progromme forite payalile to 'Sorialist Outlost
Ariel ben Ze'ev
ISRAEL'S northernmost town, Kiryat Shmona, has often provided the excuse for Israeli attacks on Lebanon.
According to the Israeli embassy in London, "at least 83 civilians have been killed and 336 Injured in attacks across une Lebanon border on norther Israeli towns, including Kiryat Shmona. since 1968. These included the slaughter of 21 child hostages at a school in Ma'alot" (Guardian, 20 April 1966).
Those of us with lone memones wit remember that the children at Ma'aloe were in fact killed 'accidentally by the Israeli army rescue, and not by their Palestinian captors. The number of Israelis actually killed over the same period in Katyusha attacks from southern Lebanon is extremely small-far fewer than those killed in one year's road accidents in this country of notoriously aggressive drivers.
Although Kiryat Shmona has become almost a byword for the threat to Israeli civilians, the realicy is far dif. ferent.
Socialist Outbok supporter Inbar Tamari, who grew up in the town. recalls a quiet town subject to occa. sional secunty scares However, her parents would not take her and her sisters to the air-raid shelters since they did not take the threats seriously. Children were not prevented from playing in the streets or hiking in the countryside, and the The year preceding Israel's 1982 in. vasion of Lebanon was one of the quietest the town had known.
When rocket attacks resumed with Israel's attack on Palestinian and Lebanese civilians, many people in Kiryat Shmona blamed the government for upsetting the previous accord.
"It is true that most people in Kiryat Shmona vote for parties of the right" says Inbar. "However, this is more for class than for nationalist reasons."
"The ritht parties are populist. and appeal to the poor population of towns Ike Kiryat Shmona, and other smal towns far from the border. Unfortunately, Labour and most of the other left parties appeal to the middle-class voters of the main towns of central Israel. The Israeli left has not yet managed to build a mass, class-based, opSocialist Outlook 101 • May II, 1996.