Fateful Triangle

Peace for Galilee443objectives of the war in Lebanon,” he writes, “there is no doubt that thecentral aim was to deal a crushing blow to the national aspirations ofthe Palestinians and to their very existence as a nation endeavouring todefine itself and gain the right to self-determination.” The goal wasachieved:Anyone who visited Southern Lebanon during and even afterthe fighting would see that the war was fought not justagainst terrorist organizations and the PLO, and not evensolely to destroy the PLO’s military infrastructure in theregion. It was fought against the very existence of thePalestinians as a community with its own way of life, whichhad been evolving in Lebanon since 1948, and at anenhanced rate since 1975... [against the] health andeducational services, political and social organizations,judicial and self-management systems, etc. Now that allthese autonomous social systems have been utterlydestroyed, the Palestinian refugees have once again becomea faceless mass of people, uprooted, evacuated and tornaway from any form of collective life. 197Bar-On may incidentally be right in saying that “anyone who visitedSouthern Lebanon” could see the facts that he describes, the results ofwhat Meir Pail calls “the ‘smash-up’ technique” used “to raze” the areasto be occupied “in various ways: in air, naval and artillery bombardment,and with tanks, rockets and mechanical equipment.” 198 But it is alsotrue that many who visited the area explicitly denied these facts andcondemned the American media as dupes or liars or worse for partially111.Classics in Politics: The Fateful TriangleNoam Chomsky