Israel, pursuing Palestinian guerrillas, began occupying parts of Lebanon in 1978 and then, in 1985, established a 9-mile-deep buffer zone along Lebanon's southern frontier. Israel said the zone was necessary to prevent cross-border terrorist attacks against Israelis, and Hezbollah, "the party of God," has been fighting to eject Israel ever since.
On Tuesday, the commander of Israel's elite paratroop commando unit was slain with two of his lieutenants in a Hezbollah ambush. With Sunday's incident, the number of Israelis killed in Lebanon in a week was seven, compared with 24 for all of last year.
Until last year, Israel had ignored United Nations demands for a pullout. But Netanyahu now says he is willing to withdraw if he can be assured that Lebanon will prevent its territory from being used as a staging ground for anti-Israeli terrorism. Syria, the real power behind Lebanon, has refused to let Beirut negotiate with Israel until Israel returns the Golan Heights, which it captured from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War.
There is considerable debate within the Israeli government about how to extract Israel from Lebanon. Some advocate a tricky strategy of bombing Beirut and cutting off water and electricity to force an end to Lebanese tolerance of Hezbollah.
The offensive launched Sunday does not go that far, but it is nevertheless a big political risk for Netanyahu. He made the decision in consultation with the two most dedicated hawks in his Cabinet, Foreign Minister Ariel Sharon and Defense Minister Moshe Arens.
"Our policy cannot be determined by a combination of accident and tragedy," said one senior Israeli official, voicing the frustration felt by many in the government. "The only alternative we have is what we are doing; anything else would be worse. All we can do is try to minimize the damage by Hezbollah. A unilateral retreat would only endanger the security of the Galilee."
The 1996 assault in Lebanon, called "Operation Grapes of Wrath," was launched by then-Prime Minister Shimon Peres, who was also facing elections at the time. It ended in tragedy when two Israeli artillery shells slammed into a U.N. base in Qana, Lebanon, where hundreds of civilians had taken refuge. About 100 were killed and dozens more wounded, including four U.N. peacekeepers.
Neither that offensive nor the 1993 "Operation Accountability," which left about 130 people, mostly civilians, dead, succeeded in crushing Hezbollah.
After the 1996 debacle, the United States on April 26 of that year brokered a cease-fire and obtained agreement from Israel and Hezbollah on ground rules governing how they could fight each other. Attacks on civilians were prohibited, but the right to "self-defense" was allowed. Both Israel and the Hezbollah guerrillas have frequently invoked that right in retaliatory raids on each other.
After Sunday's assault, however, it is unclear whether any semblance of the understandings remains intact.
*
Times staff writer Rebecca Trounson in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
