US Pressuring Israel over Ghajar?

A brief weekend posting: Here's an interesting story from Monday's Beirut Daily Star, (citing al-Balad), saying the US is quietly pressuring Israel to withdraw from the village of Ghajar before the Lebanese elections, on the grounds that this would help the March 14 movement (the pro-Hariri, pro-Western alignment).

Ghajar is one of those issues that usually flies under the international radar, except for a handful of specialists. You can get a fairly straight version of the story from Wikipedia. Ghajar is close to, but a separate issue from, the disputed Shebaa Farms; you can see its location on the map accompanying Wikipedia's Shebaa Farms article, however. Before 1967 it was administered by Syria, as part of the Golan Heights. Across the Lebanese border lay an adjacent village known as Wazzani. After some confusion it came under Israeli occupation. In 1976, when Israel first moved into southern Lebanon, Israeli troops moved across the border, and of course Israel occupied the border areas of Lebanon continuously from 1982 to 2000. During that period Ghajar expanded to include the former Lebanese village of Wazzani, and therefore straddled the Lebanese-Syrian border. In 2000, when Israel withdrew from South Lebanon, they withdrew from the Lebanese side of the border but retained the occupation of Ghajar on the Syrian side.

Then came the 2006 war with Hizbullah in Lebanon. Israel moved into the Lebanese side of Ghajar and, when it otherwise withdrew from undisputed Lebanese territory after the operation, it remained in the Lebanese part of Ghajar. The Israelis say that a plan to have UNIFIL deploy there was dependent on Lebanese Army cooperation that has not panned out. For whatever reason, the whole town remains under Israeli occupation. Unlike the Shebaa Farms, no one disputes that the northern part of Ghajar is historically Lebanese; they just dispute how to turn it over without giving Hizbullah control of it.

So the Daily Star article suggests that the US is quietly pushing to resolve the Ghajar issue before the Lebanese elections (which are June 7). It's a minor issue, unless you're a citizen of Ghajar (who are, oddly for that part of the region, mostly 'Alawites), but a symbolic one. The article doesn't say it, but I almost wonder if George Mitchell is involved, since it's been said he is planning to rely again on Fred Hof, who aided his earlier Middle East mission, and who happens to be one of only two or three people who understand the Lebanese border issues thoroughly.