Fateful Triangle

Peace for Galilee537wrote that “the PLO fighters fought bravely in Beirut confronted with theIsraeli machine of destruction. They continued to fight, in spite of thefact that they had no military chance, just as was the case for theJewish fighters 40 years ago in the Warsaw ghetto, * in 1943.” 303 WhenIsraeli troops overran the Ain el-Hilweh refugee camp after 5 days offighting, they are reported to have “found many of the defenders hadcommitted --suicide, a grisly Palestinian replay of the fate of the ancientJewish warriors of Massada.” 304Courageous American editors deride the PLO for its “theatricalflourishes” and “guerrilla theater”: “Egged on by the camera crews inBeirut...the PLO now playacts the rituals of victory because it has littleelse to show for its defeat and its expulsion from Lebanon.” 305 Nothing iseasier, of course, than to march in step behind the big battalions,singing their praises. Much of the world, including the people of theoccupied territories and many Israeli soldiers at the front, appear to haveseen a war that barely resembles the one concocted by the editors of theNew Republic and the like.Whether the PLO will be able to maintain the image of heroism withwhich it left Beirut is another question. It may be that dispersed andcontrolled by various Arab states, it will become discredited, just as itwas in a sense discredited by the massacres in Beirut after it departed inthe naive belief that U.S. promises were to be trusted: it had failed to*The Warsaw Ghetto and similar images were repeatedly invoked in Israelduring the war. Critics objected bitterly that the analogy is inaccurate, as it is, inmany respects. Israel evidently cannot be compared to Nazi Germany; its armiesare, furthermore, in a sense mercenary armies, since they are supplied andfinanced by a foreign power that funds their military operations generously.There are also points of similarity, to which those who invoke the analogieswant to draw attention.Classics in Politics: The Fateful TriangleNoam Chomsky