Mid East Jul 2006

Americans fleeing Lebanon express regret


By LAUREN FRAYER and HAMZA HENDAWI, Associated Press Writers



BEIRUT, Lebanon - Anxious Americans hauled bulging suitcases down a rocky Lebanese beach and into the waiting hold of a U.S. Navy landing craft Friday as the accelerating U.S. evacuation moved thousands away from unrelenting Israeli airstrikes

Five thousand U.S. citizens were leaving Friday — the largest number in one day since the evacuation began Wednesday. U.S. officials confirmed that 3,600 had left but it wasn't immediately clear if a ship carrying the remaining 1,400 had departed.

U.S. Embassy officials, still smarting from criticism over delays in starting the evacuation effort, said that with the day's departures, more than 8,000 of the 25,000 Americans in Lebanon when the bombing started had evacuated.

The Americans joined tens of thousands of foreigners heading home to destinations around the globe.

U.S. Marines helped push baby carriages and lifted children into the boats ferrying thousands of U.S. citizens, many who had been visiting family in Lebanon, to seven warships that waited in the Mediterranean, compared to two the day before.

Dogs sniffed luggage for explosives. Troops handed out water bottles and military rations to evacuees, many of whom had been waiting in the sun since 5 a.m.

"We're really sad because we're leaving this way," said Maha Maher, 38, of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, who was visiting relatives with her two sons. "All that we wish is peace for Lebanon, because it's a great country. The Lebanese people are paying the price, and we feel sorry for this."

The USS Trenton, normally a troop transport, left Beirut carrying 1,775 Americans to the neighboring Mediterranean island of Cyprus, as did the USS Nashville, with 1,000 evacuees.

Officials had said that only about 8,000 Americans had registered to leave, but they were letting people who had not signed up board the ships. They declined to give a specific number, but suggested the effort would wrap up this weekend.

"That would be my suspicion," said Marine Brig. Gen. Carl B. Jensen, who was leading the operation. He added there might even be room for guests from other countries.

"It wouldn't surprise me at all if we had some excess capacity," Jensen said. "We will of course make that available to other nations to assist in their orderly departure," he added.

About a quarter of Lebanon's population, or about 1 million people, emigrated during the 1975-1990 war, to France, the Americas and Australia. Many of those who settled in the U.S. were dual citizens.

Catherine Haidar and her husband Mahmoud, who own a restaurant in southern California, had brought their four girls — ages 9 to 17.

"I was waiting for my kids to grow up," Catherine Haidar said, adding that the girls had just gotten used to the unfamiliar territory and made friends when the bombs began to fall.

"The house was shaking," Haidar said.

Americans already in Cyprus boarded flights home or packed into shelters.

The U.S. government already has spent about $200,000 helping Americans return to the United States, an amount expected to grow.

A repatriation center opened Thursday at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport. Another center opened Friday at Philadelphia's airport.

The centers are staffed by medical and mental health professionals, and have phone banks and computers to help people contact friends and relatives.

Hezbollah guerrillas captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on July 12, setting off the Israeli offensive. Hezbollah has responded by raining rockets onto Israel.

Most foreigners are traveling by sea to Cyprus as the overland route to Syria was deemed too dangerous and Israel knocked Beirut's airport out of service last week by bombing its runways.

About 200 Canadians assembled near the Beirut port waiting to be evacuated, many wearing hats or covering their heads with towels under the sweltering heat. Officials said as many as 30,000 were scheduled for evacuation and 2,413 people had left Beirut by the end of the day.

The first planeload landed in Ottawa aboard Prime Minister Stephen Harper's jet, which Harper had flown to Larnaca, Cyprus.

Canada has been criticised for conducting chaotic and slow evacuation efforts. Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay said the criticism, of what would likely become the country's largest emergency exodus from another country, was unwarranted.

"It's the largest effort in Canadian history; we are making progress and we are getting results," he told a news conference in Ottawa. "We are sparing the politics and we are moving forward in a way that is going to allow Canadians to get home."

The U.S. evacuation effort drew Marines to Lebanon for the first time in more than two decades. A total of 241 Americans, including many Marines, were killed in a 1983 suicide bombing blamed on Hezbollah-linked militants. The Marines left Lebanon a few months later, ending the last U.S. military presence in this tiny Arab nation.

"For the U.S. Marine Corps, Beirut will always be hallowed ground," Jensen said. "No Marine can set foot on Lebanon without memories flooding."

Other evacuees so far include at least 2,860 Britons, 1,000 Italians, 608 Indians, 3,500 Germans, 560 Greeks and 1,000 Turks.

___

Associated Press Writer Maria Sanminiatelli in Nicosia, Cyprus, contributed to this story.



Copyright © 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.



