Word: hezbollah
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...trump card: Israel continues to pay a heavy price in human life for its occupation of southern Lebanon, and the call for Israeli withdrawal is overwhelmingly popular across party lines. But the only way out is a deal in which Israel's borders are protected from attack by Hezbollah guerrillas - a guarantee that only Syria, as the de facto military power in Lebanon, could credibly offer. And Syria has made recovering the Golan the price of peace in Lebanon...
Bibi was never comfortable with all this peacemaking, and now he?s bowing out as Israel?s prime minister with both guns blazing. Israeli warplanes pounded targets in Beirut and north Lebanon overnight Friday following a rocket attack on Israel by the Islamic guerrilla movement Hezbollah, and warned of more to come. Incoming prime minister Ehud Barak was not consulted on the decision, and he may prefer it that way. "Making peace with Syria, which controls Lebanon, is Barak?s priority, and he?s not going to let skirmishes with Hezbollah get in the way," says TIME Jerusalem bureau chief...
Israel killed at least eight and wounded more than 60 Lebanese in attacks on roads and power stations that left Beirut in darkness. Earlier Thursday, a Hezbollah rocket strike killed two civilians in the northern Israel town of Kiryat Shmona. Hezbollah said it had struck in retaliation for an attack by Israel?s proxy, the South Lebanon Army, which killed a Lebanese civilian. That sequence underlines the volatile situation in South Lebanon. But though bombing Beirut may be designed to put pressure on Lebanon to rein in Hezbollah, Israel knows the key to peace in the area is Syria. Still...
...Lebanon quagmire in a year; Israel's local proxy army may not wait that long. The South Lebanon Army, which was created by Israel in 1985 to help patrol its self-declared "security zone" inside southern Lebanon, withdrew from the Jezzine enclave Monday, under fire from Hezbollah guerrillas as they went. With the local SLA commander acknowledging that the withdrawal was prompted by mounting casualties at the hands of Hezbollah, the retreat is a significant victory for the Iran-backed movement's protracted war of attrition. Israel's possible withdrawal, too, is prompted by concerns over continuing casualties, although Barak...
Monday's retreat signals mounting panic in the ranks of the SLA, which effectively has been put on notice that their protector will be leaving town. More troubling for Israel is that neither Syria nor Lebanon -- neither of whom are fans of the Hezbollah -- is in any rush to fill the resulting security vacuum. There's little enthusiasm in Beirut for helping the Israelis out of what is perceived as a mess of their own making. And any security deal would have to be approved by Syria, which holds a de facto military veto power over the decisions...