Fateful Triangle

Peace for Galilee364exploit the opportunity” (in the government’s phrase) to “break thecurrent local leadership.” 60In the New York Times, David Shipler quoted the spokesman for theIsraeli administrative authority in the West Bank who states: “We’reconducting a political war against the P.L.O. The army is conducting amilitary war.” “Taking advantage of the P.L.O.’s weakened position inBeirut,” Shipler adds, “Defense Minister Ariel Sharon has stepped uppolitical and economic assaults on the organization’s adherents andadmirers in areas occupied by Israel since 1967,” giving a number ofdetails. 61Protests continued throughout the summer, despite the harsh militaryrepression. On September 3, one person was reported killed and threeinjured in Nablus when Israeli soldiers fired into a demonstration, andanother Palestinian was killed near Tulkarm during a “combing process”carried out by the Israeli army searching for a person who had fired atIsraeli soldiers. Another was killed by a settler during “violent studentdemonstrations” on October 26, and two were wounded in clashes withIsraeli settlers, among other incidents. 62 Recall that even the “moderates”(Freij, Shawa, etc.) continued to express their support for thePLO throughout the Lebanon invasion, and some in fact felt that supportfor the PLO had increased during the invasion (see chapter 3, section2.3.1). A number of Israeli observers, among others, also observed thesignificant impact of the heroic PLO resistance against overwhelmingodds. See section 8.3.1.None of this fits too well with the preferred picture of the West BankPalestinians, intimidated by the PLO for many years, who presumablyshould have been celebrating their liberation through the summer of1982. Americans who might have been dismayed by the events in thereal world could be comforted by turning to the pages of the NewRepublic, where they would be reassured to learn that what was takingClassics in Politics: The Fateful TriangleNoam Chomsky