Democratic Palestine : 2 (ص 15)
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- Democratic Palestine : 2 (ص 15)
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Nationalist Victory
REAGAN PLAYS WITH FIRE AND GETS BURNED
US: impéialisin and the Amini -Geiayel government failed: to. > heed the. warning reounded ie the
‘nationalist forces. in:the September ’83 mountain war: Their political: vision blinded them to: the. depth
_ of the power embodied in the de facto popular authority. maintained in Beirut’s. southern suburbs. Most |
of all, they underestimated’ the breadth. of the popular rage ‘smoldering against their plans to make /
Lebanon. a US-Zionist protectorate and: gateway for:spreading Camp. David in the area. Stepped-up
arrest’ campaigns. in. January, adding several hundred ‘Palestinians and Lebanese. to. the fascists’
dungeons, had. only realerted the population to the. internal consequences ‘of the regime’ Ss chosen course.
The. enemy imagined that the Leba-
nese’ Army could make a clean sweep,
ending the war of attrition with the na-
tionalist forces, squashing West. Beirut
under its heel and severing the corridor
connecting Beirut’s southern districts to
the nationalist-controlled areas in the
surrounding hills. To this end, an offen-
sive was planned for late January or ear-
ly February, by the regime in coordina-
tion with its US and French allies in the
Multinational Forces. However, these
calculations backfired on all levels - mil-
itary, political and social.
The Reagan Administration, which
played with fire when planning the 1982
invasion together with ‘Israel’, has now
been forced to face the music sounded
by the Lebanese nationalists’ guns and
popular support. Also, ‘Israel’ is paying
the price, with the regime it tried to in-
stall in tatters. The battle of Beirut, Part
II, reinforced the truth that by force of
arms and popular unity, the aggressors
against the Arab masses will eventually
be defeated.
The military battle
Preliminary battles began on Febru-
ary 2nd, in Beirut’s southern districts,
pitting the army mainly against the
Amal] movement. Two days later, Le-
banon was engulfed in all-out civil war,
with the army sending 50 shells a minute
into the shanty towns, and the national-
ist artillery targeting fascist positions
north to Junieh, east to Zahle and
southwards. On the 6th, after a 17-hour
pitched battle, the Lebanese Army was
ousted from West Beirut by a combina-
tion of hand-to-hand combat and ar-
tillery support from the mountains. Hav-
ing combined their forces from the capi-
tal to the mountains, the nationalist for-
ces went on the offensive. A week later,
the army and Phalangist forces were
driven from key positions in the moun-
Victorious Amal fighter on the spot once occupied by the Marines
tains south of Beirut. Khaldeh, the coas-
tal crossroads linking Beirut’s southern
entry to the Shouf and Aley regions, was
in nationalist hands. The fascist siege of
Beirut was broken; the fighters of the
mountains and West Beirut, specifically,
the Progressive Socialist Party and the
Amal movement, established a joint mil-
itary command. On February 15, the
Lebanese Army’s 4th brigade (one of
two crack units, US-trained and
Phalangist-controlled) was surrounded
in Damour; then the nationalists gained
control of the town.
Rather than wiping out the nationalist
corridor, the regime set Lebanon ablaze
and enacted its own isolation, not only
politically but in terms of territory. The
“central government” is now holed up in
pockets. The 1,500 man 8th brigade (the
other crack unit) at Soug al Gharb is the
last line of defense for the Baabda Pre-
sidential Palace and the Defense Minis-
try. It is only one step before Amin Ge-
mayel’s authority is banished to its back-
land in the Phalangist ghetto created in
Ashrafiyeh (East Beirut) and Kaserwan.
15 - هو جزء من
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