Fateful Triangle

by Noam Chomsky

  U.S. officials were in fact pressing Israel to stop the massacre. Shortly after the Phalange troops were withdrawn but before the journalists entered the camps, U.S. special envoy Morris Draper demanded that

  You must stop the massacres. They are obscene. I have an officer in the camp counting the bodies. You ought to be ashamed. The situation is rotten and terrible. They are killing children. You are in absolute control of the area and therefore responsible for that area.

  The evening before he had warned of “horrible results”—already achieved—if the Phalangists were permitted to enter the camps.79 General Yaron’s testimony indicates that the IDF did make an effort to rescue people from the gangs of murderers it organized and sent into the camps. He testified that at 6AM on Saturday he saw a group of people “with blond hair” being taken away by the Phalangists—doctors and nurses from the Gaza hospital. “General Yaron ran to them and ordered them to free the prisoners at once.”80 It would, then, be quite unfair, further evidence of a double standard if not outright antiSemitism, to assert as some do that Israeli forces made no attempt to stop the slaughter.

  Without pursuing the matter any further—and this merely scratches the surface—it suffices to remark that the similarity to the Kishinev massacre is uncanny, apart from scale, and putting aside the preceding 10 weeks of increasingly severe bombardment alongside of which the Sabra-Shatila massacres pale into insignificance.

  What was the scale of the operation and the casualties? After many falsehoods and evasions which we may omit, the government of Israel finally conceded that it had sent Phalangists into the camps, settling on a figure of 100-150; 150 according to the Kahan Commission. The final official story was that they were sent in for the purpose of “cleansing” the camps of 2000 heavily-armed terrorists left there by the PLO in violation of the Habib agreements. In Ha’aretz, B. Michael comments: “So heroic as this are the Christian fighters!” Edward Walsh reports Begin’s official reply to the Commission of Inquiry in which he “reiterated his assertion that there was no reason to anticipate a massacre and said the government had ‘authoritative information’ that about 2000 Palestinian guerrillas were concentrated in the area.” Walsh comments: “But no one has publicly explained how the Israelis expected 100 to 130 Phalangists to defeat such a force of Palestinians.” Robert Suro of Time magazine visited the camps a few days before the attack, and found no military presence there.81 The 2000 terrorists have proven elusive indeed.

  Of course, there are some other questions too, beyond the one that Edward Walsh raised in the Post. It is claimed that the 100-150 Phalangists were sent in to avoid IDF casualties in what was expected to be fierce fighting. How credible is this claim, considering the size of the force that was introduced into the camps? And once this claim is dismissed as the obvious nonsense that it is, what remains as the plausible explanation for Israel’s decision to send Phalangists of the Damouri Brigade and Haddad troops to enter defenseless Palestinian camps, knowing perfectly well what they had done in the past, and would do again? Recall again the official claim that Israel invaded West Beirut to protect Palestinians from Phalangist terror.

  The 2000 heavily-armed Palestinian terrorists seem to have been singularly inept. The 150 Phalangists sent in to overcome them reported 2 killed—exactly the number of casualties suffered by the murderers at Kishinev, by macabre coincidence.82 It is, in fact, unclear whether these two were killed or wounded; see below.

  Turning to the number of casualties suffered by the 2000 terrorists, Defense Minister Sharon testified that based on “the figures of the Army Intelligence Branch,” between 700 and 800 people had been killed,83 almost 20 times the scale of the Kishinev massacre, 375 terrorists for each Phalange fighter. This figure was accepted as the most probable estimate by the Kahan Commission, relying on Israeli intelligence and ignoring Lebanese sources. The Lebanese government alleges that 762 bodies were actually recovered and that 1,200 more were buried privately by relatives, so that the death toll would be about 2000. Perhaps these are the “2000 terrorists” of Israeli hasbara exercises.84

  Thomas Friedman subsequently found that “it has now become clear that at least a quarter, and possibly many more [of those killed], were Lebanese Shiite Moslems,” and that most of the Palestinians came from Israel’s Upper Galilee and Jaffa in 1948—which means that they were very likely expelled by force. Nine Jewish women were also reported killed.85 Citing Palestinian and independent medical sources, Friedman added that several hundred men rounded up during the massacres were removed to the Israeli prison camp in Ansar. There had, in fact, been earlier indications that this was so.

