> WW News Service Digest #106
>
> 1) Lebanon: People's war defeated high-tech occupation
> by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> 2) Keep up pressure to send Elian home
> by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> 3) Strikers bring protest to museum door
> by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> 4) Pretext for war in Kosovo was a hoax
> by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> 5) South Africa general strike
> by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
>-------------------------
>Via Workers World News Service
>Reprinted from the June 8, 2000
>issue of Workers World newspaper
>-------------------------
>
>LEBANON:
>HOW PEOPLE'S WAR DEFEATED HIGH-TECH OCCUPATION
>
>By Joyce Chediac
>
>May 25, the day the last Israeli soldier was chased out of
>south Lebanon, is now called National Resistance Day.
>
>The people of Lebanon remain jubilant over their important
>victory. This win belongs not just to the Lebanese but to
>all who fight racism, national oppression and injustice.
>
>The Lebanese infliction of a Vietnam-like defeat on one of
>the most technologically sophisticated militaries in the
>world shows the potential of working people everywhere. It
>demonstrates that even in this period of worldwide reaction
>the struggle of workers and the oppressed is the
>fundamental determiner of history.
>
>The oppressed people of Lebanon were victorious over their
>Israeli occupiers despite the collapse of the Soviet Union.
>The Soviet Union had given political, economic and military
>support to progressive governments and liberation struggles
>in the Middle East. And it served as a counterweight to
>U.S. imperialism in that strategic area.
>
>Therefore this victory in Lebanon is a further testament
>to the power of an armed national-liberation movement
>rooted deep in the population.
>
>Lebanon has a total population of only 3 million. There
>were never more than a few thousand Lebanese liberation
>fighters at most. Yet a people's army did what no bourgeois
>Arab army could.
>
>Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah called this "the
>first glorious victory in 50 years of Arab-Israeli
>conflict."
>
>The leading resistance organization Hezbollah, whose flags
>now fly over the south, gets the lion's share of the credit
>for the victory. But the media noted six groups involved in
>the armed resistance, including the Lebanese Syrian
>Socialist Party, Lebanese Communist Party and Amal. In
>addition there were many people carrying weapons who had no
>obvious affiliation.
>
>Israel had expected to withdraw from Lebanon by July 7.
>That gave the Israelis time to prepare their puppet force,
>the South Lebanese Army, to occupy south Lebanon in its
>place and to reach an agreement with the Lebanese and
>Syrian governments.
>
>Instead its puppets collapsed and the Lebanese resistance
>unilaterally drove out the Israeli military.
>
>`MEMORIES OF SAIGON'
>
>According to the May 26 edition of the British magazine
>the Economist, the Israeli army left "with its tail between
>its legs. The troops pulled out in such a rush that the air
>force had to fly in and blow up all the equipment they left
>behind.
>
>"Near Houla, villagers pointed out a tank left smoldering
>in the road. Its occupants, they claimed, had jumped out
>and fled the last few hundred meters to Israel on foot.
>Later, helicopter gunships bombed the vehicle to stop it
>falling into Hezbollah's hands."
>
>No wonder analogies with the humiliating 1975 U.S.
>withdrawal from Saigon abounded in the Israeli press.
>
>"Caught with our pants down," read a headline in the
>newspaper Yediot Aharonot. "A Day of Humiliation,"
>announced another publication. "Memories of Saigon," said
>the newspaper Maariv.
>
>Maariv columnist Hemi Shalev wrote, "Yesterday's images
>will be seared into Israelis' memories just as the picture
>of the last helicopter leaving the rooftop of the American
>embassy in Saigon has become part of the American
>collective memory."
>
>A retreating Israeli soldier quoted by the Israeli-run
>state radio on May 25 said, "We are happy that we are
>alive." Another lamented the loss of a number of his
>comrades, saying, "They died in vain."
>
>"Sitting on his tank, Omri Israel said fighting Hezbollah
>guerrillas had become an exercise in futility. `You can't
>win a guerrilla war,'" he was quoted as saying in the May
>25 New York Times.
>
>And that is the whole point.
>
>The most modern and sophisticated weapons in the
>Pentagon's arsenal proved useless against a people's war.
>The Lebanese resistance killed over 900 Israeli soldiers in
>its 22 years of struggle. This spurred an anti-war movement
>that resulted in 70 percent of Israelis supporting a
>withdrawal from Lebanon.
>
>Especially heartened by this victory are the people of the
>Arab world who have suffered so much at the hands of U.S.
>imperialism and all of its proxies, especially Israel.
>
>The Palestinians have most warmly received the Lebanese
>victory.
>
>Palestine-info.net, the web site that summarizes the
>Palestinian press, published interviews of Palestinians in
>the street who "called on Palestinian Authority Chairman
>Yasser Arafat to emulate Hezbollah in its determination and
>refuse to budge or cave in to Israeli insolence and
>arrogance of power. `Hezbollah has taught us that a
>combination of unflinching faith, determined resistance and
>patience can pay off,' said Abdul Kader Hurub, a shopkeeper
>from Bethlehem. `The way to recover usurped rights is not
>through secret talks or security coordination ... it is
>through resistance and patience,' he said."
>
>LIBERATION AT A WALKING PACE
>
>The May 26 edition of the Economist gives a picture of the
>truly mass character of the liberation:
>
>"In the end, however, it was unarmed civilians who
>prompted the occupation's collapse. On May 21, a crowd of
>Shia Muslim protestors led a march to retake the village of
>Qantra, on the fringes of the occupied zone. The Israeli
>army had withdrawn from the nearest front-line fort a week
>before, leaving a Shia brigade of the SLA to cover their
>retreat.
