[Militant No. 614, 13th August 1982, p. 1 and 2]
The ruthless destruction of West Beirut by Israeli shelling and bombing has opened up the biggest split in Israel since the formation of the state.
The terrible civilian casualties in particular, make this the bloodiest of the series of wars fought to defend the Zionist state as a „peaceful haven“ for Jewish people – on the land of the Palestinians.
The Palestinian movement, however, under the narrow nationalist leadership of Arafat, is not only facing military defeat but is caught in a political dead-end. It now seems only a matter of time before the PLO forces pull out of Beirut. The determined resistance of the young Palestinian guerrillas is all but exhausted. They cannot indefinitely withstand Israeli bombardment.
Arrangements for the PLO’s evacuation are being worked out by the US government, still the region’s main arbiter.
Begin is determined to ensure all the PLO leave. The PLO leaders, however, have been holding out for a token presence in West Beirut, to be allowed to take their heavy arms and for official US recognition of the PLO.
The US, although in fact negotiating with PLO leaders, will not give official recognition unless the PLO recognises the right of Israel to exist.
Syria, Iraq, Jordan and the (more remote) Sudan have apparently agreed to take PLO contingents. The Palestinian forces, however, would be held firmly under the thumb of these regimes.
All along, the PLO leaders have relied on the support of the reactionary Arab government rather than the class support of workers and peasants in the occupied territories and the Arab states.
Now the Palestinians are paying a terrible price for their leaders‘ failure to link national liberation with social and economic demands.
That, however, would mean challenging the ruling classes and dictatorial elites of the Arab states, whereas Arafat and company have always preferred to rely on money and arms from regimes like Saudi Arabia. In other words, the PLO leadership has become the client of rulers who fear an independent Palestinian state, in which national liberation would spill over into social revolution, as much as the Israeli ruling class itself.
The recent wave of strikes on the West Bank and within Israel shook Begin far more than successive guerrilla campaigns, which Israel can always defeat militarily.
Begin’s invasion in fact, has been intended not simply to hit at PLO bases in Lebanon but to tighten Israel’s grip on the West Bank. The new “civilian” administration in the occupied territories is far more repressive than the temporary rule it replaced, and has provoked enormous Arab protests and strike action. Begin’s moves to consolidate Israel’s extended frontiers, moreover, has also provoked opposition and protest from a growing number of Israelis. The occupation of a third of Lebanon and the devastation of West Beirut has brought even more protests.
It is not likely now, therefore, that Begin will try to occupy West Beirut. PLO evacuation would make this unnecessary. But taking the shattered streets from the PLO would mean even heavier cost for Israel in money, arms, in casualties, and through the enormous drain on Israel’s economy.
Begin is clearly hoping that in September, when Sarkis goes, he will be replaced as President by Bashir Gemayel, leader of the ultra-reactionary Maronite Christian ‚Lebanese forces’.
Gemayel welcomed the Israeli invasion and has thrown his own forces against the Lebanese Muslim militia. If he did emerge as President, which is not certain, he would be a virtual client of Begin. In any case, Israeli forces will probably continue to occupy a „buffer zone“ in Southern Lebanon, and Gemayel would be presiding over a state of continued, incipient civil war·.
No-peace while Palestine occupied
There will be no peace in the Middle East while Israel occupies the Palestinian homeland. In the coming months some of the Palestinians, out of desperation and despair, may well turn to terrorism internationally. The bombing of a Jewish restaurant in Paris, whoever is responsible, is an ominous warning.
But terrorism is no way out. The Palestinians must turn to the only forces on whom they can rely, the workers and exploited people of the occupied territories and the Arab lands.
If they linked national liberation to the demand for a socialist Federation of the Middle East, the Palestinians could win mass support from Arab workers; split Israeli workers from their reactionary Zionist rulers, and be sure of the solidarity of the international working class.
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