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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2014
THE 1982 WAR IN THE LEBANON AND ITS BLOODY AFTERMATH were not accidents of history. They resulted from the takeover of the Israel government and the world Zionist movement by Menachem Begin's Revisionists. This group of Zionist extremists (Dr Chaim Weizmann's description) had been derided and excluded from power for over 50 years. In 1977, they won their first Israeli general election and set about realizing their radical programme.
This article will discuss the roots of Begin's War and the challenge of the Begin revolution to world Jewry. First, it will review some of the available evidence about the fighting and the extent of civilian casualties. This review will throw light on Mr Begin's motives for launching ‘Operation Peace for Galilee’.
1 The Times 14 June 1982 (all footnote references to newspapers are for 1982), and Jerusalem Post 13–19 June (all references to this paper are to the International Edition).
2 International Herald Tribune 17 June. The Red Crescent was headed by the brother of PLO leader Yassir Arafat. See also Robert Fisk, The Times 13 July.
3 The Times 21 June. The largest death tolls were reported as Beirut—2,461, Sidon—1,109 in the town and 1,167 in nearby Palestinian camps, Tyre—1,200 (including three nearby camps), Beirut airport area—580, Khalde area—518. The totals include both combatants and civilians.
4 Daily Telegraph 3 September. See also Le Monde 8 and 9 September.
5 Jerusalem Post 27 June—3 July.
6 Jerusalem Post 11–17 July and Sunday Times 4 July. See also Britain/Israel Public Affairs Committee, Lebanon: The Facts, p. 7.
7 David K. Shipler, International Herald Tribune 15 July.
8 At the end of July, the Israel government reported to the Britain/Israel Public Affairs Committee that about 1,200 combatants and civilians had been killed in the Palestinian camps in southern Lebanon (excluding West Beirut).
9 A New York Times correspondent reported that Israeli escort officers had been threatened with imprisonment if they allowed reporters to see the camps (International Herald Tribune 20 July). A Jerusalem Post reporter wrote that ‘Ein Hilwe is officially closed to journalists. Partly, as is the case in the Rashadiye refugee camp, because it is clearly unsafe. But as the IDF (Israel Defence Force) spokesman in Sidon, Aluf Mishne Zachi said: “There are other reasons’”. (11–17 July). See also International Herald Tribune 12–13 June, and Professor P. Kessler and Dr R. Parisi, letter to the Jerusalem Post 22–28 August.
10 Peter Coleridge, ‘Vital Statistics in South Lebanon’, Oxfam Report, July 1982.
11 Peter Coleridge, ‘Lebanon: Sitrep at 12th July 1982’, Oxfam Report.
12 Robert Fisk, The Times 19 June.
13 Sunday Times 4 July. According to supplementary information supplied by the newspaper, the sites were: (1) the Jad building (70 corpses buried in cement and quicklime), (2) Sidon secondary school for boys (eyewitnesses reported 250 bodies), (3) Jezzine Road elementary school (see previous footnote, 150 bodies), (4) mass grave on traffic island (reported by mayor of Sidon, see previous footnote, 40 bodies), (5) Sidon hospital (medical eyewitnesses reported 100 Lebanese dead). In addition, 400–500 dead Palestinians were reported at this hospital.
14 The Times 14 July.
15 Lebanon: The Facts, pp. 6–7.
16 The Times 19 and 24 June, 8 and 13 July.
17 For the Israel government’s account, see Lebanon: The Facts, pp. 9–10.
18 Jerusalem Post 20–26 June.
19 Oxfam, ‘Sitrep at 12th July 1982’.
20 Oxfam, ‘Sitrep at 12th July 1982’, pp. 5–6, section 2.4 ‘Sidon—Harassment of Palestinians’ and information supplied in July by Oxfam personnel.
21 The Times 14 June.
22 Jerusalem Post 20–26 June.
23 Jewish Chronicle 2 July, Lebanon: The Facts, p. 7, Jerusalem Post 27 June—3 July.
24 D. B. Ottaway, International Herald Tribune 16 July.
25 20–26 June.
