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Article: Israel's Security Zone in Lebanon--A "Tragedy"?(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- Middle East Quarterly
- Article date:
- September 1, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 Middle East Forum. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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In the midst of Israel's election campaign in 1999, then-prime ministerial candidate Ehud Barak pledged to "bring the boys home" within one year of the inauguration of his government. And he did just that. On May 24, 2000, Israel completed its unilateral withdrawal and deployed its forces along the 1949 Israeli-Lebanese armistice line. In so doing, it complied with United Nations Security Council Resolution 425, dating from 1978, calling for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from all Lebanese territory.
Why then did the Barak government take this step? Was it because the occupation was a military failure? Because its costs, human and financial, were too high? Or ...