Fateful Triangle

Aftermath627finally conceded that it had sent Phalangists into the camps, settling ona figure of 100-150; 150 according to the Kahan Commission. The finalofficial story was that they were sent in for the purpose of “cleansing”the camps of 2000 heavily-armed terrorists left there by the PLO inviolation of the Habib agreements. In Ha’aretz, B. Michael comments:“So heroic as this are the Christian fighters!” Edward Walsh reportsBegin’s official reply to the Commission of Inquiry in which he“reiterated his assertion that there was no reason to anticipate amassacre and said the government had ‘authoritative information’ thatabout 2000 Palestinian guerrillas were concentrated in the area.” Walshcomments: “But no one has publicly explained how the Israelis expected100 to 130 Phalangists to defeat such a force of Palestinians.” RobertSuro of Time magazine visited the camps a few days before the attack,and found no military presence there. 81 The 2000 terrorists have provenelusive indeed.Of course, there are some other questions too, beyond the one thatEdward Walsh raised in the Post. It is claimed that the 100-150Phalangists were sent in to avoid IDF casualties in what was expected tobe fierce fighting. How credible is this claim, considering the size of theforce that was introduced into the camps? And once this claim isdismissed as the obvious nonsense that it is, what remains as theplausible explanation for Israel’s decision to send Phalangists of theDamouri Brigade and Haddad troops to enter defenseless Palestiniancamps, knowing perfectly well what they had done in the past, andwould do again? Recall again the official claim that Israel invaded WestBeirut to protect Palestinians from Phalangist terror.The 2000 heavily-armed Palestinian terrorists seem to have beensingularly inept. The 150 Phalangists sent in to overcome them reported2 killed—exactly the number of casualties suffered by the murderers atKishinev, by macabre coincidence. 82 It is, in fact, unclear whether theseClassics in Politics: The Fateful TriangleNoam Chomsky