Fateful Triangle

”Limited War” in Lebanon870attackers withdrew, Shiite guerrillas fired rockets into Israel, killing afive-year-old girl. 24So events continued. In May Israeli rockets killed Hizbollah officialYasir Nasser, his wife, two daughters aged two and four, and his fatherin-law,in Jibshit. Prime Minister Shamir stated that “The Israeli armywill continue to clear out nests of terrorists until they understand themessage” and halt their attacks within Israeli-occupied Lebanon.Lebanese police reported 37 killed and 72 wounded in Israeli air raids inthe first half of 1992. In June, Israeli shelling killed four Lebanesefarmers tending their fields north of the “security zone,” in retaliation fora bomb in the zone that caused “minor wounds” to Israeli soldiers. Inresponse to a bomb ambush that killed five Israeli soldiers in October,“Israeli artillery, aircraft and gunboats pounded targets across Lebanon,”the Times reported, sending hundreds of people fleeing from villages; “Ashell is landing every second” in Nabatiye, Reuters reported. 25In February 1993, four Lebanese, two of them guerrillas, were killedwhen Israeli forces and the SLA militia “pounded 20 Lebanese villagesin retaliation for” Hizbollah attacks “on the northern edge” of Israel’s“security zone.” After three Israeli soldiers were killed in Lebanon, Israelihelicopters retaliated by firing “at least 15 missiles into three houses, abakery and a valley outside the zone, as tanks and artillery slammed200 shells around a string of villages in the region.” A few days later,Israeli helicopters attacked the motorcade of Lebanese guerrilla leaderSamir Swidan, seriously wounding him and killing his wife and youngdaughter. On July 20, the UN Secretary-General reported to the SecurityCouncil on the “increased level of hostilities over the past six months,”noting that “The practice of [Israeli] firing into populated areascontinued, with resulting civilian casualties.” 26This is only a bare sample. As the occasional summaries indicated,much is not reported in the U.S.Classics in Politics: The Fateful TriangleNoam Chomsky