By Adam Hanieh
RAMALLAH — Fighting has escalated in the last week in areas of southern Lebanon occupied by the Israeli army. Since August 20, Israel has launched four air strikes against forces fighting the occupation.
This brings the number of attacks to 117 since the 1996 Operation Grapes of Wrath, which led to the deaths of more than 180 Lebanese civilians sheltering in a UN compound in the southern town of Qana.
Israel claims the attacks are in response to the activities of Hizbullah, an Islamist group active in the area. On August 18, the Israeli-backed South Lebanese Army launched an attack on the Lebanese city of Sidon, killing six people. Hizbullah responded with attacks against the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona.
On August 20 Israel intervened with a wide-ranging attack deep inside Lebanon, targeting civilian populations in southern and eastern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley. During these attacks, the electricity plant of Sidon was bombed, leaving 80,000 people without electricity.
On August 23 a car bomb exploded in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, killing a leader of the Amal militia. Amal, a Syrian-supported Islamist group, has also actively opposed the Israeli occupation.
The UN monitoring committee established after Operation Grapes of Wrath blamed Lebanon and Syria for the escalation in violence and called on the two countries to prevent Hizbullah from launching attacks against Israel. The US also called for a halt to Hizbullah activities.
Since the end of the Lebanese civil war, Syria has played a major role in Lebanese affairs. This role was agreed to by the US, France and Israel as a means of controlling the activities of Palestinian resistance forces in Lebanon.
The positions of speaker, prime minister and president were divided between Shia, Sunni and Christian factions, but billionaire Prime Minister Rafik Hariri became the major player in this triumvirate. Hariri owns a major TV station, newspapers and the company Solidere, which has been awarded most of the reconstruction contracts in postwar Lebanon.
Because of historical business and social ties with Lebanon, France is the imperialist power which stands to gain most from this reconstruction; some observers have claimed that Lebanon has the potential to become a financial centre to rival Tel Aviv. The challenges this would place on the hegemony of US capital in the region have been suggested as one reason for the overwhelming support Israel has been given by the US to continue the occupation of southern Lebanon.
The instability caused by this occupation makes it difficult for Lebanon ever to completely recover from the war. Within Israel, numerous voices — including families of soldiers serving in the Israeli army, leading Israeli army figures and parliamentary members — have called for a review of the occupation policy.