The Israel Defense Force has been a victorious army from its very inception. It has suffered setbacks. It has lost battles. But it has never lost a war. Its success has been predicated on offense, surprise, advance.
In view of that history, it may be surprising that the IDF has become pre-eminently expert in the art of withdrawal. Israeli soldiers have never been routed. Their withdrawals always have been the results of political decisions taken for political, not military ends. The experience gained is being put to good use in the current withdrawal of the IDF from south Lebanon.
The first political withdrawal took place 36 years ago when, in 1949, the newly formed IDF pulled out of the small parcel’s war for independence. Israel and Lebanon signed an armistice agreement at that time which held more firmly than those signed with its other Arab foes.
Israel withdrew twice from Sinai: first after the 1956 Suez campaign and later, in 1973, in the series of coordinated pull-backs in the aftermath of the Yom Kippur War. Israel gave up the Syrian garrison town of Kuneitra on the Golan Heights as part of the disengagement of forces agreement.
The withdrawal from Sinai in 1973 consisted of two widely separated movements. The first was from Egyption territory west of the Suez Canal where the IDF had pushed to within less than 100 miles from Cairo. That withdrawal was part of the disengagement of forces agreement with Egypt negotiated by Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.
It laid the groundwork for Israel’s carefully planned later pullback across the Sinai peninsula to the international border in compliance with Camp David and the Israel-Egypt peace treaty. Whatever could be moved was returned to Israel, what could not was destroyed.
PAST EXPERIENCES HELP IN PRESENT EVACUATION
The experience gained from those withdrawals accounts for the swiftness and efficiency with which the IDF is currently evacuating south Lebanon. Detailed planning for the lebanon withdrawal was completed at General Headquarters in only three days. It was based on the earlier lessons how to dismantle and transport equipment.
The major difference between the Lebanese and Sinai withdrawals is that the latter was through largely uninhabited country where there was no risk of harassment by hostile elements. In south Lebanon, the IDF is pulling out of densely populated regions where hostile elements are launching lethal attacks to speed it on its way.
It is difficult for some to perceive the political gains for which the IDF is leaving Lebanon. Many academicians who specialize in Arab affairs suggest that the recently increased and bolder attacks on Israelis on the West Bank stem from the Arabs’ belief that the IDF is being forced out of Lebanon by terrorist attacks.
That view has been seized upon by militant Jewish settlers and their supporters in the rightwing political factions to assail the unity coalition government for ordering the withdrawal from Lebanon.
MOST FAVOR IDF WITHDRAWAL
But an opinion poll, published February 3, showed that over 60 percent of the adult Jewish population favors withdrawal of the IDF. The poll was taken for Maariv by the Modi’ in Ezrachi Research Institute.
According to the results, 33.7 percent support withdrawal accompanied by local security arrangements. Another 23.9 percent prefer a partial withdrawal with security arrangements, and 15.5 percent favor withdrawal to the border with no conditions. “Local security arrangements” were not defined.
Only 5.9 percent of the respondents think the IDF should remain in Lebanon for the “foreseeable future,” and 17.1 percent would support withdrawal only if there are prior arrangements with Syria or the Lebanese government. Most of the respondents favoring withdrawal are women; persons of both sexes in the better educated, higher income brackets; and reserve soldiers serving in Lebanon.
GLAD TO BE LEAVING LEBANON
Israeli soldiers, regulars and reservists alike, are glad to be leaving Lebanon. Their feelings were summed up by one reserve soldier nearing the end of his third tour of duty in Lebanon: “The first time I came here I thought it was a very beautiful country. Now I don’t think I want to be here anymore.”
He and his fellow troopers are busy removing military equipment, leaving only the barest necessities for the rearguard soldiers who will remain in the area between the Awali and Litani rivers until the final stage of the three-stage withdrawal process brings the IDF back behind the international border, probably sometime next summer.
The road from Sidon to the border is now jammed with tank transporters and trucks loaded with prefabricated barracks, water towers, field toilets and kitchens, telephone poles and all other manner of non-combat equipment that can be moved.
From now until the first stage of withdrawal is completed on February 18, soldiers will sleep in tents instead of barracks. They will have only makeshift toilets and cold water showers. But those are hardships they are prepared to endure in the knowledge that soon they will be home.
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