Fateful Triangle

Aftermath699situation is worse than 1948, when most of them arrived after fleeingfrom Palestine, “with much of the Maronite community itching to hit thePalestinians now that the fighters have gone,” either sent to Israeliconcentration camps or driven to Beirut, then sent away, and theeconomy and social structure demolished. 163 As the report appeared, theIDF was offering the militias under their control a chance to demonstratetheir bravery in the camps in Beirut.Quite apart from the possibility of massacre and atrocities, we mightask what is to become of the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians whowere driven out of their “camps” by the invading Israeli forces—over400,000, according to the calculation of Israeli correspondent DannyRubinstein in early September. 164 Israel at first blocked any reconstructionof the bombed and bulldozed camps, though in its mercy, it laterpermitted UNRWA to bring in tents and subsequently offered assistancein reconstructing permanent dwellings, after a policy shift to which wereturn. Few wage-earners remained, and the rather substantial economycreated by the PLO had been destroyed along with the PLO network ofsocial services, its workers either killed, imprisoned somewhere, ordispersed. There is no shelter, no employment, no protection, andnowhere to go.Articles soon appeared in the U.S. press on the problems faced bythe Israeli occupying army, compelled to spend the harsh winter inLebanon. The New York Times expressed much concern about their grimfate. Under the subheading “All Those Jewish Mothers,” the followingparagraph appears:A Jerusalem man, a reservist himself and the father of asoldier, wondered how the army would react “to all thoseJewish mothers worrying about their sons freezing in thehills.” He laughed, but then said it could represent a realClassics in Politics: The Fateful TriangleNoam Chomsky