In Lebanon, Israel has run into a great big tar baby, and it is not amusing at all. Almost every move, from the first, was an error that has gotten us more and more stuck on the tar baby. The partial withdrawal by the unity government was a step in the right direction, but then we went right back in again. Tar babies don't let go easily. It is true that the number of soldiers dying in Lebanon is small compared to the traffic fatality rate and other causes, but that is no comfort if your son is among the dead. Not many people die from terrorist attacks either, and after all, that is supposedly why we are in Lebanon in the first place.

Those who hanker after national unity should be proud of the Lebanese mess. It was initiated by a Labor government in 1976, notably exacerbated by a Likud government in 1982, and again made worse by a Labor government in 1995. A genuine bipartisan mess. Likud people will explain that the problem was begun by the Labor government, while Labor people will explain that the original strategy was good, but it was spoiled when Israel, under the leadership of a Likud government led by Menahem Begin and Ariel Sharon, invaded Lebanon in 1982.

The funerals shown on television are a great melting pot indeed. Kibbutz youth and city born youth, Russian and Ethiopian immigrants, Druze and Bedouin. Each month another one, or two or three soldiers die, sometimes less, sometimes many more. Sometimes they are killed by mines, sometimes they are killed in miscarried missions or helicopter accidents and sometimes they are victims of friendly fire. These things happen in war.

Getting out of Lebanon is easier said than done. Israel has made allies in the South Lebanese Army. We cannot easily abandon these people to the dubious mercy of the Hizbullah. The Hizbullah will remain a threat to our northern border, and there is no real sign that the Lebanese, and especially their Syrian and Iranian masters, have the will to curb them. This is a situation that requires careful and creative diplomatic strategy and energetic action. Instead, each time there is an incident, a committee is appointed to investigate the reasons and report in two weeks. But we already know the reasons. When it becomes evident that that is not enough, a more senior committee is appointed to find a solution and report in a month. They will recommend that the military solution is more fortified positions, or more concrete in the fortified positions or more armor. That will be implemented. They will also recommend that the real solution must come through diplomacy. That will be largely ignored.

Hope flickered briefly when Israel formally announced that it was adopting U.N. resolution 425. However, that seems to have been, in retrospect, a tale told by Netanyahu, full of sound and fury and signifying nothing. The experts tell us we cannot leave Lebanon. The experts in the United States said the U.S. could not withdraw from Vietnam. Eventually though, the U.S. was forced to withdraw from Vietnam in the worst possible way. Nonetheless, all of South - East Asia did not succumb to the Red Menace, as the experts had predicted. It was not a happy day, especially for those who had tied their fortunes to the U.S., but the sky did not fall. The U.S. could have withdrawn many thousands of lives earlier, with profit. The Israeli experts will hasten to point out that Lebanon is not like Vietnam. That is true. In Vietnam, the U.S. had a theoretical chance of winning the war and leaving Vietnam divided, with a `free' Vietnam in the South. Nobody really thinks that Israel could `win' the Lebanese war and set up a friendly state in Southern Lebanon.

Those who oppose withdrawal from Lebanon ask us to propose an alternative. In reality, it is they who must propose an alternative to withdrawal. Staying in Lebanon is not a viable alternative for any length of time. Staying in Lebanon has not saved lives, and nobody is promising that the stay, and the loss of lives, will not be endless. Sooner or later there will be another Qana, or another Sabra and Shatilla in which Lebanese civilians were killed or another helicopter accident like the one that claimed 73 lives. No use appointing another committee to investigate the fresh disasters. These are the kinds of things that happen in wars. The purpose of wars, after all, is to kill people. They may as well simply recycle the findings of the previous committees.

The War of the Peace of the Galilee (Milchemet Shlom Hagalil) was named no doubt to remind us of the `War is Peace' slogan from George Orwell's novel 1984. It did not bring peace, and it has not saved lives. In Lebanon, Israel has squandered lives, money, goodwill, and above all, the patriotism of the young. Better to get out sooner rather than later. The longer we wait, the more we become entangled in the tar-baby.

 Ami Isseroff