Fateful Triangle

Aftermath632Israeli sources alleged that the Phalange troops were commanded byElie Hobeika, chief Phalange intelligence officer, who had “previouslycommanded the so-called Damour Commando, a reconnaissance unitwhich killed Palestinians in revenge for the murder of thousands ofLebanese Christians in the town of Damour, south of Beirut, in 1976.” 93The figure of thousands murdered in Damour appears to be an inventionof Israeli propaganda. * In the New York Times, David Shipler againidentified Hobeika on the basis of Israeli and Lebanese sources, describinghim as the architect of the Tel al-Zaatar massacre, who “hadassembled a special unit of commandos, among them former membersof the Damuri Brigade, which included Christians whose families hadbeen massacred in Damur and who were bent on revenge.” He was wellknown to the Israeli Mossad and the CIA, Shipler reports. 94 Citing“highly placed sources,” The ABC News investigation reported that threePhalange leaders “bear direct responsibility for the massacre”: FadyFrem, Phalange military commander; Hobeika, Phalange chief ofsecurity and military intelligence; and Joseph Edde, leader of the elitePhalange commandos. “Of all Phalange factions responsible for themassacre, those who emerged from the wreckage of the Christian townof Damour are perhaps the most vengeful.” 95 Loren Jenkins of theWashington Post concluded that the main actor was Hobeika, “the chiefcontact of the Lebanese Forces [the Phalange] with Mossad, the Israelisecret service, as well as with the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency,” andthat along with Hobeika’s special security units “there was also ahandful of men who appeared to belong to the militia of Saad Haddad.”Frem and Hobeika are reputed to be the leaders of the most stronglypro-Israel section of the Phalange. Thomas Friedman provides extensive*Colonel Yirmiah gives the figure of 250 killed, in his War Diary. See chapter 5,note 164.Classics in Politics: The Fateful TriangleNoam Chomsky