ONE MORE BARRIER TO PEACE IN LEBANON - ISRAEL LOSES GROUND, SHIITES GAIN MARTYR IN JBRANI

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000707040029-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 20, 2011
• Sequence Number: 29
• Publication Date: March 10, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

1 Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/20 :CIA-RDP90-009658000707040029-6
BOSTON GLUBE
AR T I CLTs APPEAR7CD 10 March 19 Zi 5
ON PAGL~_ ~ ' ~ Cj
THE MIDEAST
Qne more ~ barrier
to eace in
.. Lebanon
.p
;Israel loses ground,. Shiites gain martyr in Jbrani
3
By Curtis Wilkie failed in the end. As two respected Israeli
~ Globe Staff journalists; Ze'ev Schiff and Ehud Ya'ari,
way he did Khalil Jbrani i.eoanon war
.. ,.t.io.,ea ,. ?_..._a...._ o__ "The PI,n lnct itc r1t+fPnAPr1 fnnthnlrl in
`~ merely turned into 'a human uation, it was plain to see that the Pales-
; bomb and flung himself against the lsrae- tinians had not been crushed in defeat.
lis. The exodus from Beirut augured hard
Jbrani, a leader of Amal, the Shiite times for [Yasser] Arafat and his men,
Moslem movement, and an exponent of but they showed no signs of despair or
'suicide missions to drive the Israeli army dismay. Already they were weaving a
out of southern Lebanon, was killed along myth of valor around the chapter of the
~ with 11 others last Monday when a bomb siege, laying the basis for their political
exploded on the roof of his headquarters and psychological recovery. The 60.000
in the village of Maarakeh.. _ shells and countless bombs that had
rained down on Beirut had not buried the
A day after his death, tape recordings pLO."
of Jbrani's fiery speeches were already
, being broadcast from,the loudspeakers of After the massacres at Sabra and Sha-
amosque in his hometown, and crowds tila by the Phalangists, the Israelis' clos-
were marching in his name in the streets est allies in Lebanon, the relationship
~ of Beirut and Tyre. - with the Christian forces deteriorated,
~ and Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon
~ Tsrael is being blamed for setting the
explosion, and Sheikh Mehdi Shamshed- was forced to resign. Though Sharon, the
din, the spiritual leader of the Shiites, archenemy of the peace movement in ls-
called for Arabs throughout the Mideast rael, no longer guides the military, it
to join in a 'jihad" - a holy war - to expel seems that many of his principles are be-
the Israeli army of occupation. ing applied.
' ~ Maarakeh has thus become another Nea Israeli tack on reprisals
tragic way-stop, along with Sabra and Where Israel once retaliated against
Shatila, on a three-year journey that has pL0 attacks by bombing Palestinian ref-
, proved so destructive. in that time, the Is- ugee camps on the grounds that they
raeli adventure has moved in rapid stages sere bases for terrorism, the Israeli army
from a conflict with the Palestine Liber- is now responding to ambushes by Shiite
anon Organization (PLO) to a misalliance guerrillas by conducting methodical raids
with the Christian Phalangists to what of Shiite villages, usually leaving in their
one Israeli calls "a bloody deadlock" with
;the Shiites of southern Lebanon. _ wake a body. The Israeli operations,
t _ which have become known as "Iron
j Public support of the Israeli invasion Fist," have the earmarks of Latin Ameri-
of Lebanon collapsed here within three can death squads. Israeli officers insist
months, and the'time between the massa- that the victims are shot while trying to
c?res in the Palestinian refugee camps of escape interrogation. United Nations
Beirut in September .1982 and today leas troops in the area say the victims are shot
been a period of unrelenting violence and in the head.
frustration. With each Shiite attack -scores of Is-
~ Despite the superior firepower of the raeli soldiers have been killed since the
:Israeli army, the invasien has been a los- National Resistance Movement, an alli-
ing exercise. Even its stated purpose - to ance of Moslem militias, declaredwvar on
:eliminate the presence of the PLO -has ~ the army of the occupation more than a
~ ~ --- ,
('~~11tit~
Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/20 :CIA-RDP90-009658000707040029-6
 Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/20 :CIA-RDP90-009658000707040029-6
year ago -and with each Israeli reprisal,
the hatred builds.