  As the massacres came to an end, the IDF at once displayed the efficiency of which it is capable when it so desires, turning its attention to those who had somehow survived the slaughter. Early Saturday morning, as the killing ended, Israeli troops outside the camps are reported to have used loudspeakers to order survivors to a nearby stadium where they “were separated into small groups and interrogated, witnesses said.” Most were released, “but some, called PLO suspects by the Israelis, were detained.” A few days later, the State Department “indicated there was a new source of Administration concern over reports that, after the massacre of the Palestinians in the Beirut camps, Israeli forces rounded up a large number of Arab men in West Beirut, presumably on suspicion of being Palestinian guerrillas, and deported them to detention camps in southern Lebanon.” Israel confirmed that “yes, there have been interrogations and, yes, there were large numbers of people held.” At the same time, “Heavy weapons captured by the Israeli army in its invasion of Moslem West Beirut are being turned over to the Christian militia forces whose units have been implicated in the massacre of Palestinian civilians in the capital’s Sabra and Shatila refugee camps.”86

  One wonders whether the Czar could have carried it off with such grace and elegance.

  Ze’ev Schiff reports an “authorized investigation” after the massacres which showed that they were not a case of “revenge killings” after the Gemayel assassination (a rather implausible assumption in the first place, since it was hardly credible that the Palestinians had killed Gemayel), but were “a premeditated attack which was designed to cause a mass flight of Palestinians from Beirut and from the whole of Lebanon.” David Shipler reports that as early as mid-June, “Israeli officials were speaking privately of a plan, being considered by Defense Minister Ariel Sharon, to allow the Phalangists to go into west Beirut and the camps against the Palestine Liberation Organization. The calculation was that the Phalangists, with old scores to settle and detailed information on the Palestinian fighters, would be more ruthless than the Israelis and probably more effective.”87 As noted earlier (section 3.3), the Phalangists did make one such move, but quickly withdrew in the face of PLO fighters, much as the IDF itself did. It is likely that Sharon’s plan was now implemented, once the impediment, armed resistance to the terror, had been removed.

  Israel’s first response to the reports of atrocities by journalists on Saturday September 18 was that “we do not know anything of these alleged massacres” (IDF spokesman). The expression of anger by the U.S. over the killings in the camps was denounced in Jerusalem as “hypocrisy.” Subsequently a variety of excuses were attempted (the Phalangists entered through an area not under Israeli control, etc.), but these were soon dropped as it became evident that there were simply too many credible eyewitnesses. Worldwide outrage was extensive. The General Assembly of the United Nations voted 147 to 2 with no abstentions to condemn the massacre, the United States and Israel alone in opposition as usual.88 But in the United States too there was outraged condemnation, to which we return, as there was in Israel as well, most notably, in the huge protest demonstration with a reported 400,000 in attendance, which was quickly exploited in the U.S. to increase American support for Israel’s new settlements in the occupied territories and its military actions in Lebanon, as already discussed.

  The charge of hypocrisy levelled by spoke
smen for the government of Israel has considerable merit, once again. There had been no such anger over the murderous bombardments of the camps from June 4, which caused far more casualties than Israel’s replay of the Kishinev massacre on a far larger scale, or over the war itself. What is more, earlier massacres in the aftermath of Israeli aggression, as in Gaza in 1956, evoked no outrage, though in that case it was IDF soldiers themselves who did the killing (see chapter 4, section 3). Hence it is unclear, at first, why the Beirut massacres should have evoked such expressions of horror. In scale, the massacre falls into the category of other recent examples that have not exactly seared the conscience of the West, for example, the Kassinga massacre in Namibia in 1978, when over 600 people were killed by bombing by French-built Mirage jets and by paratroopers transported in U.S.-built Hercules troop carriers.89 Or the Rio Sumpul massacre in El Salvador in May 1980 which signalled the onset of the mass murder of peasants that constituted one of the final chapters of the Human Rights Administration.90 Or the massacre of 300 unarmed villagers by U.S.-built fighter-bombers and crack U.S.-trained counterinsurgency forces in San Vicente province in El Salvador in late August 1982, leaving “a mountain of people—children, old people and women,” according to survivors.91 Or the massacre of 300 Indians on July 17, 1982 by Guatemalan troops arriving by foot and in helicopters (thanks to the U.S., and to their Israeli arms suppliers and advisers), who killed every man, woman and child in the village except for three men who managed to hide in the woods, according to interviews arranged for the press by Roman Catholic priests.92 In none of these cases was there any noteworthy response.

