BY GEORGES MEHRABIAN AND NATASHA TERLEXIS
BEIRUT, Lebanon - The war in South Lebanon has a faint echo in Beirut and the other major cities of the country. The almost daily Israeli bombings and the guerrilla attacks by the National Resistance (NR) fighters - composed overwhelmingly of Lebanese Shiite Muslims who are members of Hezbollah - have become common occurrences. The guerrillas have been fighting to end the 14-year occupation by the Israeli army on Lebanese soil. In this reporters' notebook, the names of the resistance members have been changed to protect their identity.

Although there is mass sentiment in favor of the military resistance, life goes on uninterrupted in most of the country unless Israel's capitalist rulers decide to bring the war into the rest of the country, as they did last April during the military operation code named "Grapes of Wrath." That operation, which brought massive destruction in the country, was met by protests throughout Lebanon. Many volunteered to go South and rebuild the villages destroyed by the Israeli forces.

"The resistance to the Israeli occupation started on June 5, 1982 when Israel launched its murderous invasion of Lebanon," explained Ali Mansour, a former National Resistance fighter we met in a Beirut cafe. "Israeli troops reached Beirut and laid siege to the city. With the withdrawal of PLO [Palestinian Liberation Organization] troops the city finally fell. At that point, 30 Lebanese parties met and decided to submit to the occupation.

"The Lebanese Communist Party (LCP) of which I was a member, the Organization of Communist Action, and the Party of Socialist Action rejected that course and decided to carry out an armed guerrilla resistance."

Between 1967-1982, some 10,000 Palestinians and Lebanese - mostly civilians from Lebanon - were killed by Israeli troops.

Mansour continued, "At first, many people were neutral. But after two or three months of occupation the mood turned against the Israelis. Close to 5,000 students joined in. By 1984-85, the resistance took on a mass character. Almost all the other parties joined in. Armed actions and protest strikes eventually pushed the Israelis back to their current area of occupation, which runs the length of the entire border and is between 5 and 15 kilometers wide. In the western districts of Beirut there was an insurrection that drove out the Lebanese government troops who were then allied with Israel."

Mansour said in 1990, negotiations were signed at Taef, a town in Saudi Arabia, which eventually brought an end to the civil war. Muslim and Christian bourgeois factions of Lebanon agreed on some power-sharing reforms. He explained that the LCP and other parties withdrew from the resistance and the National Resistance, which then became dominated by Hezbollah.

Front line of resistance
To reach the areas on the front line of the resistance we had to be escorted by the NR. A meeting was arranged with the director of the Hezbollah press office in the southern Shiite working class area of Beirut. He made several calls and the trip was set for January 4.

The three of us headed to the southern port of Tyre and along the way, we passed through a Syrian army barrage followed immediately by a Lebanese army barrage. In Tyre, we were met by two young men who escorted us close to the occupied zone. Hezbollah spokesman Samir Aleme welcomed us at a new school and we were given an escort before heading to the front-line villages.

Kabrikha is in the tobacco cultivating area, once the major cash crop in those parts. We were now accompanied by four young fighters. We were shown some of the destruction caused by Israeli bombings. The occupied zone was across a gorge with the Israeli troops on the other side - a mere 200 meters. We could see the Golan Heights, Syrian land also occupied by Israeli troops.

Kassem, a fighter explained to us, "many attacks are launched from here. We call this gorge the death gorge, because those of us who go in know they will never return. The resistance harasses the Israeli troops on a daily basis. They retaliate by bombing the surrounding villages, including this one."

The youth were from the area. Ismail, another young fighter carrying a cellular phone and a walkie-talkie, joined us. "I am a son of this village. We are all mostly farmers. Now I can not farm. I am in the resistance because the Israelis give us no choice." He took us over to see the walls of the homes. "See, hundreds of nails are imbedded into the walls. The Israelis bomb us with antipersonnel bombs, each one has hundred of nails. It is designed to kill civilians."

"Despite the difficulties we are scoring victories," Ismail continued. "On December 19, one of our units wounded the Israeli commander of the occupation forces - General Eli Amitai-right there," he said, pointing to the nearest fortification overlooking the area. "We have also made the South Lebanon Army (SLA) of Lahad inoperative. They do nothing now without Israelis with them. They can't even collect taxes without the Israelis. Their troops are forcibly recruited from the occupied villages." The SLA is a Lebanese militia organized and armed by the Israeli occupation forces.

Ismail became alarmed when he noticed an Israeli patrol descending the opposing side of the gorge. "Trouble! We better get you guys away from their sight," he declared.

Suddenly the sound of mortars could be heard "We are hitting the patrol," explained Kassem. "Look." Puffs of smoke could be seen on the hill. "We always try to respond to their attempts. But now they might hit back."

A man in his 40s, Melhem Ghaleb, the owner of the destroyed house we had been observing from, walked up. "I am a truck driver and not a member of the resistance," he explained. "My house has been hit nine times, but I will not leave this village, there is nowhere else for me to go. I guess by staying I am also resisting. We are normal, honorable working people. All we want is to work our land. The Resistance gives us hope that one day we will be able to do that."

Ghaleb said, "This area used to have about 5,000 inhabitants, now it is about 400. The rest went to Beirut."

The shells were getting closer and we were ushered into a farmer's home deeper in the village. "I have my son in an Israeli prison camp," explained Ismael Mahmoud Zein's mother. "He has been there 6 years. He was caught while carrying out a guerrilla attack. Every two or three months we get some news through the Red Cross."

She showed us the small packet of all the one-paragraph notes she has received from him. The family is then allowed one paragraph in reply. "But his morale is good, look at the art work he does while in prison." She pointed to an embroidery and a model of the Dome of the Rock shrine in Jerusalem. She has been allowed one visit up to today. When asked if she would allow her other sons to fight, she laughed. "It is not for me to allow them, they do as they please. Our life is a resistance," she added.

Beshar Abu Saifan contributed to this article.  
 
 
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