Fateful Triangle

Aftermath705blocking Israel’s moves towards partition, moves also condemned byanother Maronite elder statesman, Camille Chamoun. Meanwhile, theEconomist reports, “the pro-Israeli faction in the Phalange militia,” ledby Fady Frem (one of the architects of the Beirut massacre), expressedtheir support for Sharon in opposition to the Gemayel centralgovernment. A few weeks before, Shimon Peres, head of the LaborAlignment, expressed his view that Haddad should take over a 40km“security zone” inside Lebanon, 171 yet another indication of thefundamental agreement on policy between Labor and Likud.At the same time, Israel began to implement what it calls“normalization,” specifically, flooding south Lebanon with Israeli goods,including agricultural products that may undermine Lebanese agricultureand ultimately provide Israel with another cheap labor force. InSeptember, the Israeli press reported that hundreds of agriculturalworkers would be brought in from Lebanon in the coming harvestseason. By January, it reported that Israeli exports to Lebanon mightamount to $1 billion a year, flowing to the Arab world through Lebanon;exports in December were reported by Israeli army spokesman Col.Aaron Gonen and by the Lebanese government to have reached $20million. Lebanese authorities attempted to put a stop to these practices,but to no avail. The Minister of Economy, Commerce and Tourism,Ibrahim Halawi, commented that the “flow of illegal goods intoLebanon” will rob farmers of their livelihood and spread unemploymentin the industrial sector, though it is impossible for the Lebanesegovernment to take action against these illegal practices “with theIsraelis still there.” The Minister of Health issued similar warnings,reporting also a ban on purchase of medical equipment from Israel orother acts that would amount to de facto recognition, again noting theimpossibility of implementing policy because of the Israeli occupation. InMarch 1983, senior IDF officers warned the Tyre chamber of commerceClassics in Politics: The Fateful TriangleNoam Chomsky