6 — THE BULLETIN — Thursday, August 5,1982
(Continued from Page 5)
Three IDF soldiers were hit, one seriously.
Less than four minutes later, another shell exploded, again less than SO metres from the building, leading everyone to conclude the PLO had again broken the ceasefire.
Surveying the situation, Kedar motioned for us to get down against the wall. /
His next^words were, **I would suggest you leave here — quickly."
Scrambling for our car, we made our way down to East Beirut to the Hotel Alexandra, the press centre for Western journalists. There were a number of foreign reporters sitting around the bar monitoring Radio Beirut and two young Moslem brothers. Said, 26, and Khader, 23, both recently escaped from West Beirut.
Although hesitant to talk because their father was still behind, they both noted their contempt for the PLO.
"They have ruined our existence over the years. This is a peaceful country wishing harm to no one, but^ we live in constant fe£^r for our lives. What have we done to deserve this fate?" asked Said.
Added Khader, with a piercing expression, **I wish death on Arafat and all his murderers. Let the Israelis kUl them all."
Our conversation ended as the sound of overhead machinegun crossfire,^ coming from PLO positions in the west and Syrian positions in the east, grew louder. Our driver motioned it was time for us to leave, which we did, winding oiir way down the streets of Beirut, somehow reaching the infamous green line that divides the city.
We made a careful detour and began the long trek back to Rosh Hanikra. Along the way we ran into some IDF troops on an isolated road who beckoned us to the observation point for a good look at what was going on down below.
Temptation took over and we followed them to the top of a captured Syrian position about four kilometres from the Beirut airport. It was about five o*clock and the shelling began to intensify. But this
USSR planned troop landing In Lebanon
W.Goldiiein Photo
LEBANESE TOWN SIDON (above) reputed by television media to have been flattened during the Israel advance into Lebanon stands, by and large, intact.
time, a soldier noted, it was Israeli lire answering back.
When asked why the Israeli reply took almost two hours, he said, "We have to make sure of their positions when we fire. We try to avoid reckless shooting because the place is full of civilians."
To say the least, a trip into Lebanon these days is very illuminating. A first hand view of the situation illustrates a side of the war, one of compassion and humanity, that is rarely captured by television cameras.
Under no circumstances can war be seen as anything less than a living hell. But when comparing actions of the IDF with those of the PLp over the years, one can perhaps better understand the meaning of dignity.
The sight of soldiers helping children and innocent civilians regroup and rebuild is something plain for any observer to see. Yet incredibly, world sympathy reigns supreme for those who kill kibbutz children and passengers on coastal highways.
As international eyes focus on the "horrors" of Israel's invasion, little is said about the 10-and-l 2-year-olds
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recruited by the PLO to do the dirty work.
Soldiers everywhere tell the stories of these little children carrying white flags in the face .of oncoming Israeli . troops, and then returning the gesture by turning and firing on them with rocket-propelled grenades.
And still, Israel recently returned 200 of these "RPG kids" to their homes.
And what of Beirut? The city has been tightly encircled for weeks and seems as though it would not require a prolonged aerial bombardment to be destroyed.
Yet the IDF and the government are restrained as they seek a political solution.
i Every ; one of the numerous soldiers I interviewed over the weeks, and indeed the many civilians in Israel, expressed a burning desire to see the end of "Fatah."
But all this was consistently tempered with the concern of loss of innocent life.
"After all," said one weary soldier hitch-hiking home in the Golan Heights after a month in Lebanon, "we. have to care about people. That's what we're all about."
More Europeans vacation in Israel
JERUSALEM — In 1980 Israel had 1,066,000 tourists. In 1981 there were 26,()()0 less, a drop of some 2.5 percent.
Israers Ministry of Tourism, however, is more concerned about the steady decline of tourists from the U.S. In 1979 there were 298,000 American visitors; in 1980 only 285,000; and in 1981 the number had fallen to 268,000 — a decline of 10 percent within two years.
At the same time, the number of tourists from Europe increased, with 437,000 tourists from Wc^t Germany, France and England in 1981.
ZINS.
By JOSEPH nNKLESTONE
A Russian plan to land Soviet troops in Lebanon in the event of an emergency in which the United States might have become involved, could be the explanation why such huge stocks of arms were assembled at Palestine Liberation Organization bases in Lebanon, according to Gideon Patt, the Israeli Minister of Industry and Commerce. _
In an interview during his visit to London recently, Patt said that the Israeli intelligence services, recog-• nized as among the best in the world, had had extensive and detailed information about the strength and activities of the PLO m southern Lebanon, but even they had been surprised by what was discovered when the Israeli forces occupied the PLO bases.
"We discovered a Russian-made machine which can drill a tunnel of 15 metres in diameter through solid rock in the mountains within a very short time.
