Fateful Triangle

Peace for Galilee433that Israel pay reparations, which is “the practice in war.” “With thesavage way the Israelis have acted, I think it’s the least of things todemand of the aggressor,” he told a news conference in which he alsoblamed the U.S. for “backing Israel blindly.” 184 Salam and Wazzan livedin West Beirut, where they endured the terror; Chamoun and Gemayelwatched from East Beirut.On August 30, Yasser Arafat departed from Beirut, effectivelyterminating an organized Palestinian presence in Lebanon. The daybegan with an emotional farewell meeting with Druze leader WalidJumblatt. Arafat was then accompanied to Prime Minister Wazzan’soffice by Jumblatt, Shiite Amal militia commander Nabih Berri andLebanese Communist Leader Mohsen Ibrahim. “Brother Arafat,” asPrime Minister Wazzan referred to him, was seen off from Beirut byWazzan, four former Prime Ministers, religious leaders, andrepresentatives of President Sarkis, many of whom “were in tears as thesingle smokestack Atlantis, gleaming white in the sunlight, pulled out ofthe port.” 185There were, indeed, many who had reason to fear what the futureheld, and these fears were soon borne out: the Palestinians and Muslimsin Beirut, who were left defenseless, with power now in the hands oftheir Phalange enemies; the population of the south, subject to thewhims of Major Haddad and whomever else Israel might choose to arm;the Druze of the Chouf region, which had escaped the civil war, who“were worried and scared last weekend as the Phalangist militias movedin behind the advancing Israelis”; and perhaps also those whoreported (with TV clips) on NBC TV news, Aug. 2. James Compton reported that“There were Palestinian positions here. They have long been abandoned... Mostfortified Palestinian positions have been abandoned under Israel’s relentlessbarrage.”Classics in Politics: The Fateful TriangleNoam Chomsky