Fateful Triangle

Aftermath607within the Lebanese Maronite community over the question of alliancewith the Zionist movement against the local Muslim majority, datingback 40 years, as we have seen. The split appears to have re-emergedin August 1982. Although the Phalange had welcomed the Israeliinvasion, they had held back from direct participation in it. There weretwo probable reasons. The first is that it was much more convenient,and safer, to rely on their Israeli “mercenaries” (in Ze’ev Schiffs phrase)with their overwhelming firepower rather than to face Palestinianfighters directly; their courage could be manifested later after thefighting forces had departed. The second reason is that Gemayelprobably did intend, as he asserted, to unify Lebanon with Muslimsupport. Israel had assumed that Gemayel, whom they had placed inpower, would be “their man.” By early September, however, only a fewdays after his election as President, “disappointment was increasing inJerusalem” concerning Gemayel, the Israeli press reported, for severalreasons: he had refused to sign an imposed peace treaty and hadthreatened to bring Major Saad Haddad, Israel’s puppet in the south, totrial on charges of desertion from the Lebanese army. 35Citing “informed security sources,” Ze’ev Schiff reported that “thethreat of the new Lebanese government to bring Major Haddad to trial isa hint to Israel that the new regime under Bashir Gemayel stronglyopposes Israel’s plans to establish a military presence in southernLebanon in the future or to extend the Haddad enclaves, over whichIsrael rules indirectly.” Phalangist sources alleged that Israel had causedthe rift with the Phalange by its insistence on extending “the area of[Haddad’s] rule in southern Lebanon and preventing Phalangist forcesfrom penetrating the south.” Official sources indicated that Gemayel’s“new government, which includes Muslim and Druze elements of variouscircles, is unwilling to accept a definite Israeli presence in southernLebanon as it had been in the Haddad enclaves.” They also rejectClassics in Politics: The Fateful TriangleNoam Chomsky