of the 250 Iranians already recognized in Lebanon, of bringing them in from an Islamic country to fight against us...
...In the Shia village of Ay-taroun, Haddad sappers dismantled a large explosive charge near a petrol station...
...Because they understand that, they entered Afghanistan...
...As half a dozen young men wearing Western-style sweaters and jeans went from their studies to an early lunch, they stopped to chat and examine my camera...
...another store was selling, of all things, imported whiskeys...
...Who gave him the right to solve our problem...
...They used to be Israeli tanks during the Six-Day War of 1967...
...So they cut the road and wrote those slogans...
...Occasionally attacks have even been launched from within the unifil zone...
...We do feel deserted by the free and Christian worlds...
...Q. Major, what is the mood among your people, the non-Christian as well as the Christian population...
...Now we have to drive faster because we are being watched by the PLO in that old Beaufort Castle...
...At 42 he looks very much like the professional career officer that he is: sturdy, ramrod-straight, of medium height, with a high forehead and brush mustache...
...The Russians understand you can't deal with the Middle East except by force...
...Once this largely Maron-ite Christian center had 16,000 inhabitants...
...Because they are fulfilling their role??and the mission of what the Arabs should do, and what the American and European countries should do for us...
...But I still consider Beirut as my capital...
...they were against the Russians but at the same time against Israel??10,000 men...
...Q. How do you feel about President Carter's policies in the Middle East, in this whole region...
...There are approximately 10,000-12,000 terrorists north of the Litani River, with especially large concentrations around Beirut, Na-batiya and Sidon...
...That is a bluff...
...Qalqiba is a village to the north of here, a Christian village...
...I consider it an independent part??the only part which is independent...
...I feel he is losing everything, all the Middle East...
...Then I asked him about his relations with the United Nations...
...The best way is to make the peace pact work quickly, to bring more Arab countries to join in this peace...
...They forget about the principle of human beings' right to life...
...We gave this village to the Norwegian unit to watch over, along with many other villages...
...Why do they have to stay in Lebanon...
...One student was carrying New Horizons in English, published in Reading, Massachusetts...
...The grand old medieval monument, used for picnics in more peaceful times, could easily be seen with the naked eye...
...We sat down opposite a large map of Lebanon that dominated one wall...
...They are talking about sending the Lebanese Army to the south, to establish Lebanese sovereignty...
...He wore a green turtle-neck sweater inside his olive green uniform...
...Major of my morning's visit to the Lebanese villages...
...aided by Army binoculars, one could pick up its restless occupants...
...When they are already in positions, the UN can't take them out because they are not going to use force against them...
...They are supporting us...
...The whole of Lebanon, of course, is battle-weary and battle-scarred from the civil war that broke out in mid-1975, and from the heavy fighting that continued after 30,000 Syrian Army troops entered the country in May 1976, forcing thousands to flee to the south...
...This has a Christian population, and it has suffered a lot from the PLO," Ze'ev observed as we got out of the car...
...He pointed out that the strip of land we were on, although guarded by Haddad's forces, was under constant surveillance and shelling by the PLO Gertrude Samuels, who covers the UN for The New Leader, recently returned from the Middle East...
...Why are you Americans against the Russians in Afghanistan...
...He greeted us with warm handshakes, his brown eyes coolly appraising, and invited us into the hotel's small lounge...
...When I am telling the UN something about this, they deny everything...
...The charge, it was reported, had been placed there by a terrorist who had infiltrated the lines of the Irish unit of unifil...
...The unifil units are posted partly to the south of the Litani, partly to the east...
...Half an hour later we arrived at Mar-jayoun, the main village of the area and the site of Major Haddad's military headquarters...
...Metulla Founded in 1896, this northernmost Israeli settlement is in normal times a favored vacation and spa resort.Today, like the south Lebanese villages across what was once the country's quietest border, it is a prime target of Palestine Liberation Organization terrorists...
...After two or three days, the terrorists attacked the village, and the Norwegians ran away, they left the village...
...Q. What do you want for Lebanon, Major...
...If unifil sees them, okay, they send them back...
...There is considerable emotion in his voice when he explains that he feels betrayed by the UN because theoretically it came to protect his people from attack, yet in practice is not only unable to cope with the infiltrators but sometimes even cooperates with them...
...He is supporting the aggressor...
...For that they sent the 3,000 men...
...I want to see my Lebanon free...
...It is only written in books, this kind of love and peace...
...You should know one thing in America: In the Moslem religion, the people have to fight all other religions, Christian or Jewish...
...The same words are used by both, the Syrians and the Russians...
...Like...
...I asked Ze'ev...
...The hilly streets were crowded with cars and vendors of all kinds...
...The Norwegians let them come...
...This pocket up here near Beirut is free of both the PLO and the Syrians...
...Besides French and Arabic, the Major speaks a serviceable English...
...And the other point is that they are very concerned about their reputation...
...Wherever we drove, we saw the determined construction of new houses and shops...
...But unfortunately they did not succeed...
...I was accompanied on my tour of several villages in south Lebanon by a young, fully-armed Israeli lieutenant doing his four-week reserve duty...
...Why don't you apply the same principle...
...Whatever we are doing, or Israel is doing to help us, the majority are opposing...
...We are very thankful for them...
Vol. 63 • March 1980 • No. 5
