Beaufort by Ron Leshem, translated by Evan Fallenberg (Vintage)

Ron Leshem is an Israeli-American television producer and writer. Beaufort is his first novel and was first published in Hebrew in 2005 with a title that translates to If There’s a Heaven. It was the winner of the Sapir Prize in 2006, Israel’s most prestigious literary award. The English edition translated by Evan Fallanberg was published in 2007. 

Beaufort or Belfort Castle was the site of a fort that was captured by Fulk, King of Jerusalem in 1139. Fulk was also a Crusader and it is believed that the construction began on the castle shortly after the fort’s capture. It is located in a remote area of Southern Lebanon. 

In 1982, the Battle of Beaufort was fought between the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO). It was dubbed by the Israeli government as Operation Peace for Galilee and later came to be known as the Lebanon War or First Lebanon War. However, in Lebanon, it is only known as “the invasion”. 

Israeli Defense Forces attacked the fortress and captured it and for the next eighteen years, the IDF occupied the fort in Southern Lebanon to prevent attacks from Hezbollah, a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and militant group whose pimary goal was ending Israel’s occupation of southern Lebanon. 

Beaufort focuses on the final years of the IDF occupation of the fortress. It centers around the young soldiers who were all taught at a young age that the enemy are terrorists and the need to protect Israel from the “terrorists” is their duty to their country. 

The story is narrated by the unit’s commander, Liraz Librati. He has all his soldiers call him Erez and people think Liraz is a girl’s name and too feminine for an officer. The novel opens with the soldiers playing a game called What He Can’t Do Anymore. 

“Yonatan can’t see us growing ugly any more. ‘We’ll never be as handsome as we are today’ he’d say, and I’d ask if that was meant to make us feel better, because it didn’t.” Erez explains that this is a game everyone plays when a friend is killed. “You toss his name into the air and whoever’s there at the time has to come up with something he can’t do any more.”

Beaufort is an isolated area. The young Israeli soldiers defending the place have created their own world. They have their own games, they make their own rules, and at times clash with each other. But the infighting takes a backseat to the comradery when it comes to protecting each other against the unseen terrorists.

Erez and his men believe what they are doing is for the good of the country. But rumors have been flying that Israel is in negotiations to pull out of Lebanon. The soldiers are ready to fight, they are always ready to fight but lately, the soldiers feel that the Israeli government has long abandoned them. They are beginning to question why they are still in Lebanon, in enemy land without any support from their own government. 

When the order to withdraw comes, the team is given one last mission to accomplish. Will it be a sweet victory for Israel or will they be viewed as running back home with their heads between their tails?

Ever since the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, the Middle East has been a hotspot for the Arab-Israeli conflict and continues to be so today. Leshem being an Israeli, it’s only natural that the protagonists of the story would be the Israeli soldiers. They were taught at a young age that the Lebanese Hezbollah are nothing more than terrorists whose main goal is to destroy the country of Israel. 

There are no easy answers to solve the problem and the continued hostilities between Israel and Arab nations is not going to go away anytime soon. What a world it would be if as John Lennon said, “Give peace a chance”. ~Ernie Hoyt