A Marine takes a stand, as U.S.-Israeli tensions rise
As three Israeli tanks approached a U.S. Marine position near the old Sidon road to the south of Beirut, Captain Charles B. Johnson, 30, of Neenah, Wis., did not hesitate. He ran toward the heavily armored, British-made Centurions, then took a position in the middle of the road. When the lead tank halted barely a foot in front of him, Johnson told an Israeli lieutenant colonel atop it, "You will not pass through this position."
After a momentary pause, the Israeli commander dismounted, talked with Johnson, remounted his tank and declared, according to Johnson, "I am going through." Johnson again demanded that the tanks halt, adding, "If you come through, it will be over my dead body." He drew his pistol and held it at a 45° angle, the "ready" position. After another pause, during which the Israelis spoke over their radio, the lead tank turned off the road. Johnson walked beside it.
Then, suddenly, the other two tanks took off at full speed in the original direction. Johnson jumped on the lead tank, grabbed the Israeli commander and yelled at him to stop his tanks. Complying at last, the Israeli, who was subsequently identified only as a Lieut. Colonel "Rafi," told Johnson, "One thing we don't want to do is shoot each other." Replied Johnson: "Yes, but if you keep doing things like this, the likelihood is going to increase."
The incident was the most serious in a rising tide of tension between the U.S. and Israeli forces in Lebanon since the Marines landed five months ago, with French and Italian troops, as part of an international peace-keeping effort. Indeed, the entire three-nation force seemed under siege last week. A grenade was tossed into a French military vehicle in West Beirut, wounding one soldier. Several French soldiers out jogging were sprayed by automatic weapons fire; two were wounded, one seriously. In one of the worst incidents of violence in West Beirut in recent months, a car bomb blew up outside the Palestine Research Center and the temporary Libyan embassy, turning both buildings into infernos. At least 20 people were killed and 70 wounded.
For the 1,200 U.S. Marines in Lebanon, the problems have been with the Israelis. Several times in the past month, Israeli units tried to pass Marine checkpoints, in violation of the peace-keeping agreement, and each time were turned back. In order to end such confrontations, the Marines and the Israelis two weeks ago set up a radio "hot line" and tried to agree to certain lines of demarcation between their forces. But some U.S. officials in Beirut remained convinced that the Israeli moves last month, as well as recent Israeli charges that the Marines were failing to stop "terrorists" from passing through Marine positions, were part of an Israeli strategy. Its purpose: to discredit the Marines, as well as the French and Italian forces, and to reinforce the argument that the task of patrolling southern Lebanon, once the occupying armies have been withdrawn from the rest of the country, should be retained by the Israelis.