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Isaac Herzog is a Knesset Member from the Labor Party. A lawyer by profession, he previously served as cabinet secretary in the Barak government.
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By Isaac Herzog
June 1, 2003
Originally published in the Jerusalem Post.
Last weekend was the third anniversary of the IDF withdrawal from Lebanon. I will never forget the excitement I felt when I called each member of the cabinet at 4 a.m. to tell them on behalf of prime minister Ehud Barak that the IDF had completed its deployment along the northern border with no casualties. Some were congratulatory, and some even cried. Nobody doubted that this created a new reality in the region.
Today, three years later, we can make a more accurate assessment of that bold decision.
For the northern settlements, our withdrawal marked the beginning of a period of prosperity as never seen before. A special government program adopted in August 2000 set off a growth spurt evident along the confrontation line to this very day. This may be the only area of the country relatively less harmed by the recession, and there is no doubt that domestic tourism is the key element.
The area still suffers from complicated problems, but residents would say that the decision has so far proven itself above and beyond expectations.
As far as regional security goes, the area has experienced relative calm, despite sporadic and painful outbursts and a subterranean tension that erupts once in a while. Ehud Barak's working assumption which has so far proven itself viable was that the political players in Lebanon and Syria would restrain the militant elements that seek confrontation with Israel. The current situation requires constant vigilance on the one hand and caution and consideration on the other, and only time will tell whether the tension subsides or increases.
As far as the withdrawal's impact on the IDF's image is concerned, there is an ongoing debate as to whether it helped trigger the current Intifada, as Yasser Arafat has implied.
I believe this is a simplistic explanation. The historic circumstances are different. It is true that the IDF left the area with what looked at the time like unnecessary haste. But the Intifada broke out after the Camp David summit, when tension with the Palestinians reached a peak and the parties experienced political deadlock. In other words, the confrontation would have burst out in any case, regardless of whether the withdrawal from Lebanon had occurred or not.
We should just imagine the current situation had we not withdrawn from Lebanon and were faced with two active fronts at the same time, in the north and in the territories.
The Israeli public clearly distinguishes between the need for the IDF's presence beyond the international border with Lebanon to defend the northern settlements and its presence beyond the Green Line to block Palestinian suicide bombers from reaching Israeli population centers.
But in spite of such clear indications that the withdrawal from Lebanon three years ago was a good thing, the State of Israel has one standing debt that has not been adequately paid our attitude toward the South Lebanon Army fighters who risked their lives day and night shoulder to shoulder with the IDF for nearly two decades.
About 6,000 of them entered Israel as refugees three years ago, and today some 2,500 are left (nearly half of them children), with another 1,000 Lebanese whose status is completely vague. The economic conditions of the SLA men and their families is very bad. Most are in an impossible bind: their families and friends are beyond the border in Lebanon, while they are in Israel, isolated and alienated from Israeli society.
Many of those who broke down and went back to Lebanon have disappeared, and some were prosecuted for collaborating with Israel and severely punished. Those who migrated abroad are suffering terrible adjustment pains. In Israel they have temporary citizen status and receive minimal assistance from the government while fighting a bureaucratic quagmire.
This is an open moral wound. It is time to make a clear statement that puts an end to this injustice toward our comrades in arms. Such a statement should be enshrined in legislation that formalizes the status of SLA families in Israel.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
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