Tuesday, April 30, 1996
Community leaders feel solution may be only temporaryBy John
Digrado
Daily Bruin Staff
After 16 days of continuous fighting, south Lebanese refugees
began to return to their homes Saturday when a U.S.-brokered
cease-fire between Hezbollah factions and Israel took effect at
dawn.
For many, the homecoming was bittersweet. Civilians and
government officials on both sides of the border began the long and
tedious process of rebuilding power stations, road networks and
homes destroyed in the fighting.
Though the truce seems to be holding, local Arab, Muslim and
Jewish community leaders expressed a hopeful skepticism toward
continued peace in the region.
"In terms of ending the (conflict), it’s a small step forward,"
said Salam-al Marayati, director of the Muslim Public Affairs
Council. "But the major underlying principles regarding the Israeli
occupation of southern Lebanon have to be addressed."
Marayati called the recent cease-fire a "quick fix" that does
not adequately address the continued Israeli occupation of the
so-called security zone in south Lebanon.
"As long as Israel is going to remain in military occupation,
you’re always going to have the chance of the conflict widening,"
he said.
Maher Hathout, senior adviser for the Muslim Public Affairs
Council agreed with Marayati, saying that the peace may only be
temporary and could flare up again at any time.
"We have to differentiate between cease-fire and peace," Hathout
said. "There is no peace unless there is justice. And in the
absence of justice, any cease-fire would be just temporary."
Some members of the Jewish community expressed similar sentiment
on the situation. While the current agreement may prevent Hezbollah
from using terrorism to influence the upcoming Israeli elections,
it does not place constraints on other opposing factions in the
region.
"I think what this does is buy some time to get through the next
few weeks in neutralizing anything that Hezbollah might do" to
thwart the election, said Jay Bubis, co-chair of Southern
California chapter of Americans for Peace Now.
"But it does not deal with the possibility of terrorism from
Hamas, which I expect and fear taking place before the elections,"
he added.
Both Arab and Jewish leaders have expressed that "Operation
Grapes of Wrath" may have been a political move for Israeli Prime
Minister Shimon Peres  a show of force that would help his
campaign for the May election.
"Peres needs to do something to make (the Israelis) think he is
secure and will be able to protect the Israeli people," said Daryn
Edelman, a third-year Jewish Studies student and affiliate with The
Jewish Idea at UCLA.
"He went into Lebanon to cause and solve a problem for political
reasons. Peres has no regard for Jewish or Arab life," he
added.
However, leaders of the Jewish community contended that the
operation was not for Peres’ political benefit, and maintained that
the offensive was strictly in response to the Hezbollah’s continued
Katyusha attacks on northern Israeli border towns.
"Leaders of democracies do not launch military campaigns simply
because they feel like it," said Ido Aharoni of the Israeli
Consulate’s office in Los Angeles.
"Public opinion surveys said that (Peres’) popularity dropped
three points since the operation started. And it is very difficult
to accuse Israel of initiating the attacks.
"If you combine all three (factors) together, you will get a
good idea" of Israeli motives, Aharoni said. "(It was) definitely
not for political reasons."
Leaders also questioned the operation’s effect on the ongoing
Mideast peace process, claiming that the recent agreement does not,
by any means, settle the issue permanently.
"It’s a quick fix because we’re not dealing with the core issues
of the region," Marayati said. "Unfortunately, the peace process
has become a euphemism now, and people don’t know what it is
anymore."
Jewish community leaders agreed that the cease-fire may merely
be a stopgap measure, and that a major threat to the peace process
may still remain.
"It really remains to be seen whether the underlying causes have
been dealt with," said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the
Simon Wiesenthal Center. "Unfortunately, even with this cease-fire
and the intervention of the American administration, nothing yet
has been dealt with in a definitive way."
Hathout agreed, saying that for members of the Muslim community,
the cease-fire holds only a tentative relief from the ravages of
war.
"There is some relief that there is no daily bloodshed of
innocent people," he said. "Nonetheless, the community expects that
this is just temporary.
"This is a war with no victors at all," he continued. "This is a
war of suffering. It is a lose-lose situation."