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To Save a Revolution

By David Ignatius
Friday, July 21, 2006; Page A17

You could sense the hurt and anger as Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora pleaded this week to the U.S. ambassador and other diplomats in Beirut for a halt to Israeli attacks on Lebanese targets. "The country has been torn to shreds," he said. "I hope you will not let us down."

The challenge for the Bush administration as the Lebanon war explodes into its second week is just that -- to keep faith with Siniora and his Cedar Revolution, even as it stands by its close ally Israel. This isn't simply a question of appearances and public diplomacy. Unless Siniora's government can be strengthened, there is little hope for achieving the U.S. and Israeli goal of bringing Hezbollah's guerrillas under lasting control.

"America's role is to energize a political outcome that helps to satisfy Israeli military objectives by other means," says one administration official. The problem is that the American diplomatic timetable is so slow that by the time a cease-fire is reached -- more than a week off, by U.S. estimates -- Lebanon may be too broken to be put back together anytime soon.

Administration officials rightly insist that returning to the status quo in Lebanon would be a mistake. After last year's triumph of forcing a withdrawal of Syrian troops, Siniora's government was struggling (and largely failing) to establish a viable nation. This nation-building effort was hamstrung by Hezbollah's insistence that it maintain what amounted to a state within a state.
The administration's strategy is to let Israel do the dirty work of breaking Hezbollah and then move in a foreign "stabilization force" to bolster the Lebanese army. Once Israel has pushed the guerrillas north, this international force would help the Lebanese army deploy to the southern border with Israel and the eastern border with Syria. The plan is for a beefed-up successor to the existing United Nations force in southern Lebanon, known as UNIFIL.

The administration's informal deadline for getting a U.N. mandate for this new international force is July 31, when UNIFIL's current mandate expires. The French now command that force, and the United States hopes they can remain in that role, with new troops coming from such robust military powers as Italy, Turkey and Canada.

Siniora has privately warned the Bush administration that by bombing so many targets in Lebanon, Israel is undermining its own strategic goals. Lebanese are angry with Hezbollah for starting the war by kidnapping Israeli soldiers, and most want to see the militia under government control. But Siniora has asked why the Israelis are hitting Lebanese airports, ports, roads, villages and other targets that primarily affect civilians. And he has criticized attacks on the Lebanese army, which even the Israelis say is the key to long-run stability and security.

Some Bush administration officials share Siniora's concern about the scope of Israeli attacks. These officials are said not to understand Israeli targeting decisions. The administration is understood to have communicated this concern to Jerusalem.

The Lebanon crisis has put the administration in a double bind. U.S. officials know they need to move soon toward a cease-fire to preserve any chance for the Siniora government to regain control of the country. But they don't want to move so quickly that they prevent Israel from completing its primary military mission of destroying Hezbollah's arsenal of missiles and pushing the Shiite guerrillas back from the border. The administration's two-track approach is perhaps summed up in Augustus Caesar's famous admonition: "Make haste slowly."

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will head for the Middle East this weekend to try to animate this diplomacy. She has no plans to stop in Syria, and that's a sensible decision. It's up to the Syrians to demonstrate that they can play a positive role -- not least to their Sunni Arab neighbors, who are angry about President Bashar al-Assad's alliance with Shiite Iran and its proxies. A recent claim by Syrian intelligence officials that they have no control over Hamas leader Khaled Meshal is said to have infuriated Egypt's intelligence chief, Omar Suleiman, who responded indignantly: "Don't give us that! We are not Mauritania! We are Egypt!"

Supporting Israel and Lebanon at the same time is a tricky task -- especially at a moment when the bombs are flying between one nation and the other. Unless the administration moves quickly to demonstrate that it supports the Siniora government, and not just Israel, its larger strategy for defusing the conflict may begin to unravel. Administration officials recognize that a stable Lebanon cannot be achieved by military action alone. But for now, all the world sees is Hezbollah rockets and Israeli bombs.



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Security and Defense: Udi Adam's war
By YAAKOV KATZ
 
 
 


Last month, the Northern Command conducted a massive exercise to practice war with Hizbullah. At the time, senior officers claimed that the IDF's working assumption was that the border could flare up at any moment, although it's doubtful anyone believed then that the situation would evolve into an all-out war.

The exercise was considered a groundbreaking success in that it simulated a new concept in the art of warfare under consideration by the General Staff. Dubbed "Integration of Branches," the concept essentially takes the chief of staff out of the operational picture and sets the regional commander, in this case OC Northern Command Maj.-Gen. Udi Adam, in charge of what the IDF is now calling the "operation zone."

In the past, the regional commander was only in charge of his own ground forces plus a restricted section of the battle zone. Air and navy forces were under the command of the chief of staff, as were decisions about incursions into enemy territory.

