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."