26 Jerusalem Post 8–14 August. According to a survey of Tyre by Bishop George Haddad, as cited by Oxfam, 400 houses were completely destroyed, 400–500 half destroyed and several thousand ‘damaged to some degree’. The total of Lebanese homeless in Tyre was reported as 5,000. (‘Sitrep at 12th July 1982’, p. 3.).
27 Oxfam, ‘Vital Statistics in Lebanon’.
28 According to the Jerusalem Post, ‘The camp was systematically reduced to rubble’ (11–17 July). See also David K. Shipler, International Herald Tribune 20 July and Christopher Walker, The Times 8 July.
29 Interview with Oxfam personnel. According to Oxfam, the previous population of the camp was 60,000 (‘Sitrep at 12th July 1982’, p. 4). According to the Washington Post’s reporter, the population had been estimated at 40,000 by an Israeli officer and at 70,000 by two UN doctors (International Herald Tribune 16 July).
30 Oxfam, ‘Sitrep at 12th July 1982’.
31 18–24 July.
32 Oxfam, ‘Sitrep at 12th July 1982’.
33 4–10 July 1982. According to this report, UNRWA estimated that Ein Hilwe had been Virtually wiped out, Rashadiye and Burj esh Shemali were two-thirds destroyed, Nabatiye was ‘slightly damaged’ and the position at Mieh Mieh and El Bass was unclear.
34 Measurement of the numbers displaced by the war is difficult because accurate information is not available about the population before the fighting. The refugee camps contained not only officially registered refugees (from the Arab-Israel war of 1948) but unregistered refugees who arrived after the 1967 war and the Jordanian civil war of 1970.
35 The higher figure is based on the preliminary UNRWA estimate of destruction, the lower on Oxfam’s.
36 This total is broadly consistent with that of the UNRWA commissioner general, who reported in August that ‘at least 60,000 Palestinians had lost their homes in southern Lebanon, where refugee camps had been razed by shelling and bulldozers’. (Guardian 18 August). The Jerusalem Post reported that UNRWA estimated that, in July, there were 35,000 Palestinian homeless in Tyre and Sidon and 12,000 elsewhere in Israeli occupied southern Lebanon (11–17 July). To this figure must be added those who had fled to Beirut and the Bekaa Valley. This group numbered 40,000, according to another UNRWA report (Jerusalem Post 4–10 July). These two reports suggest a total of 87,000 homeless Palestinians from southern Lebanon. Israeli figures appear to be lower. An Israeli official reported that 20,000–30,000 Palestinians had been left homeless in the southern Lebanese camps (Jerusalem Post 25–31 July.) This figure does not include those who had left Israeli-occupied territory, nor those who had been detained.
37 This is an estimate based on preliminary reports by relief workers on the effects of the fighting.
The severity of the bombing of West Beirut suggests that there was extensive damage to property. According to an inevitably tentative UNRWA report in August, 76,000 people had been made homeless in Beirut. (Bernard Nossiter, International Herald Tribune 20 August.) However, at the time of writing, reliable evidence is not yet available, and most recent impressions of relief workers suggest a lower figure.
38 This is an official Israeli figure (Jerusalem Post 15–21 August). It is probably an underestimate.
39 Jerusalem Post 1–7 August.
40 In September, UNRWA headquarters reported that 40,000 in West Beirut were in need of food rations, cooking sets or blankets, 80,000–100,000 in South Lebanon and 80,000 (including 70,000 Lebanese) in the Bekaa Valley.
41 The Times 17 June.
42 The Times 17 June. See also The Times 18 June.
43 Jewish Chronicle 20 August.
44 Jerusalem Post 27 June—3 July.
45 Lebanon: The Facts, p. 4. According to the Jerusalem Post, UNRWA’s record as a knowing accomplice of Palestinian terrorism is notorious (11–17 July).
46 An Oxfam report complained that by mid-July voluntary agency representatives had only been allowed to visit Lebanon from Israel on conducted tours in the company of senior Israeli officers and, even on this condition, few agencies had been permitted to enter Lebanon. (‘Vital Statistics in Lebanon’.).
47 D. B. Ottaway, International Herald Tribune 16 July. In August, Israeli authorities finally permitted UNR. WA to bring tents into South Lebanon.