>
>"When the demonstration arrived beneath their position,
>they simply dropped their guns and gave themselves up to
>the Lebanese authorities. Emboldened, the protesters
>pressed on, walking unopposed into seven more villages and
>effectively cutting the occupation zone in half."
>
>The article continued: "For two more days, the Israeli
>army and the remains of the SLA tried to hold back the
>surge, throwing up hasty barricades and shooting at people
>who came too close; seven were killed.
>
>"But the Israelis had left too few troops in the enclave
>to bolster the faltering SLA. In the space of three days,
>over half of the SLA's 2,500 soldiers surrendered to the
>Lebanese army and Hezbollah, leaving the Israeli army
>exposed. Mr. Barak had no choice but to order an immediate
>pull-out," the article concluded.
>
>The May 24 New York Times described the liberation as
>Hezbollah guerillas "trailed by a miles-long parade of
>supporters, including villagers returning to the south for
>the first time in two decades."
>
>Other sources describe a liberation that was of such a
>mass character that it occurred at the walking pace of the
>population. Some 14 villages were liberated in two days as
>the huge crowds walked from village to village and entered
>unopposed.
>
>LIBERATION OF KHIAM PRISON
>
>In a May 25 article headlined "Israeli symbol falls to
>army of townfolk," the Wash ington Post described the
>liberation of the Khiam prison. The prison is known for
>being the site of the torture of Lebanese patriots and for
>holding people without trial.
>
>"Thousands of local residents surrounded the prison,
>ordered the guards to leave and pried open locked cell
>doors with crowbars and saws and hammers," the Post
>reported.
>
>The jail, now in the hands of Hezbollah, is the main
>tourist attraction in the south. A sign near the entrance
>reads, "Morning came, and there was no more prison."
>
>No wonder the puppet South Lebanese Army melted away, many
>turning themselves in and others fleeing to Israel. In some
>instances Lebanese soldiers had to intervene to prevent
>furious villagers from slugging SLA members already under
>arrest.
>
>The May 24 New York Times reported that "militia soldiers
>disappeared so quickly that they left tanks with their
>motors running and stoves with rice cooking on them."
>
>Many of the SLA who had crossed into Israel did not speak
>highly of their former backers. Noted the May 25 Washington
>Post: "Charlie Younis, 32, a former lieutenant, said he
>would not remain in Israel. `If I stay here I'll be treated
>all my life like a Palestinian,' he said. `I'll have
>nothing. I could live anywhere, but not Israel.'"
>
>RELATION OF FORCES CHANGED
>
>The Lebanon victory is part of a protracted struggle.
>
>In the wake of its retreat, the Israeli government is
>threatening to bomb Syrian positions in Lebanon if Lebanese
>freedom fighters attack across its now highly exposed
>border.
>
>Syria, which plays a duel role in Lebanon, has given
>important support to the Lebanese resistance.
>
>Certainly Israel, which has the latest in Pentagon
>technology, can and may do just that. The relationship of
>forces, however, is not the same as it was a month ago.
>
>Israel has suffered its first defeat and must consider a
>population with its own version of "Vietnam syndrome." Tel
>Aviv must also take into account a rise in anti-imperialist
>and anti-occupation sentiment in the entire Middle East,
>and an upsurge in Palestinian resistance further heartened
>by the Lebanese win.
>
>The fight will continue. But one fact is indisputable--
>today south Lebanon belongs to the people.
>
>
>
> - END -
>
>(Copyleft Workers World Service. Everyone is permitted to
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>
>
>Message-ID: <054701bfcda4$cddb5fa0$0a00a8c0@home>
>From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: [WW] Keep up pressure to send Elian home
>Date: Sat, 3 Jun 2000 17:43:47 -0400
>Content-Type: text/plain;
> charset="iso-8859-1"
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>
>-------------------------
>Via Workers World News Service
>Reprinted from the June 8, 2000
>issue of Workers World newspaper
>-------------------------
>
>KEEP UP PRESSURE TO SEND ELIAN HOME
>
>By Teresa Gutierrez
>
>On May 25, Elian Gonzalez and his family and friends from
>Cuba were moved from the Wye Plantation in Maryland to
>northwest Washington. They are now staying at the six-and-
>a-half-acre Rosedale Estate, which is owned by Youth for
>Understanding International Exchange.
>
>The family, along with some of Elian's schoolmates and
>teachers, are expected to remain here until the 11th U.S.
>Circuit Court of Appeals rules on the political asylum
>application filed by Miami Cubans. At a May 11 hearing, the
>appeals court said the ruling could take weeks.
>
>A May 26 Granma article described the move to Washington
>as a positive development. Granma is the Cuban government's
>newspaper.
>
>Granma stated: "The move of Juan Miguel, his family and
>the other Cubans to Washington constitutes an important
>event and a new step towards freedom. All that's needed now
>is the definitive freedom: the rapid return of all of them
>to Cuba."
>
>The article noted that the Wye Plantation, located 75
>miles outside of Washington, had presented problems. Cuban
>diplomats are not permitted to travel more than 25 miles
>from their office. This restriction made it extremely
>difficult for Elian's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, and
>Elian to visit or communicate with friendly Cubans.
>
>At the same time that Cuban diplomats were prevented from
>visiting, the State Department created other problems. It
>abruptly halted Cuban diplomats' permission to travel. The
>U.S. visas of Elian's school friends and their parents were
>made valid for only 15 days, instead of the several weeks
>the Cubans requested.
>
>Elian's doctor had her visa reduced from two months to two
>weeks. Elian's grandparents were denied visas to visit him.
>
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