Rendering Unto Caesar: Call out the Phalanx!‏

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

A tad over thirty years ago on my train ride into work I read a New York Times article detailing an operation in Lebanon where Palestinian civilians were brutally slaughtered by Christian Phalangists in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps under the watchful of the Israeli occupation forces. I was so moved by the news that I had to take the day off as a sick day. There was no way that I could focus on work with the slaughter fresh in my mind. The anniversary of the event brought us another article in the New York Times that outlined American involvement in giving Ariel Sharon a green light to move ahead with a planned operation to flush out residual PLO personnel from the camps. According to the article, American envoy Morris Draper backed off on a demand to Sharon to stop the operation. The article points out that a slaughter was expected:

In Tel Aviv, Mr. Draper and the American ambassador, Samuel W. Lewis, met with top Israeli officials. Contrary to Prime Minister Begin’s earlier assurances, Defense Minister Sharon said the occupation of West Beirut was justified because there were “2,000 to 3,000 terrorists who remained there.” Mr. Draper disputed this claim; having coordinated the August evacuation, he knew the number was minuscule. Mr. Draper said he was horrified to hear that Mr. Sharon was considering allowing the Phalange militia into West Beirut. Even the I.D.F. chief of staff, Rafael Eitan, acknowledged to the Americans that he feared “a relentless slaughter.”

The author, Seth Anziska, sums up:

The archival record reveals the magnitude of a deception that undermined American efforts to avoid bloodshed. Working with only partial knowledge of the reality on the ground, the United States feebly yielded to false arguments and stalling tactics that allowed a massacre in progress to proceed.

Back in 2008, Ari Folman released an animated docudrama on accounts of Israeli soldiers who were there at the time. I was impressed by the work:

What do you think of US complicity in this operation? Why do you believe there was little or no outrage at the time?

Links: A NY Times article from 30 years ago. Seth Aziska's NY Times op-ed piece on recent revelations. Cache of documents on the massacre.

Comments

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Before wading into this particular set of shark-infested waters, I'll just note that Syria's war with the PLO was no less cruel when it also targeted refugee camps but the actions of Syria have been forgotten. If the point is that Palestinians are repressed from a nationalist viewpoint, then many more people than Ariel Sharon have their hands dirty as far as this is concerned. As far as why it didn't get attention in the USA, I'd note it's because at that point people in the USA didn't know anything about Palestinians as they were more focused on either domestic issues or the Cold War at the time. If they did know of the PLO, it was as the guys responsible for Munich and the string of hijackings in the 1970s. After the US debacle in Beirut, an example of the GOP's way of war at its finest, the USA was even less likely to keep troops in Lebanon for a protracted period of time.

And at the last level, it's worth noting that after Black September and repeating the same mistakes all over again in Lebanon, Arafat did nothing whatsoever to earn himself any trust or respect from the Lebanese authorities, let alone those of the other Arab states. It was not a good idea for the PLO to try to undermine its neighbors in pursuit of a 'Hanoi' to Israel's 'Saigon.' It was *really* not a good idea. While national wars of liberation are filthy business, going about them in a stupid way is a guarantee of losing both the fighting and the PR games. Oh, and anyone surprised that Mr. Unit 101 would commit a war crime if he could get away with it has had limited experience with the kind of man an Ariel Sharon is. This is the guy who was dicking around in 1973 because he was offended his ego wasn't sufficiently stroked. Screwing the PLO was like a sea lion taking to water.

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

I was so moved by the news that I had to take the day off as a sick day

You must be spending quite a vacation annually ever since.

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

No, I got over it pretty quickly without recurring distress.

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

Without even going to a shrink?

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

If I ran to the doctor every time I was upset over world events, I should have my head examined. On the other hand, if I was unaffected by world events, I should also have my head examined.

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

Damned if you do, damned if you don't, eh?

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

It is not a matter of doing or not, but of extremes one way or the other.

[gunslnger.livejournal.com]

That's a pretty extreme reaction to something with close to zero impact on you personally. I think that would fall into the category of needing your head examined.

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

As a human being, such an event cannot possibly fail to have an impact on me personally. Were I a machine or a beast of burden, I would have remained disinterested.