A Polish curse: "May they pull out all your teeth and leave just one, so it can hurt!" Some people want to act according to this curse -- against ourselves.

They propose to pull out all our military outposts in Lebanon, but leace some of them in Lebanese territory. Wherever we have "moved" the in international border, let's leave the moved border where it is. Meaning: let's leave a little bit of occupation on a little bit of territory. Just one aching tooth.

Going back in time: In 1985 the government was compelled to pull the army out of Lebanon. Ariel Sharon had succeeded to arouse the sleeping Shi'ite lion, who had served as a doormat for centuries. Thereupon the Shi'ite fanatics hit us so hard that we had to get out.

But we could not leave just like that, with our tail between the legs, without some trick. Not we. Therefore the government -- led by Shimon Peres -- decided to stay in a narrow zone in the accursed country. Everybody applauded. What a wise decision!

I warned against this decision and found myself alone. Under the headline "To leave but to stay" (Ha'olam Hazeh, 16.1.85) I wrote: "A withdrawal to a new line in Lebanon will not put an end to the war. On the contrary, it will intensify it." And a month later, during the actual withdrawal, I wrote: "Partial withdrawal, total folly."

The Hebrew proverb says: "What the brain does not do, time will do." Well, not necessarily. Now they want to get out of the "security zone" too. But the wise guys want to trick again: to leave nearly completely, to stay just a tiny little bit. Here an outpost, there half an outpost. Thus they will provide the Hizbullah with a pretext for going on with the war. The world will understand. The Lebanese government will be compelled to agree. Assad will rub his hands. The Shi'ite population will continue to sacrifice itself for the liberation of its country. And in the end, after many more casualties (this time, civilians too) Israel will leave. Like it left Taba, which also was an aching tooth.

If Barak will understand that in time and retreat completely to the international border, who will occupy the land on the other side? The Lebanese defense minister proposed to turn the territory over to the Syrian army. In Israel, the reaction was histerical. God forbid! We cannot allow the Syrian to be on the border! Things did not quite down until the Syrian foreign minister expressed his absolute opposition to the whole idea. In Israel, nobody asked: Why? Why don't the Syrians want to be on the border?

We have been there before. In 1976, at the height of the Lebanese civil war, the Syrian army entered Lebanon at the behest of the Christians, in order to prevent the victorious PLO forces to take over the country. When the Syrians moved south, hysteria broke out in Israel. Orchestrated by defense minister Shimon Peres, in order to embarrass his opponent, prime minister Yitzhaq Rabin, , his minions drea a "red line" and cried: "We cannot allow the Syrians to go beyond it!"

I happened to talk with Rabin at the height of that crisis. Obviously he trusted me not to publish his utterances. He was bitter. "What stupidity!" he exclaimed, "The best that can happen is for the Syrians to sit on the border. Then everything will be quite, like the Golan border."

But Rabin surrendered to the histeria. Israel published an ultimatum. The next chapter is well known: The vacuum was filled by the Palestinians, Soth Lebanon became a PLO mini-state.

Now the same happens again.If Israel retreats completely to the international border, the Hizbullah will probably turn into a political-social force and turn its attention to fight for power in Lebanon. Ythe Syrians will not occupy the land, because they understand Rabin's logic: If they wii be on the border, they will be compelled to keep quite. But the Syrians have no interest in a quite border, not until the Golan is returned to them. Not at all. They will look for a substitute for Hizbullah and find it in the Palestinian organizations led from Damascus.

Thus a new Palestinian mini-state will come into being in South Lebanon, subservient to Assad and hostile to Arafat and his peace policy. It will start a guerilla against the Galilee. Perhaps some day about Barak's advisors what used to be said about the advisors of Louis XVIII: "They have forgotten nothing and learnt nothing."