Border visit astonishes

BERNIE BELLAN

Tiberias
“You see that fence over there?” asked 73-year-old Aryeh ben Yaakov. “Beyond that fence is ‘La-la land.’ That’s where Hezbollah has thousands of rockets stored. Oh, sure, it looks peaceful enough now, but don’t kid yourself. They’re there, all right.”

The setting was Kibbutz Misgav Am, situated directly on the border with Lebanon, and overlooking the controversial Shabba Farms, also the scene of a vicious terrorist attack in 1980.

I was there as a participant on a mission sponsored by Shurat HaDin (Israel Law Centre). On this, the fourth day of the mission, the 20 of us got our first glimpses of the kinds of views that most tourists who come to Israel do not have occasion to see.

We saw quite a bit more than the spectacular views that are available from the heights overlooking the plateaus of both Syria and Lebanon, but hearing the sound of artillery fire coming from Syria and looking down on the houses that shielded Hezbollah fighters during the summer 2006 Israeli operation in Lebanon was a eye-opening experience. The fact was not lost that Israel today is a relative oasis of calm while so much of the Arab world is locked in internal deadly struggles.

What would happen if those conflicts were resolved? That was the question posed to our Israel Defence Forces guide in the Golan Heights, a young officer whose first name was given as Jonathan, and who gave us a detailed analysis of what might happen in the not-too-distant future, at least as far as Syria is concerned.

“You see that village down there?” he asked the group, as we stood on the top of Mt. Bental, which gave us a sweeping view of the Golan Heights extending far into Syria. Jonathan was pointing to a small village in the valley that lay beneath us, called Migdal Shams. It’s a Druze village that used to be in Syrian hands, he explained. Now, it’s under Israeli control.

“But over there,” he said, pointing to another village, “that’s also a Druze village, but it’s in Syrian territory under Syrian government control and loyal to Bashar Assad’s regime.” Surrounding that village, Jonathan explained, are two rebel-held villages.

At some point, he continued, “the rebels may attack the Druze village,” which could lead to a bloodbath. It’s likely then that those Druze villagers would ask for sanctuary in Israel, as there would be no other place to run. If that were to happen, Jonathan said, Israel would allow them refuge, but by no means is Israel interested in taking in a large number of Syrian refugees.

Not all that surprisingly, he added, Syrians have yet to seek refugee status in Israel, but doctors and hospitals have consistently been treating wounded civilians and combatants who have sought medical help in Israel. Jonathan suggested it’s not surprising that Syrians reject out of hand the idea of turning to Israel for sanctuary after more than 60 years of demonizing the Jewish state.

The residents of Migdal Shams still profess loyalty to the Assad regime, Jonathan noted, even though their standard of living has improved immeasurably under Israeli control.

“I was walking through the main street of the village,” he related, “when I saw a shop flying the Syrian flag. I asked the shop owner why, in spite of all that Israel has done for him and the rest of the villagers, he was still flying a Syrian flag.

“That shop owner explained it to me this way: ‘Look,’ he said, ‘there have been four different Israeli prime ministers who were ready to give the Golan Heights back to Syria at one point or another. What do you think would happen to us if we suddenly found ourselves back in Syrian hands and the government knew that we had shown support for Israel?’”

As we stood on Mt. Bental, Jonathan pointed to an impressive-looking array of towers and antennae situated on the peak of the adjoining mountain, Mt. Avital. “That’s one of several ‘weather stations’ we have around here,” Jonathan noted. “They’ll tell us ‘whether’ the Syrians are coming or not.”

Pointing further south, Jonathan said that the rebels near where we were standing belonged to the Syrian Free Army, but that further south they’re all jihadis.

“The jihadis have spelled out what their goals are,” he explained of the difference. “First, they want to overthrow the Assad regime. Second, they want to establish sharia law over all of Syria. And third, they want to come after Israel.”

For the time being, as the Syrians continue to wage a civil war, the border with Israel remains quiet, as it has for the past 40 years. Meanwhile, Israel continues to prepare for every contingency.

The situation along the Lebanese border is much the same.

Hezbollah has remained quiet ever since the Second Lebanon War in 2006, during which Hezbollah fired thousands of missiles at Israeli targets. It ended with a ceasefire after 34 days of fighting.

Kibbutz Misgav Am is the only spot in Israel from which Lebanon, Syria and the Mediterranean Sea are all visible from the same vantage point. It lies just metres from the border with Lebanon and, even today, its residents remain on heightened alert for a terrorist attacks from Lebanon. As ben Yaakov (who looked like an old American biker and spoke with a Midwestern drawl) showed us around the kibbutz, he made references to how little lies between his kibbutz and the forces of Hezbollah, hidden for the moment but most assuredly there, he insisted.

“You see this handgun?” he asked, pointing to his holstered pistol. “I always walk around here with this gun.” It may not do much to stop a large group of attackers, ben Yaakov noted, but, in 1980, three terrorists snuck onto Misgav Am in the middle of the night.

“They saw a light on in one building. It was the nursery. They broke in and took control,” he recalled. The terrorists took the babies and toddlers in the nursery hostage, killing one toddler by bashing in her skull. Eventually, three terrorists were killed, but only after an Israeli civilian and an Israeli soldier were killed. (That particular terrorist attack was the first in which the Israel Defence Forces successfully used its K9 unit in subduing the perpetrators.)

Because of security concerns, tourists have been allowed to visit Kibbutz Misgav Am only in the past seven years, ben Yaakov noted. Hezbollah has been silent for those years, insofar as attacks on Israel are concerned. That quiet has more to do with the problems Hezbollah is now facing, as its two principle benefactors – Iran and Syria – find themselves preoccupied with their domestic situations. No one should lose sight of the fact that Israel has simply moved off the radar screen for the moment, however, at least as far as Syria and Hezbollah are concerned, he said, that situation could change quickly.

Bernie Bellan is the editor of Winnipeg’s Jewish Post and News, where a version of this article was previously published.

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