The hour of decision in Lebanon
While we write this article tens of thousands of people are leaving Beirut. Despite the cease-fire, the Zionist army is bombarding the town, causing hundreds of vietims and greater and greater destruction. There is not a shadow of a doubt that Begin and Sharon will not hesitate to launch their forces into an assault on the Lebanese capital, if they do not obtain the complete capitulation of the Palestine Liberation Organisation.
In its new war of aggression, the Zionist government has been able to count on extremely favourable conditions, notably the isolation of the Palestinian resistance, and the support of American imperialism.
This reality has appeared more and more clearly, in the eyes of the whole world, day after day. The new Egyptian government, prisoner of the Camp David agreement, and satisfied to have regained the Sinai, has not made any correction to the traitorous policy of Sadat. The Syrian regime, essentially preoccupied with maintaining its power, has done its best not to be involved in the war, and has limited itself to occasional and timid responses to the most murderous attacks of the Zionist army. All the other Arab states, apart from more or less demagogic declarations, have not moved at all. Iran has only made a symbolic march, which could not have any effect on the course of events. As for the Soviet Union, it has rivalled the Arab states in passivity, while polemicising against them for their attitude, and is only concerned with the fate of the Syrian regime, the only ally in the region on which it can count, even though this may not amount to much just now.
On the other hand, the United States has completely supported the Zionist state, whose aims it shares. Their official representatives have not hidden their wish to see the Palestine resistance destroyed, because they estimate, correctly, from their point of view, that crushing the PLO would signifv an evolution of the relationship of forces favourable to reaction in the Middle East, and consider ably increase their room for manoeuvre. If it is necessary to raze the Lebanese capital to the ground to achieve this aim, those who bombarded Vietnam for ten years, or who are now engaged in a struggle to exterminate the Salvadoran people, will not hesitate to support Sharon and his army!
The states of capitalist Europe, for their part, have contented themselves with hypocritical declarations, or diplomatic manoeuvres, for show. It is significant that, while they did not hesitate to take economic sanctions against Argentina, guilty of 'aggression', at the time of the Malvinas affair, they have not done the same against Israel, which has unleashed a veritable war in occupying a part of Lebanon.
The progressive Lebanese forces are bogged down, through Joumblatt, in the so-called 'Committee of National Salvation', aiming to bring about a type of 'national unity'. It was evident from the start that such a national unity could only lead to the desertion of the Palestinians. In fact, it has led to the paralysis of the progressive forces, their renunciation of any autonomous political initiative. The Committee has finally broken up. but the Falangist right has been able to profit from the operation. While the Committee could not undertake anything, Israel developed its attacks against the Palestinian positions which was certainly not to displease Gemayel and his gang.
Thus, the Palestinians found themselves and will find themselves confronted with a dramatic choice: either to give up their arms and incur at the same time a very grave political defeat, or to risk a massacre in the ruins of Beirut in the hope of politically preserving their future.
If they find themselves cornered in this situation the responsibility also falls on the workers movement and the anti-imperialist forces of the whole world, who have only mobilised in derisory numbers, at the same time that huge demonstrations against rearmament have shown that the potential for enormous mobilisations exists. It is imperative that there is an effective rise in consciousness about what is at stake-the risk of genocide and a victory of the most reactionary forces in a crucial region-and that we make a radical turn.
The workers and anti-imperialist movements throughout the world must assure their help to the Palestinian resistance and their solidarity to those in Israel who have taken to the streets to oppose the criminal policies of Begin. Time is running out and we cannot lose a single day! We must demand: - an immediate halt to Zionist aggression and the unconditional withdrawal of Zionist troops from Lebanon. - the withdrawal of all occupying forces from the occupied territories. - the re-establishment of Lebanese sovereignty. - the right of the Palestinians to maintain their positions, their arms and their organisations. —military and economic aid from the workers states to the Palestinian resistance and to all the Lebanese forces who are fighting at the side of palestinians.
Fire and destruction near Beirut (DR)