The Zionists' crimes and the Palestinians' isolation
Daniel BENSAID
The siege of West Beirut lasted 79 For more than two months, the Zionist army (Tsahal) waged war on the Palestinian and Lebanese population. break the resistance, it resorted to the most barbaric means-from cutting water and electricity to blanket terror bombing, including the use of fragmentation bombs and attacks on hospitals.
It is still impossible to calculate exactly the number of victims (according to the official Lebanese sources, 17,825 persons were killed and 30,103 wounded; the Palestinian figures are higher). represents a massacre comparable to the crushing of the Paris Commune in 1871. It was carried on day after day in front of the cameras of all the world's TV net-
And still the world did not respond, The Habib Plan, imposed by imperialism and guaranteed by the presence of American, French, and Italian troops, is the confirmation of this isolation of the Lebanese and Palestinian fighters. It provides for keeping Israeli troops in Lebanon and installing an ultrareactionary
For all those who mobilized alongside the Palestinian resistance, the struggle continues to force the withdrawal of the Zionist troops and all imperialist forces from Lebanon, as well as to defend democratic rights, which are now being directly threatened by the Christian Pha-
But in order to mobilize for the new phase of the struggle, it is necessary to draw the lessons the last two months as clearly as possible.
Zionism has starkly revealed its underlying nature and its role as the ally of American imperialism in the region. From start to finish, it was only able to carry out its military expedition thanks to diplomatic cover from the U.S. (reflected by one vote after the other in the U.N. Security Council) and to U.S. economic and military aid. The existence of the state of Israel, as it is presently constituted, has been shown to be indissolubly linked to its big imperialist backers.
The Zionist state has also revealed its colonial structure. Since its origins, it has been based on the expulsion of the Arab workers and peasants from the process of production, on the expropriation of their land, and racial discrimination.
skirmishes with the French president Mitterrand, Israeli Premier Manahem Begin revealed this whole attitude. Begin went so far as to say that the French criticisms of Israel were simply an expression of spite by a country that, in the face of the Israeli military successes against the Arabs, felt humiliated by its defeat in the Algerian war (1954-62). is hard to imagine a cruder kind of coloni-
As for the "labor left" in Israel, it showed that it remains largely united in support of the imperialist aims of the Zionist state, and that this takes precedence
"left" character it may claim. The Labor Party endorsed the "Peace in Galilee" operation.
In fact, the leader of the Labor Party, Shimon Peres, accepted a mission from the Begin government to defend the motives of the Zionist state in New York
TRAITORS AND ACCOMPLICES
The attitude of the other major powers involved in the conflict was also revealed quite clearly.
This is true first of all of American imperialism. Israeli defense minister, General Ariel Sharon, said several times publicly that he had advised the Americans of the Israeli military plans well before the operations were launched. These revelations were by no means uninten-
They were designed to publicly implicate Israel's American ally.
As for the Soviet Union, it did not go beyond formal protests. Its passivity was explicitly denounced by the Palestinian leaders themselves. PLO chief Abu Ayad said: stood up better against the Israeli army than all the Arab armies....The Soviet attitude therefore is all the more inexplicable. We have questioned Moscow both publicly and privately. We have gotten only symbolic encouragements. How can the Soviet Union afford to be so passive when the U.S. is involving itself so flagrantly in the fight? I don't understand it (1)."
The Soviets have had an easy way out by throwing the ball back into the camp of the Arab countries. They have argued, not without some cynicism, that they could not try to be "more Arab than the Arabs." But this does not make it any less clear that their abstention marks the limits of their involvement in the Middle East and reveals their basic motives.
The Soviets' support for the PLO, thus, remains subordinated to what they regard as more enduring and advantagous diplomatic alliances, not for the sake of mobilizing the masses against imperialism but for the interests of the Soviet
Thus, it has become clear that the Soviet Union will not go beyond defending the Syrian regime, which remains its last significant ally in the region. On the other hand, it does not think that it has an essential stake in the survival of the
The role played by Soviet diplomacy in this conflict will certainly be instructive for the USSR's other allies in Latin America. Soviet "solidarity" will never go beyond what serves the clear state interests of the USSR. Anyone who tries to see it as generous internationalism is headed for some bitter disillusion-
The Soviet betrayal is matched only by that of the Arab states. They literally did not lift a finger to help the Palestinian and Lebanese peoples. The PLO came to the Arab League summit held in Tunis on June 26-27, that is two weeks after the start of the Zionist aggression, with a 14point solidarity plan. struggle in Lebanon, condemnation of the U.S., because of its backing of Israel, as "the main enemy of the Arab nation"; immediate recall of the Arab ambassadors in Washington; boycott of American institutions and freezing of U.S. contracts in the Arab countries; and withdrawal of Arab funds deposited in U.S. banks. Not a single point of this plan was accepted, the summit took no initiative. Egypt has kept its ambassador in Israel, and Saudi Arabia has officially welcomed Beshir Gemayel, head of the ultrarightist Christian Phalange, thereby granting him the legitimacy in the eyes of the Muslim population of Lebanon he needed to get himself elected president.
This betrayal of the Arab states is acutely and vociferously resented by the Palestinian fighters in West Beirut. But it is nothing new. It is in a line of continui-
Le Monde, July 23, 1982.
by which been so blatant.
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were at least two others. One was to reaffirm Israel's role as the irreplacable special ally of imperialism in the region.
The other was to restore Israeli national unity and mobilize Israeli public opinion ing economic and social vourable for George Shultz). in the expulsion and dispersion of its military vanguard. But it was not defeated without a fight. Contrasting with the abjectness of the Arab regimes, the PLO's 79 days of heroic resistance have given a
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5
Open letter to the Lebanese fighting organisations
Comrades and brothers, greetings in the name of resistance:
We address you publicly for the