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Israeli troops on edge as they await outcome

BY MICHAEL ROTHFELD | Newsday Staff Correspondent

August 12, 2006

SHEAR YESHUV, Israel - With the war between Israel and Hezbollah poised to head in one of two directions - toward cease-fire or massive escalation - soldiers in the Galilee Panhandle took a break Friday from fighting in Lebanon. They prepared equipment in the hot sun and awaited word on whether they would return to combat, or to wives and children.

In a field of straw a mile from the border, dozens of soldiers refueled 20 tanks, restocked water and reinforced protection inside armored personnel carriers. Many of them, reservists pulled into war from jobs and daily lives, tried to stay focused.

"I don't read the newspaper," said Avishai, 34, who lives in Eli, a West Bank settlement. "I avoid anything that can take down my morale. I lost a friend yesterday and two friends three weeks ago. It doesn't make it easy. I have a wife and six children. To leave everybody behind and go to this war, it's not easy."

Still, Avishai, a tank commander who in private life is the musical director for a religious high school, said Friday that he hoped the war against Hezbollah would continue until Israel eliminates the threat of Hezbollah's Katyusha rockets in northern Israeli communities.

After Israeli newspaper columnists and the public blanched at the latest terms of a tentative peace deal negotiated at the United Nations, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Friday approved an expanded military operation to reach the Litani River, about 18 miles into Lebanon, in a bid to stop the rocket fire.

As the Sabbath settled in Friday night, Olmert accepted a United Nations cease-fire deal, but said his army would keep fighting until the Israeli cabinet votes on the agreement Sunday.

"I hope the cease-fire won't take place before we do a few more moves," Avishai said. "I wish I could tell my prime minister what to do."

Others, including Avi, 27, said they hoped the war would end. He was called up from the reserves eight days ago, an hour after arriving home from the hospital with his wife, Liora, 25, and newborn daughter, Noa. They fled to Tel Aviv because rockets hit the hospital in Nahariya near their home, Karmiel.

"We've been hoping for a cease-fire since the beginning," said Avi, an electrical engineer who nonetheless feels obligated to go to war. "It's hard to leave a newborn baby at home, but being from Karmiel, I have to make sure we have a home to return to." A tank gunner, Avi hasn't told his wife that he's been fighting inside Lebanon. After returning to his base from combat duties, he tells her his cell phone battery died.

Eitan, 35, a computer engineer from Tivon with a dirt-smeared face and a hat pulled low over his eyes, said he is "a regular citizen" with a wife and two daughters, 2 and 2 months old. He said he did not want to fight, but felt it was important.

"It's better not to think about it if [a cease-fire] comes," he said. "I'm here to do what I have to do, and we will do it."

The soldiers were interviewed with the Israeli army's permission and provided only their first names. They milled around, drank warm water from spouts on the side of a truck and rubbed it in their hair. They bought ice pops from an ice cream truck.

"The best ice cream, the best ice cream and the tastiest," screeched a song from the truck, over and over. "Come and buy from me, children, good ice cream." A soldier yelled at the driver to stop it.

When a rocket landed nearby, some took shelter under tanks.

"Here, it's a different music," Avishai said. "You can hear all different sounds of music."

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