48 Jerusalem Post 29 August—4 September.
49 Lebanon: The Facts, p. 5, Daily Telegraph 10 July.
50 Daily Telegraph 29 June.
51 Jerusalem Post 20–26 June and 27 June—3 July.
52 Lebanon: The Facts, p. 12.
53 Daily Telegraph 10 July.
54 See letters to The Times by Professor Brownlie and R. H. Austin (29 June) and Professor Colonel G. I. A. D. Draper (16 July). I am grateful to Adam Roberts for his help in explaining the Geneva Conventions.
55 Daily Telegraph 10 July.
56 Jerusalem Post 8–14 August.
57 The Guardian 3 July.
58 Jerusalem Post 16–22 May.
59 See Dr Ben-Elissar’s statement in the Jerusalem Post 4–10 July.
60 Jerusalem Post 13–19 June.
61 Jerusalem Post 20–26 June.
62 Lebanon: The Facts, p. 3.
63 Hirsch Goodman, Jerusalem Post 20–26 June.
64 Lebanon: The Facts, p. 4.
65 11–17 July.
66 The invasion was also justified as a response to PLO attacks against targets elsewhere in Israel, in the occupied territories, and abroad.
67 Information supplied by the Embassy of Israel, London, to Rabbi Rayner. Even this low figure is disputed by non-Israeli sources, who report that the only fatality occurred when an Israeli soldier stepped on a land-mine in the Lebanese territory.
68 Daily Telegraph 6 September.
69 Jerusalem Post 16–22 May.
70 Jerusalem Post 11–17 July.
71 Jerusalem Post 16–22 May.
72 Jerusalem Post 16–22 May.
73 Weizmann, Chaim, Trial and Error: London: Hamish Hamilton, 1949, p. 417 Google Scholar.
74 See Avineri, Shlomo, The Making of Modem Zionism: The Intellectual Origins of the Jewish State: London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1981, p. 172 Google Scholar.
75 Gilbert, Martin, The Arab-Israel Conflict: Its History in Maps: London: Weiden-feld and Nicolson, 1974, p. 22 Google Scholar.
76 Begin, Menachem, The Revolt: Story of the Irgun: Tel-Aviv: Steimatzky, 5th edition, 1972, p. 378 Google Scholar.
77 Gilbert, The Arab-Israel Conflict, p. 27. Also, Keesing’s Contemporary Archives 6 August 1983, p. 3177, and 12 July 1939, p. 3642.
78 Elon, Amos, The Israelis: Founders and Sons: London, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1971 Google Scholar.
79 Begin, The Revolt, p. 142.
80 Begin, The Revolt, pp. 146–48.
81 Gilbert, The Arab-Israel Conflict, p. 44. The Jewish Agency denounced these reprisals as ‘spectacular exploits to gratify popular feeling.’ (p. 40.) Gilbert lists a large number of outrages committed by Jewish and by Palestinian terrorists from December 1947—April 1948.
82 Both Sides of the Hill: Britain and the Palestine War: London: Seeker and War burg, 1960, p. 123.
83 Gilbert, The Arab-Israel Conflict, p. 45.
84 Begin, The Revolt, p. 163.
85 See Joseph, Dov, The Faithful City: The Siege of Jerusalem, 1948: New York: Simon and Schuster, 1960, p. 71 Google Scholar. Joseph calls the attack on Deir Yassin ‘deliberate and unprovoked’, ‘a deliberate act of terrorism’ for which there was no military justification. A similar view is given in Syrkin, Marie, ed., Golda Meir Speaks Out: London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1973, p. 142 Google Scholar.
86 Begin, The Revolt, p. 376.
87 p. 3.
88 p. X.
89 The Times 29 July.
90 Yitzhak Shamir, ‘Israel’s Role in a Changing Middle East’, Foreign Affairs, Spring 1982, p. 792.
91 Correspondence with the Embassy of Israel, London.
92 Meyer W. Weisgal and Joel Carmichael, eds., Chaim Weizmann, p. 198.
93 Simha Flapan, Zionism and the Palestinians: London: Croom Helm, 1979, p. 96.
94 Avineri, The Making of Modem Zionism, p. 164.
95 Ibid..
96 Begin, The Revolt, p. 40.
97 Ibid., p. 231.
98 Ibid., pp. 231–2.
99 Ibid., p. 234.
100 Ibid., p. 232.