"After hundreds of metres of one such tunnel we found arms from all over the Soviet block. There were some from Saudi Arabia, but the vast majority came from Eastern Europe, including Yugoslavia.
"Not only were there weapons in these tunnels for an army of150,000 — whereas the PLO had only some 15,000 m^n— but tents and blankets and food!
"We fiund 8,000 tons of coffee beans, which can be kept only for a limited period, because they deteriorate and have to be thrown into the sea.
"Hidden, too, were 70,000 to 80,000 Kalashnikov rifles wrapped in oiled paper, thousands of rocket-propelled grenades, tens of thousands of shells, hundreds of Katyusha rockets and launchers and several SAM missile systems.
"Seven hundred heavy trucks have been making their way every day to Lebanon from Israel to pick up the material, and it will take another sixty days before the task is completed.
"The quantities of arms of various kinds is just unbelievable. Prisoners are still informing us of hitherto undiscovered arms dumps!
"We know from documents that the PLO leadership had a grand illusion that, within 18 months, the Syrians would be able to provide an air umbrella over the whole length of Lebanon by extending the range of their SAM missile batteries in the Bekaa Valley (which were destroyed" by the Israelis in one of the most brilliant actions in the entire Lebanese war).
"The PLO leaders dreamed that, within two years, the Syrians would have missiles over the skies of Galilee that would provide protection for the terrorists.
"This ^missile umbrella,* they believed, would prevent the Israeli Air Force from interveningwhile the PLO established the base for a Palestinian State in Galilee."
Even this strange illusion, Patt commented, could not explain the huge quantities of arms, a great proportion of them of the greatest sophistication, that were found stored in southern Lebanon.
"Some of these storage places were like ultra-modern cinemas. One drove into air-conditioned
tunnels, which had their own electric generators.
^ "The PLO would have been incapable of building such storage bases. Only the Americans, the IsraeUs or the Russians could have accomplished such a task. And no one has so far suggested that the Americans or the Israelis were involved.
**Moreovcr there are in Syria ovfcr 130 unmanned Russian tanks and a further 230 inLibya. And to ^ib|in|^ant0,|U^non4Ob to
would seem ridiculous if they were intended for the PLO.
"The build-up started at the end of 1979, after the signing of the Camp David accords. The Soviet Union used the entire Soviet block to send in equipment.
"Some 150,000 blankets arrived from North Korea, many thousands of Kalashnikov rifles from Bulgaria and Czechoslovakia, light ammunition from Yugoslavia, and SAM missiles from the Soviet Union.
The Russians and Arafat discussed a PLO build-up in Lebanon and how the PLO could establish itself more strongly in the country without having to fear intervention by the Lebanese authorities. Gromyko remarked: "We have Syria on one side and you on the other."
Giving what he considered was the explanation for the enormous arms build-up in southern Lebanon, Patt said: "The Americans spoke about a fast strategic deployment in the Middle East. But even so it would have taken the Americans four to five days to reach any emergency spot.
"If the Russians brought in 1,200 tanks in Syria and 2,200 tanks in Libya and huge supplies of weapons in southern Lebanon, they could fly two to three army divisions into the area immediately a crisis developed.
"By the time the Americans arrived the Russians would be in total control. The Russians do not trust the Iraqis and not even the Syrians." JCNS.
PERSPECTIVE
(Continued from Page 4)
friends remember and hate more?
What will happen to Israel if we let the Arab countries think we will not stand up for ourselves and for Jews throughout the world? What will happen if we let a generation of Israeli men think that life in Israel is without danger and even sacrifice?
Are we just puppets in a little play by the U.S. and Russia? Is it time to fiddle with the new and more sophisticated war toys?
If I were a man, could I be out there fighting, killing? Could I have made aliyah? Would there be a war if women had more say in running a country?
And then the last question. Why should Israel give the lives of her sons to keep the Jews in America safe? When will North^mericans take some responsibihty for the survival of their future? Do they care?!
I listen to the Voice of Israel, the English broadcasting service and I have joined the ranksr of those addicted to the news. Patty Golan, a friend frohi my dance classes, is reporting.
Finally I feel in touch with that world. Her report makes me feel alive, dynamic, fulL I giggle for the first time in five days as she tells her story of the silly journalists running after *stories.' Everything is a 'story.' It makes good hews. It sells. Bring out that popcorn! It*s those 'incorrigible* Israelis in their flying machines — in color. (And yet, for aU-the cynicism, weareonehellbf a countryiy
. Last Shabbat, I was visiting the Zysblats, other former VaiM»uver-ites. Daniel, their son, was saying, "Damn those terrorists. They niiflied ibiir school trip to the GidilM
It was a peaoefulday in Jerusalem. A pleasant Shabbat. But what of my friends in the North, in Lebanon? What will they come home with? Will we who sit and wait understand?
Oh-6h. there's the news ..
Keep In touch, ~ RICKl.
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