THE NATIONAL OLIVE OIL OF ISRAEL

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Northern Farmers Rejoice in Current Israeli Lebanon Border Situation 

The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee finished hearing testimonies yesterday (Sunday) from reserves soldiers who took part in the recent war in Lebanon. Some 45 soldiers testified over the past three weeks. They told of confused and often-changing orders and strategies, officers who gave orders from behind - not in front of - their men, shortages of supplies, and more.

But along Israel's border with Lebanon, farmers are quite pleased with the way the war has turned out. Associated Press reporter Matti Friedman writes of farmers in the northern city of Metulah who no longer take their rifles with them to work in their orchards, and of farmers in Moshav Zar'it who "are beginning to return to orchards they abandoned" when Hizbullah terrorists controlled the Lebanese side of the line.

Though not necessarily confident that the situation will last for very long, they are enjoying the new situation while it lasts. "The war erased a threat we lived with for years," a Metulah man said. "We aren't afraid of snipers or kidnappings anymore. We can breathe."

In the six years between Israel's panicky pullout from southern Lebanon in 2000 and the recent war, Hizbullah terrorists set up bases and military posts just over the border, overlooking and threatening the Israeli farming villages. In 2004, a Hizbullah sniper shot to death two Israeli soldiers who were fixing an antenna next to Zar'it.

But now, "instead of Hizbullah," one woman said, "we see the Lebanese army and the U.N. We have a real sense of relief."