Toward a better description of the collapse of the SLA

There is lots of detail missing in the account of the collapse of the SLA.

The IDF, according to its plan of withdrawal, started handing major positions in Lebanon over to the SLA in the middle of May 2000. The collapse started on May 22, 2000.  Around a dozen villages and eight SLA posts in the center of the front surrendered to Hezbollah. The posts were mostly manned by Shiite muslims who were put under heavy pressure by Hezbollah. Hezbollah had made pubic threats against those involved with the SLA in April 2000. The threats were most effective against the Shites in the SLA.

Antoine Lahad, the leader of the SLA was in Paris while all of this was going on. Lahad's departure for France at such a critical time was a source of demoralization within the SLA. Lahad has claimed that he was taking an extended family vacation in advance of the July departure of the IDF. He claims to not have been aware of the handover of IDF positions to the SLA in May.

By the end of the day, the SLA front line had been cut in two with the flanks of the SLA positions in both the east and the west totally exposed to attack. On the morning of May 23, 2000, the western (Druze) sector of the front collapsed. There were (in 2000) reports of a secret deal between Walid Jumblatt and Hezbollah that led to the collapse.

This triggered off a general retreat of what remained of the SLA. Shortly after, both Israelis and some elements of the SLA were moving south. The retreat was finished by the early hours of May 24.

Israeli initially announced that it would give labor visas good for one year to soldiers of the SLA.

The controversy in all this is what the Israelis really intended to do in May. Many senior figures in the SLA claim that Israel announced the July departure date while actually planning a full withdrawal from Lebanon in May 2000. These SLA people claim that Israel deliberately did not tell them the depature date because of fears the Lebanese could not be trusted with the information. I dont tend to believe these sorts of stories.

My view is that the SLA collapsed out of its own internal weakness. The SLA was really multiple religious militias with no effective unified command to speak of. Hezbollah worked on breaking off the Shite and Druze elements of the SLA. The Shite portion cut a deal first. The Druze portion, seeing that the game was up closed their own deal after. Lahad probably knew what was going to happen and stayed far away.

I think most of what I've wrote can be sourced with newspaper articles from the time (May 2000). I've put this on the discussion page for informational purposes rather than the article itself because all of this would be very controversial. Maybe someday someone can rewrite the section of the article on the SLA collapse.