Lebanese Army Push Sends Shock Waves Into Israel : Mideast: Jerusalem wants to see the country pacified. But it reacts adversely to the role played by Syria.

METULLA, Israel —  A lurching march of the newly fortified government army of Lebanon to take control of the turbulent south is sending shock waves into Israel as well as through the Israeli-supported Lebanese militia that patrols a frontier zone north of Israel’s border.

The Israeli government has cautiously greeted the effort to pacify the warring country, but it reacted adversely to the role played in the campaign by Israel’s powerful enemy, Syria. Both Israel and its Lebanese militia ally rejected suggestions that, as the central Lebanese government extends its control south, Israel should withdraw from Lebanon and abandon its client, the South Lebanon Army.

“If Israel leaves . . . I’m certain we will have to return there within six months, and then we will have to pay a much higher price,” said Uri Lubrani, Israel’s overseer in the southern Lebanon buffer zone.

The past two weeks have seen the Lebanese army extending its control over parts of southern Lebanon formerly in the hands of the Palestine Liberation Organization and Muslim militiamen. The transition has sometimes been violent.

In the maneuvering to shift the balance of power in the south, a conflict is shaping up over control of the town of Jezzine, which sits at the end of a geographic finger that leads to Israel’s buffer zone.

Lebanese President Elias Hrawi has asked the United States to prod Israel to order its militia allies out of Jezzine.

In a counterthrust, the SLA commander, Lt. Gen. Antoine Lahad, vowed that any move by the Lebanese army into Jezzine would require his permission. “If no previous arrangement is made, there will be a major fight.”

The Israeli army chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Ehud Barak, affirmed Israeli control of both the buffer zone and Jezzine. “We consider the security zone and the Jezzine salient to be a system that has proved itself over time,” he said.

Although Israel had stopped short of formally including Jezzine in the buffer zone, the militia had established de facto control of Jezzine to keep it out of the hands of Muslim nationalists backed by Iran and guerrillas of the PLO.

A token Lebanese army unit has been stationed in the enclave for five years at the militia’s invitation, Lahad said, but “if the Lebanese army wants to operate without the SLA, it will have to withdraw from the area.”

Israel carved out the buffer area in 1985, when its troops partially withdrew from Lebanon after invading three years earlier. About 2,600 SLA soldiers funded and armed by Israel patrol the strip, which officially penetrates no more than 12 miles into Lebanon. The addition of Jezzine extends Israeli control to about 20 miles from the nearest spot on the Israeli border.

Israel itself stations at least 1,000 troops in the border zone, and during the past year sent commandos north of the area to preempt raids.

From Israel’s point of view, the arrival of the Lebanese army in the south is meaningless unless guerrilla attacks on Israel’s northern border stop. “As long as terrorist organizations and terrorist activities exist in Lebanon, we will preserve the security zone,” Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir said.

Foreign Minister David Levy modified the statement by saying that as long as Syrian troops remain, Israel will also stay put. Syria, the dominant foreign power in Lebanon, occupies the eastern part of the country.

Syria, which stations 40,000 troops in Lebanon, crushed a Lebanese Christian militia in Beirut last year and is backing the new Hrawi government.

To the surprise of many observers, the army took over the port of Sidon, a strong base for the PLO. But it is not clear if or when the PLO forces in the city will be disarmed, and Lahad estimated that the PLO had given up no more than 10% of its weapons there.

In Tunisia, a senior aide to PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat was quoted as saying Wednesday that the evacuation of guerrillas from their Sidon bases would be completed today, four days ahead of schedule.

Wire services reported Wednesday that a mechanized Lebanese army brigade rolled into the ancient port of Tyre, the PLO’s last stronghold near Israel.

Brig. Saeed Jammoul, the local army commander, said it would take four days to gain control of the hills overlooking the city and collect the guerrillas’ weapons.

Israel’s satisfaction at the humbling of the PLO is tempered by intense suspicion that Syria will harness guerrilla remnants in Lebanon to harass Israel or move its own forces closer to the border.

“We will not accept a Syrian military presence on the Lebanese-Israel border or the placement of ground-to-air missiles in Lebanon,” wrote defense commentator Zeev Schiff in the daily Haaretz newspaper.