Democratic Palestine : 27 (ص 48)
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- Democratic Palestine : 27 (ص 48)
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Israeli-established border crossing from Lebanon
the Palestinian camp in Beirut, where the fascists enacted a
massacre in August 1976, after a prolonged siege.
From 1977, with the advent of the Begin government, the
Mossad solidified relations with Bashir Gemayel in particular,
bolstering him to impose his command over all the fascist
militias grouped in the Lebanese Forces. Militiamen began to
travel to ‘Israel’ for training, and the fascists in the North were
encouraged to send troops to fight alongside Saad Haddad
when the Israeli army invaded Lebanon up to the Litani River
in 1978. When the Israelis finally withdrew, Haddad’s fascist
forces were installed along the border strip, establishing a
statelet that marked the first concrete step towards Lebanon’s
partition.
In 1978, when battles erupted between the fascist militias
and the Syrian troops in Lebanon, Zionist aid to the fascists
escalated again, in line with the Camp David plan for
establishing imperialist-Zionist hegemony in the whole region.
Israeli officers were sent to Lebanon to build up the Lebanese
Forces’ arsenals and fortifications; hundreds of Lebanese
fascists headed to the Zionist state for training. Though the
Israelis began to demand payment for their arms supply, $2
million in weapons were delivered free (Schiff, p. 28).
Having earlier secured an Israeli promise for air support
against the Syrian troops if need be, the Phalangists began
provocations in East Lebanon (the Bekaa Valley). In April
1981, they began a major conflict, attempting to take over
Zahle and forge a link between their areas in and around Beirut
and the fascist-held areas in the South. The Israelis par-
ticipated directly in the battle, shooting down two Syrian
helicopters and building up to the missile crisis when the
Zionist leadership tried to impose its will as to where the
Syrians stationed their Soviet-built missiles not only in
Lebanon, but in Syrian territory as well. These events had little
to do with the concrete situation in Zahle, but were timed to
match US Secretary of State Haig’s efforts to forge a «strategic
consensus», i.e., anti-Soviet pact in the region, wherein both
‘Israel’ and the Lebanese fascists wanted to figure prominent-
ly.
48
INVADING LEBANON
His status elevated by Zionist support, Bashir Gemayel an-
nounced his presidential candidacy in November 1981, having
already been «informed by Sharon that he must quickly
prepare for a full-scale war in which Israeli troops would take
part» (Schiff, p. 46). Sharon himself led a large entourage of
aides on a visit to Beirut in January 1982, to discuss war plans
with the Phalangists for an operation that would extend to the
southern outskirts of Beirut, i.e., the international airport.
Final logistic coordination with the Phalangists was sorted out
in Eitan’s March visit to Beirut «accompanied this time by the
commander of the air force, army specialists, and the com-
manders of a number of units slated to play key roles in the
combat activity centering on the capital» (Schiff, p. 52).
What followed is well-known: the massive, murderous entry
of the Israeli army into Lebanon, ushered across the border by
Haddad’s men, and into East Beirut by the Phalange; the
savage bombing and prolonged siege of Beirut; the PLO’s
withdrawal; the ‘election’ of Bashir under the shadow of the
occupiers’ guns, and his assassination, whereafter the Israeli
army escorted the Phalangists’ elite troops led by their in-
telligence chief, Elie Hobeika, into Sabra and Shatila camps, to
massacre Palestinians and poor Lebanese - women and
children and elderly.
With the plan to bring Lebanon into the Camp David
alliance having been focused on Bashir’s presidency, the
Israelis were somewhat at a loss in the aftermath. They
distrusted his successor Amin Gemayel’s propensity to find a
modus vivendi with the rightist Moslem bourgeoisie and
possibly Syria. In fact, the Israelis had another plan in their
pocket, though it was never implemented: «a new presidential
election would not be held, in its place would come the con-
stitution of a military government under a prime minister ap-
pointed by Sarkis (the outgoing president) and granted
emergency powers. Israel’s candidate for the job was Johnny
Abdo, chief of military intelligence and one of the Americans’
most trusted friends in the Lebanese establishment... Over the - هو جزء من
- Democratic Palestine : 27
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