  The message is clear enough. Israel had violated a cardinal rule of international etiquette: if you intend to engage in mass murder, then do so when there are not too many reporters in the vicinity or when the editorial offices at home understand the virtues of silence. When Israel speaks of Western hypocrisy, it has a powerful case. As for the Soviet reaction while Russian forces are massacring at will in Afghanistan, or that of the Arab states—for example, Syria, which had just successfully murdered thousands in Hama, or the blood-stained murderers who run Iraq—or Khomeini’s Iran, nothing more need be said.

  The story finally settled upon, as noted, was that some 100-150 militiamen were sent into the camps to root out 2000 heavily-armed Palestinian terrorists, with replacements on Friday afternoon to consummate the task. As for the constitution of these forces, there is dispute, since everyone insists that they were not involved. There seems little doubt that the forces were primarily Phalangists, with some Haddad troops as well, perhaps 1/3 or 1/4 of the attacking force, though on this matter reports vary, and Israel has repeatedly insisted that these forces, which are virtually part of the Israeli army, were not involved.

  Israeli sources alleged that the Phalange troops were commanded by Elie Hobeika, chief Phalange intelligence officer, who had “previously commanded the so-called Damour Commando, a reconnaissance unit which killed Palestinians in revenge for the murder of thousands of Lebanese Christians in the town of Damour, south of Beirut, in 1976.”93 The figure of thousands murdered in Damour appears to be an invention of Israeli propaganda.* In the New York Times, David Shipler again identified Hobeika on the basis of Israeli and Lebanese sources, describing him as the architect of the Tel al-Zaatar massacre, who “had assembled a special unit of commandos, among them former members of the Damuri Brigade, which included Christians whose families had been massacred in Damur and who were bent on revenge.” He was well known to the Israeli Mossad and the CIA, Shipler reports.94 Citing “highly placed sources,” The ABC News investigation reported that three Phalange leaders “bear direct responsibility for the massacre”: Fady Frem, Phalange military commander; Hobeika, Phalange chief of security and military intelligence; and Joseph Edde, leader of the elite Phalange commandos. “Of all Phalange factions responsible for the massacre, those who emerged from the wreckage of the Christian town of Damour are perhaps the most vengeful.”95 Loren Jenkins of the Washington Post concluded that the main actor was Hobeika, “the chief contact of the Lebanese Forces [the Phalange] with Mossad, the Israeli secret service, as well as with the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency,” and that along with Hobeika’s special security units “there was also a handful of men who appeared to belong to the militia of Saad Haddad.” Frem and Hobeika are reputed to be the leaders of the most strongly pro-Israel section of the Phalange. Thomas Friedman provides extensive

  *Colonel Yirmiah gives the figure of 250 killed, in his War Diary. See chapter 5, note 164.

