Middle East updatePalestinians catch Israel, Syria, and Hezbollah by surprise

Palestinians rally at Israeli border crossing // Source: alternativenews.org

On 15 May 1948 the State of Israel was born. For Israel this is Independence Day, but for Palestinians the day is naqba (catastrophe in Arabic). For the last sixty-three years, Palestinians have marked the day with rallies, demonstrations, and speeches. Even in the Palestinian territories, occupied by Israel since June 1967, the day of naqba is marked in schools and in public squares.

This year the naqba commemorations included something else, and perhaps more menacing: Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Palestinians gathered at two spots along the Israeli border:

• On the Syrian side of the Syria-Israel border, opposite the Druze town of Majdal Shams. The town, located at the northern tip of the Israeli occupied Golan Heights, sits just inside the Israeli border with Syria.
• In Lebanon, near the town of Maroun a-Ras, on the Israel-Lebanon border just inside Lebanon.

It is not yet clear whether the two events were coordinated or not, but in late morning on Sunday, hundreds of Palestinians from each group of protesters rushed the Israeli border. The two groups encountered different Israeli responses.

Lebanon

Lebanon is now controlled by Hezbollah, the pro-Iranian Shi’a organization. The organization has been armed to the teeth by Iran and Syria, and proved in the past that it was willing to use its military capabilities. Moreover, Iran views Hezbollah as an integral part and a tool of its regional policies, and Iranian officers, instructors, and engineers are guiding Hezbollah’s training, fortifications construction, and more.

As a result, Israel has a considerable military presence along the Israel-Lebanon border (and in the sky, where Israeli drones and blimps keep a watchful eye over Hezbollah’s military moves). The Palestinian protesters in south Lebanon thus faced a watchful, even anxious, finger-on-the-trigger Israeli military – and they paid the price. When they kept approaching the border, ignoring instructions from Israeli forward positions to turn back, the Israeli military opened fire, killing ten and wounding a few dozens. The Palestinians marchers never managed to cross into Israel.

Syria

In Majdal Shams the situation was different. Syria has never been an easy negotiating partner, but Israeli leaders acknowledge that once Syria signs an agreement, it keeps it to the letter. Thus, since 1967, there has never been a Palestinian terrorist incursion into Israel from Syria. Palestinians militants entered Israel – or fired rockets at Israel – from Egypt, the Gaza Strip, Jordan, the West Bank, and Lebanon – but never from Syria.

As a result, the Israeli forces along the Israeli-Syrian border are small, and their rules of engagement more relaxed than the ROEs followed by the Israeli military along the Israel-Lebanon border.

Thus, when hundreds of Palestinian demonstrators on the Syrian side of the border rushed the flimsy chain-link fence along the border, no one stopped them, and about 130 of them managed to cross into Israel and into the central square of Majdal Shams. There were a few clashes, and four demonstrators were killed, but Israel allowed to leaders of the town to deal with the issue, and the demonstrators left Israel after a few hours (not all of them: one Syrian Palestinian took a cab to Tel Aviv to see the sights).

Analysis

It is easy to accuse the Syrian leadership of allowing the demonstrators to cross into Israel in the hope of inviting an Israeli military reaction which would divert attention from the daily killing of civilians by the Syrian military. It is also plausible to argue that the Iranians, opposing to any peace negotiations between the Arab states and Israel, welcomed the clashes along the Israel-Lebanon border.

These arguments are plausible, but problematic. Syria and Hezbollah are not friends of Israel, and it is clear that they are not guided in their policies – foreign or domestic – by the principles which guided Mahatma Gandhi. Syria and Hezbollah, though – the former since 1967, the latter since 1982 – have proven time and again that they insist on complete monopoly over the use of force along their respective borders with Israel. Both Syria and Israel proved willing to go to war with Israel (Syria in 1973 and 1982; Hezbollah in 1996 and 2006) — but at the time of their choosing and for reasons that they determined to be important.

Both Syria and Hezbollah support the Palestinian cause – but on their own terms and with means of their own choosing. As is the case with other Arab countries, support for the Palestinians is combined with the notion that the Palestinians and their demands can also be a nuisance.

For the Palestinians to behave in a provocative way toward Israel, and thus risk an Israeli military escalation on Israel’s – rather on Hezbollah’s or Syria’s terms – is something both Hezbollah and Syria have been unwilling to tolerate in the past, and it is not likely that they allowed it this time.

Tomorrow: the 2011 naqba commemoration repercussions