Fateful Triangle

Peace for Galilee450soldiers, “In the annals of military combat, their behavior is unique,”with “no abuse of civilian populations,” “no reported instances oflooting…[and] a care not to needlessly destroy civilian property.” 206 Wehave reviewed evidence bearing on the veracity of most of these claims,and will turn to the remainder in section 8.1.Though Shlomo Avineri’s views on the war, as presented to the IDFlecturers, are essentially those of Begin and Sharon, he is regularly presentedhere as a critical dove. A look at what he actually says isinteresting. Writing to an American audience, this noted scholarexplained that “the Palestinians have always adopted the line ofmaximum no-compromise with Zionism and with Israel” (on the facts,see chapter 3), though their current willingness to consider a cease-fire“may be the first sign of sanity” (as contrasted with their strictobservance of the July 1981 cease-fire, which caused such distress inIsrael). “With the decimation of the PLO in Lebanon, Israel can nowafford to be more self-assured and more generous,” achieving its“legitimate Jewish liaison with Judea and Samaria” and allowing “thebulk of the West Bank and Gaza” to be attached to Jordan, while theEast Bank becomes “the area in which the Palestinian refugees could berehabilitated.” He subsequently explained that “as long as the PLO heldsway in Beirut, moderate Palestinians were effectively deterred by PLOthreats and terrorism from coming forward with plans that did not meshwith the ideology calling for the destruction of Israel” (such as, forexample, the January 1976 plan for a peaceful two-state settlementprepared by the PLO). Others often regarded as doves agreed, forexample, Raanan Weitz, the head of the rural settlement department ofthe Jewish Agency, who proposed that “water can be brought from theLitani River, in Lebanon, to arid regions in the West Bank and the GazaStrip,” while Jewish settlement remains at least along the Jordan River,“constituting a part of the state of Israel,” and presumably in other areasClassics in Politics: The Fateful TriangleNoam Chomsky