  evidence from which he concludes that Haddad forces were involved, along with the Phalange.96 Survivors attributed the killings primarily to Haddad forces. Every refugee interviewed by the Christian Science Monitor “insisted the massacre was carried out by the forces of Maj. Saad Haddad,”97 and numerous other sources report their direct participation, among others, the U.S. State Department and General Sharon, who testified before the Commission of Inquiry that Haddad forces “had committed acts of murder or harmed the population” in the camps, and that one Haddad militiaman was killed and two others taken prisoner by an IDF paratroop unit outside the camps.98 A Danish TV crew filmed militiamen wearing Haddad uniforms on Friday outside of Shatila, preventing women from leaving the camp, herding them into trucks, and capturing Lebanese army regulars who approached the camp.99 Residents of the camps taken to the nearby sports stadium claim to have been interrogated by members of Haddad’s militia; and a Lebanese army officer at a post overlooking the camp identified Haddad forces, as did a Norwegian surgeon at the Gaza hospital who had served in the south and was familiar with the distinction between Phalangists and Haddadists, and other medical personnel there, who stated it was Haddad’s militia that had ordered them out of the hospital. A Shiite girl at the Acre hospital identified a Haddadist from her own village in southern Lebanon. Scores of survivors said that the militiamen spoke with southern Lebanese accents and used typical Shiite Muslim names (there are few if any Shiites in the Phalange forces but about half of Haddad’s militia are southern Shiites).100 David Lamb and others report that terrified refugees were screaming “Haddad is coming back” when rumors circulated that the militiamen were returning, repeating “the one word that to them is synonymous with death, ‘Haddad’.” One Palestinian boy was reported to be sitting on a Haddad Land Rover, his cheeks slashed by bayonets, forced “to reiterate his crime, ‘I am a Palestinian’,” before being killed.101 Villagers in the south in Haddad areas reported that “trucks and jeeps marked with Haddad’s militia’s insignias began pouring into [a village], to turn down an Israeli Army-controlled road that leads to Israeli military positions” near the airport.102 As noted, Israel denied that Haddad troops participated, claiming that none were “in the area of Beirut,” while the Israeli TV military correspondent reported that the Phalange killers wore Haddad uniforms to conceal their identity. Chief of Staff Eitan also denied that these forces were involved.103 We return to the Commission of Inquiry interpretation of the evidence of participation of Haddad forces, of which the above is a small sample.

  The exact truth will probably never be known. What is clear is that the atrocities were carried out by militiamen brought in by Israel who, furthermore, had “a well-documented history of atrocities against Palestinian civilians”—a fact which raises a “question,” as Israeli commander Maj. Gen. Amir Drori conceded.104

  The exact constitution of the forces is hardly of crucial significance. As David Bernstein comments in the Jerusalem Post, “In the final analysis, the question is largely irrelevant, as both Haddad and the Phalange are Israel’s creatures, having been armed and trained over the past eight years by the IDF.”105 That they were under IDF control as they were organized to enter the camps, and under its observation as the operation was carried out, is hardly in serious doubt.

  Not everyone is convinced. Parts of the Israeli press have suggested a rather different version of what took place. The Labor party press, Davar, ran a story in earl
y November under this headline: “The Massacre in the Refugee Camps was Organized by the KGB in order to Persuade the World of Israel’s Guilt.” The story is by the Davar Paris correspondent, Gidon Kutz, and is based on an exciting new book that had just appeared in Paris and his interview with the author, “a well-known Jewish historian and journalist,” Annie Kriegel, who explained to him her theory that the killings in the camps were organized by the KGB (who were also responsible for the Gemayel assassination), and carried out by German terrorists associated with the PLO. The American intelligence agencies are aware of all of this, but are keeping quiet, because they are interested in bringing down the Begin government and removing Israeli forces from Beirut. The purpose of the KGB-organized massacres in the camp is plain; they assumed correctly that Israel would be blamed. This was a part of the general Soviet commitment to international terrorism and the undermining of Israel, a program in which they are aided by the educated classes in the democracies, who, as the author writes in her book, have “abdicated all capacity of intellectual and spiritual resistance” in the face of “verbal aggression” aimed at destroying Israel, including the campaign of “intimidation” and “disinformation” directed by the USSR which has taken on “the dimensions of a veritable psychological war” launched against Israel in the summer of 1982.106

  As noted earlier, in addition to the qualifications just mentioned, Kriegel is a recently-converted high functionary of the French Communist Party, known as a hard-line Party loyalist, who had made the familiar and, from an ideological point of view, quite easy switch to the extreme right. Davar reports that her book was published with extreme rapidity by the well-known French publisher Laffont, “thanks to the Jewish origin” of the publishers, as a “national duty.”