The Shiite anger reached new heights
after the bomb went off in Maarakeh.
There is noway to prove who was respon-
sible, thou hiite leaders oint out that
tfie ]srae i army, accompanied by plain-
clothes intelligence agents, swept
throw t e own ours ore in~he
most massive rat o 'Iron Fist.
Jbrani was 25, a thin man, with a
wispy beard andascetic features who had
been a schoolteacher before he took up
arms. In an interview with The Globe last
month, he talked of the glory of martyr-
dom. His eyes had the look of a man
doomed.
Khalil Jbrani, to life as well as death,
represents the enormous misunderstand-
ing that has developed between the Israe-
lis and the Shiites. Jbrani could not com-
prehend why the Israelis wanted to stay
in his land. The Israelis have not yet
come to grips with a faith that compels
members of the Shiite resistance to drive
to their own deaths in cars loaded with
explosives. '
Even before they became open en-
emies, the Israelis were insensitive to the
Shiites, who are the largest population
bloc in southern Lebanon. In the fall of
1983, an Israeli military convoy attempt-
ed to drive through the middle of a holy
procession in Nabatiyeh during the time
of "ashura," when Shiite men flog them-
selves. "It was indicative of the lack of
understanding, the lack of interest" on
the part of the soldiers, one Israeli official
lamented. It created a riot. Within weeks, .
the Shiites and Israelis were killing one
another. ,
A hardening of attitudes
"It is a genuine tragedy." said Clinton
Bailey, who has served as an interlocutor ;
between his government oC Israel and the ,;
Shiites. "Both sides are in a legitimate -
yuandary." There is, he said, "ail Israeli ,
opaqueness in understanding the impor- ;
tance of the Shiites" coupled with "a lack -
of responsibility in the Shiite communi-
ty" to reach an agreement with the Israe- ,
lis.
The "opaqueness" is perhaps demon- ,
strated by the words of Uri Lubrani, the _
coordinator of Israeli activities in south-
ern Lebanon. In denying Israeli complic-
ity in the bombing at Maarakeh, he at-
tributed the deaths to "an inside struggle
within Amal." In fact, Maarakeh - a
tough, grim and tightly disciplir-ed con-
trolled village -appears more ur-ited be- _
hind Amal than any other location In the -
country.
In an earlier interview with the Israeli
newspaper, Ma'ariv, Lubrani failed to
make a distinction between Amal and the
more radical Shiite force. Hezbollah (par- ;,
ty of god). "In my opinion, Shiite terror-
ism will follow us... Such terrorism de-
rives the majority of its motivations from ;
religious-messianic Shiite values, with its
final goal being Jerusalem and not the
northern settlements." ,
Hezbollah, a much smaller force, is
linked to the Iranian Islamic revolution.
and its goal is, indeed, to claim Jerusa- .
lem. Amal, however, has as its goal a re-.
storation of Lebanese sovereignty with
rights for all religious groups. Amal lead-
ers never expressed an interest in Jerusa-~
lem, and until "Iron Fist" began last
month, they swore that they only wanted
Israel to leave their country. Now they
have vowed to attack the Galilee. and
once they are able to bring heavy weap-~
ons south from Beirut into artillery';
range, they are likely to do so.
"What is happening," said Bailey. Is-"
rael's leading authority on the Shiites, "is',
that the continuing friction ~~ith Israel is ,
making people more extreme. They are
now ready to cross over the line, to say we
have nothing to lose, let's have a jihad." ;
Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/20 :CIA-RDP90-009658000707040029-6