Fateful Triangle

Peace for Galilee3494.5 The Pretext for the Invasion of LebanonOn June 3, a terrorist group that had been engaged in a running battlewith the PLO for a decade and whose head (Abu Nidal) had beencondemned to death by the PLO attempted to assassinate Israeli AmbassadorShlomo Argov in London. The facts were reported at once by theBritish police and government, with the further information that PLOleaders were on the “hit list” of the attackers, but the insistence of thePLO that it had nothing to do with this act was rejected by the Israeligovernment, with much of the U.S. press in line as usual. * TheWashington Post commented that the assassination attempt was an“embarrassment” for the PLO, which “claims to represent allPalestinians, but…tends to be selective about accepting responsibilityfor acts of Palestinian violence.” 40 By the same logic, it would belegitimate to bomb Israel when any Jew carries out a violent act againstPalestinians, for example, the Jewish Defense League in New York, oran American immigrant who went berserk at the Al Aqsa Mosque inJerusalem, or the “Jewish Armed Resistance” in Rome (see below).Recall that the Israeli courts have determined that Israel is the State of*The three attackers were caught and given 30-35-year sentences. The leader,who was deputy commander of Abu Nidal’s special operations section, wasidentified as a Colonel in the Iraqi Intelligence Service. The assassination mayhave been ordered by the Iraqi government in the expectation that Israel wouldattack Lebanon in “reprisal,” offering Iraq the opportunity to end the war withIran in the name of unity against Israel, as it proposed to do on June 10. Iranrefused, giving exactly this analysis of what had happened. Ian Black,Manchester Guardian Weekly, March 13, 1983. Black suggests further thatBritain and the U.S. downplayed the incident because of their interest inimproving trade and diplomatic relations with Iraq. See p. 367*. Also p. 159*.Classics in Politics: The Fateful TriangleNoam Chomsky