This new concept, Adam's brainchild, was implemented last week for the first time in Operation Change of Direction against Hizbullah. In contrast to previous wars, Adam is running the show. He is in charge of ground forces operating in Lebanon, navy missile ships and IAF fighter jets, all out of the underground bunker at command headquarters in Safed. IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz is still in the picture, but more on the level of setting policy, dealing with the diplomatic echelon and overseeing Israel's other fronts - in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

But for Adam, his officers say, Operation Change of Direction is more than just another war. He is the first son of an IDF general to also become a member of the General Staff. His father was Maj.-Gen. (res.) Yekutiel Adam, the former IDF deputy chief of staff, killed in June 1982 during Operation Peace for Galilee in Lebanon, the same country where his son is currently pursuing the war against Hizbullah.

Kuti, as he was called, had been appointed head of the Mossad by Menachem Begin but was killed before he could take up the post by a Lebanese gunman at the age of 54, becoming the highest-ranking officer in IDF history to be killed in action. He was the mastermind behind the famous Entebbe raid as well as the bombing of the Osirak nuclear reactor in Iraq.

When Adam speaks of his father the emotion is noticeable in his voice. "I think and don't think about him," Adam told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday. "He accompanies me throughout the fighting. Once this is all over I will have time to sit and think things through."

The impact the slain general had on his son is evident. Adam is one of those tough and strict commanders who keeps a safe distance from the public eye, just like his father, his officers say.

The Northern Command post is Adam's second position as an IDF major general, an appointment he received last year after he already had one foot out the door following the completion of his tenure as OC Logistics Directorate, in which he oversaw the smooth military implementation of the disengagement. He is a rare bird within the General Staff, avoiding politicians, and has very few confidants, those who serve with him say. He is far from arrogant and weighs every word before speaking.

Adam, his officers said, took the news of the kidnapping of two soldiers in the North last week by Hizbullah very hard. "He recognizes that there was an operational failure there," one officer explained. "But at the moment there is a war and we try not to focus on it." Brig.-Gen. Avi Ashkenazi, brother of Maj.-Gen. (res.) Gabi Ashkenazi, a former deputy chief of staff and the newly-appointed director-general of the Defense Ministry, has been appointed to head an investigative committee into the incident.

But with time running out for Israel's operation in the North, Adam is under pressure to step up the offensive so the operation can be declared a victory for Israel, with Hizbullah dealt a severe enough blow to prevent it from even thinking about launching any such future attack.

That offensive is currently focused on how to stop the Katyusha rocket launchings. The stated goal of the mission is to "significantly hurt" Hizbullah, but even though several members of the General Staff said this week that 40-50 percent of the group's military capabilities had been destroyed, it still succeeded in firing between 100-150 rockets a day at Israel. Officers also speak about "high-ranking" Hizbullah operatives killed in the action. But ask them for the names of the bad guys killed and they suddenly turn quiet.

So where has the damage been done? Israel has been laying siege to Lebanon, has bombed the Beirut Airport as well as highway bridges and entire neighborhoods, but Hizbullah remains as stubborn an enemy as it was before the operation was launched. Until now, the majority of Israel's offensive has been by air and last week's assault on central Lebanon appears to have also proven effective in destroying some of the terrorist organization's long-range missiles.

But to get to the Katyusha launchers in the south, the IDF has decided to deploy elite units inside Lebanon in pinpoint operations similar to the one during which two Maglan soldiers were killed on Wednesday. The IDF has been holding back from recommending a massive ground incursion although the Northern Command, Adam insists, is ready for the possibility.

The thing about the air campaign, a high-ranking IAF officer explained this week, is that it was based on intelligence and since Israel is not on the ground in Lebanon, the intelligence is difficult to come by. The IDF, however, does not want to have to send troops into Lebanon, officers said. The loss of lives there would be unbearable, they explained, referring to a list of surprises in store for them should ground forces enter - ranging from Hizbullah covert cells to hundreds if not thousands of mines and explosive devices planted along the border.

But Adam, the man at the forefront of the campaign, says that damage has been caused to the Hizbullah. Yes, he admits, it is still firing rockets at Israel but it is also simultaneously suffering loses. Time is of the essence here, he says, and while some generals have spoken of the need for another week, Adam seeks more than that. "This won't take months or a year but we do need several more weeks," he says.

Adam, however, is not fooling himself into believing that a military operation will solve the Hizbullah problem. He believes the violence will ultimately only cease via a diplomatic solution, one that sees Lebanon fully implement UN Resolution 1559 calling for the disarmament of Hizbullah as well as the deployment of Lebanese soldiers along the border with Israel.

"There is nothing that can be solved just by the military," he says. "There is a need for a diplomatic solution and that is what we are doing - trying to create the optimal conditions for a diplomatic solution."
 
 
 
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