And Hizbullah, the guerrilla group that spearheaded resistance to the Israeli occupation, is also behaving responsibly. The gunmen who swarmed through the area in the first days after liberation have disappeared. Instead, bulldozers bearing Hizbullah banners are building earth barricades to keep cars away from the most sensitive spots along the frontier. Hassan Nasrallah, Hizbullah s leader, insists that the struggle against Israel will go on until Lebanese prisoners are freed from Israeli jails, and a disputed patch of land, the so-called Shibaa farms, is returned to Lebanon. The idea, it seems, is not to restart any fighting straightaway, but to reserve the right to make mischief in the future.
Locals are busy adjusting to life in Lebanon.
One Christian shopkeeper announces that the Shia Muslim guerrillas of Hizbullah are his cousins , as he hides his last cases of Israeli beer. There has been some looting, and one or two reports of beatings, especially in the Christian villages considered most sympathetic to the Israeli occupation. But most residents profess astonishment at the prevailing peace. The situation seems so calm, in fact, that several hundred of the 5,500 Lebanese who fled with the departing Israelis have now announced that they want to return. Heartened by the peaceful atmosphere and the absence of a pogrom against supposed collaborators, they have started trickling back across the frontier.