Israeli Minister Says Fatal Shoot-Out on Lebanese Border Changed Balance

Yossi Peled, an Israeli Cabinet minister and retired general, said last week’s deadly shoot-out between the Israeli and Lebanese armies has altered a delicate balance the two sides have maintained for years.

“Even when we were circulating deep into Lebanon, fighting Hezbollah, Amal and other groups, the Lebanese army would always close its eyes, as if it wasn’t there,” Peled, who was head of Israel’s northern command from 1986 to 1991, said today in an interview at his office in Tel Aviv. “For the Lebanese army to initiate fire at the Israeli army, that’s new. It’s a significant change.”

An Israeli officer, two Lebanese soldiers and a journalist were killed on Aug. 3 after a Lebanese soldier fired on Israeli forces who were cutting trees along the United Nations-mandated “Blue Line” border between the two countries. The U.S. State Department blamed Lebanon for the incident, saying Israel was working on its own side of the border. U.S. lawmakers are holding up a $100 million military aid package to Lebanon because of the incident.

Israel fought a monthlong war with the Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement four years ago in which about 1,200 Lebanese and 159 Israelis were killed. The agreement that ended the conflict included the deployment of Lebanese forces in the country’s south to prevent further clashes.

Israel says Lebanese soldiers fired first and deliberately ambushed its troops. The clash occurred because the two nations couldn’t agree on how to remove a tree that was on Israel’s side of the border, UN Under-Secretary-General Alain LeRoy told reporters in New York on Aug. 4. Israel rejected the UN’s offer to cut down the tree, he said.

‘Warning Shot’

The Lebanese army said its first shot was meant as warning fire. Lebanese army chief Jean Kahwagi said Israel bears “complete responsibility” for the fighting because its patrol entered territory on which Lebanon had expressed reservations in 2000 when the Blue Line was delineated by the UN, the country’s L’Orient-Le Jour newspaper reported Aug. 5.

“For many years, we used to say that if somebody would be able to bring in the Lebanese army, maybe this border will be a much quieter border,” Peled, 69, said. “It was true for some years, since 2006 till now.”

Hezbollah, which is considered a terrorist group by Israel and the U.S., has representatives in the Lebanese government and parliament.

Peled is a minister without portfolio and member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party. He has been the government’s representative in assisting former members of Israel’s proxy South Lebanon Army militia. Many of the fighters and their families, considered traitors in Lebanon, were brought to Israel in 2000 when Israeli forces withdrew after a two- decade occupation of southern Lebanon.

To contact the reporters on this story: Jonathan Ferziger in Tel Aviv at jferziger@bloomberg.net;

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