Global Policy Forum

Inside a hastily constructed watchtower, Hezbollah sentries gaze across the electrified barbed-wire fence that separates Lebanon from Israel. They note the comings and goings of Israeli patrols, and they watch for anyone getting close enough to the fence to pass messages across.

On the Israeli side, there is a heavily fortified army post with steel barriers to shield against anti-tank rockets. Israeli troops do not venture outside on foot, and the army instead relies on jeep patrols, security cameras and reconnaissance drones.

At night, both sides bathe the border with floodlights, and Hezbollah fighters often blare songs and Quranic chants over loudspeakers.

More than two years after Israel ended its 22-year occupation of southern Lebanon, this is still the tensest border in the Middle East. Israeli forces are barely 20 yards from members of Hezbollah, the Shiite Muslim group that fought a long guerrilla war to oust Israel from the south.

Since the Israeli withdrawal in May 2000, the Lebanese government has refused to deploy its troops along the border, leaving the area under Hezbollah's control. The border has been largely quiet, except for occasional fighting along a disputed area known as Shebaa Farms. But in the past two months, Israeli officials have ratcheted up the rhetoric against Hezbollah, accusing the group of stockpiling thousands of surface-to-surface rockets along the border. Israeli officials say most of the rockets were provided to Hezbollah by its longtime patron, Iran, and delivered through Syria.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has accused Hezbollah of preparing to attack Israel if the United States goes to war against Iraq.

Lebanese officials have dismissed the Israeli accusations as war-mongering. But some Lebanese view Sharon's comments as a sign that Israel could use a U.S. war in Iraq as a chance to finish off Hezbollah.

In a typical response, Hezbollah has refused to confirm or deny whether it has stockpiled missiles along the border. "We are ready at any moment to face any Israeli aggression against Lebanon," said a senior Hezbollah official who asked not to be named. "The Israelis can start a battle, but they won't be able to control its consequences."

Hezbollah has developed a military infrastructure along the border, including weapons storage depots, anti-aircraft batteries and observation posts. But there are no outward signs of the 9,000 Katyusha rockets, which are four feet long and have a range of about 12 miles, that Israeli officials say are deployed in the south.

"We have not seen any long-range weapons in the area that we patrol," said Timur Goksel, spokesman for U.N. forces along the border. "These missiles could be hidden, but that's very difficult." Syrian officials deny Israeli allegations that they served as a conduit for missile shipments from Iran to Hezbollah. But Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Walid Al Mouallem hinted that Hezbollah is prepared to counter any attack.

Israeli officials say they are not interested in opening a new front with Hezbollah at a time when Israeli forces have reoccupied most Palestinian cities in the West Bank and are trying to quell the two-year-old Palestinian uprising. But analysts say Israel cannot live indefinitely with a well-armed and motivated militia poised along its northern border.

In September, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage described Hezbollah as "the A-team of terrorism," ranking it above Osama bin Laden's Al Qaida network. That and other statements by Bush administration officials have alarmed Lebanese and Syrian leaders, who fear that the United States could give Israel a green light to target Hezbollah.

The Bush administration has repeatedly urged Syria, which has 20,000 troops in Lebanon, to restrain Hezbollah. In April, Secretary of State Colin Powell visited the Lebanese and Syrian capitals urging leaders to put a stop to a spate of Hezbollah attacks on Israeli positions in the disputed Shebaa Farms area. Israel retaliated with air strikes on southern Lebanon, and Israeli officials threatened to attack Syrian troops in Lebanon. The situation calmed soon after Powell's visit, and diplomats attributed the de-escalation to Syrian pressure on Hezbollah. Hezbollah draws its support from Lebanon's Shiite Muslim community, the country's largest religious sect, making up about 40 per cent of the population.

Since its founding in the early 1980s, Hezbollah has received financial, military and political support from Iran, the world's only Shiite-controlled country. Some in the Lebanese government, especially Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, want to rein in Hezbollah, fearing that massive Israeli reprisals would set back a country that still has not recovered from its devastating 15-year civil war. But pressuring Hezbollah to disarm could unleash the same kinds of sectarian tensions that sparked the war in 1975.

In many ways, Hezbollah is too well entrenched in Lebanese society to be removed by the government or even Syria. The group runs a virtual mini-state, controlling the crowded Shiite suburbs of Beirut and most of south Lebanon. It controls a tenth of the 120 seats in the Lebanese parliament; it runs schools and hospitals; it operates a television station; and it offers small-business loans.

"Hezbollah is more than just a militia," the Lebanese official said. "It's a social and political movement that can no longer be dislodged from this society.''

FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Global Policy Forum distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C íŸ 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.