Fateful Triangle

Aftermath678amount of evidence that higher authorities did indeed expect amassacre. The intelligence unit in closest contact with the Phalange, theMossad, “heard things from [Bashir Gemayel] that left no room fordoubt that the intention of this Phalangist leader was to eliminate thePalestinian problem in Lebanon when he came to power—even if thatmeant resorting to aberrant methods against the Palestinians inLebanon… Similar remarks were heard from other Phalangist leaders.”There were also “reports of Phalangist massacres of women and childrenin Druze villages, as well as the liquidation of Palestinians carried out bythe intelligence unit of Elie Hobeika” (who was assigned the task ofentering the camps by the IDF). “These reports reinforced the feelingamong certain people—and especially among experienced intelligenceofficers—that in the event that the Phalangists had an opportunity tomassacre Palestinians, they would take advantage of it.” Chief of StaffEitan expected “an eruption of revenge and thought there might be“rivers of blood.” If the IDF was not present, “it will be an eruption thelikes of which has never been seen; I can already see in [thePhalangists’] eyes what they are waiting for…they have just one thingleft to do, and that is revenge; and it will be terrible…the wholeestablishment is already sharpening knives…” The Commission alsocites reports in the Israeli military journal that the refugee camps “wereliable to undergo events exceeding what had happened” at Tel al-Zaatar,the worst massacre of the civil war. The Commission itself observes that“no prophetic powers were required to know that concrete danger of actsof slaughter existed when the Phalangists were moved into the campswithout the IDF’s being with them in that operation... The sense of sucha danger should have been in the consciousness of every knowledgeableperson who was close to the subject.” They also cite Prime MinisterBegin’s official statement that the IDF entered West Beirut “in order toprotect the Moslems from the vengeance of the Phalangists,” aClassics in Politics: The Fateful TriangleNoam Chomsky