751 Lebanese ‘sabras’

Israel’s provision of medical sanctuary for thousands of Lebanese villagers wounded or displaced in the bitter civil war that raged in the southern region of that country has resulted in 751 Lebanese babies born on Israeli soil over the last two years. They are Lebanese “sabras,” according to Francis Rezak, political advisor to the south Lebanese army commander, Maj. Saad Haddad.

Rezak, who headed a delegation of south Lebanese dignitaries during a visit to Kibbutz Shamir last weekend, said the infants were born in Israeli hospitals where their mothers found refuge because the fighting out them off from hospitals in their own country. In addition, over 2500 south Lebanese villagers were treated in Israeli hospitals for injuries sustained in battles and there are at least 500 Lebanese “in whose bodies Israeli blood runs,” Rezak said. He was apparently referring to children of Lebanese women fathered by Israelis.

Rezak, a Maronite Christian, was the first Lebanese to seek assistance for a relative injured by Palestinian terrorists. He said that 15 minutes after he asked an Israeli soldier for aid in April, 1976, a helicopter arrived to evacuate the injured person to an Israeli hospital. According to Rezak, this was the start of Israel’s “open fence” policy on the Lebanese border.

He spoke bitterly of the Vatican’s failure so for to send Israel a letter of appreciation for its humane activities on behalf of Christian villagers in southern Lebanon. The villagers had asked for such a letter. Rezak was also sharply critical of France, the one-time mandatory power in Lebanon, which he said seems uninterested in the tragic events in southern Lebanon. “The French and the people of the Vatican have had too much of Arab oil to drink and it is difficult for them to speak,” he said.