THE LEBANON FOLLIES:

Reagan, Begin, and Israel (Ariel Natan Pasko, June 8, 2004, Israel Insider)

On June 6th, 1982 - seventeen years, to the day, from the beginning of 1967 Six Day War - Israel entered Lebanon to put an end to PLO rocket attacks on Israeli cities in the north. Within three days, Israel swept north to Beirut, driving the PLO northward. There was little bloodshed in those three days, because most PLO terrorists chose to run instead of holding their ground and fight. The mostly Shiites and Christians in South Lebanon, hailed Israelis as liberators, so horrendous was the PLO atrocities against them. Israel was poised to enter Beirut, and route the PLO once and for all. But Ronald Reagan didn't want that. The Arabist State Department pulled out their old myth that Israel couldn't enter an Arab capital because the Arabs would "lose face" and then they wouldn't be able to make peace with Israel later. The same stale argument was made to keep Israel from fully routing the Syrian Army in 1973, and penetrating into Damascus. Under tremendous pressure, Begin hesitated for three weeks, during which time, the PLO dug in, increasing the likelihood of fierce house-to-house combat in civilian neighborhoods. The PLO had for years terrorized the civilians in Lebanon, creating a state-within-a-state, and had no compunction in using civilians as shields against the invading Israeli forces. Begin backed off, and the famed "siege of Beirut" began.

If Reagan hadn't pressured Begin, or if Begin hadn't backed down, the PLO instead of digging in, would have continued fleeing northward, and the Israeli Army could have crossed through Beirut as it had the South of Lebanon, with nary a shot fired. Once, north of Beirut in open territory, Israel could have finished off the PLO for good. That is the greatest tragedy of the war.

During this period, Reagan secretly formulated a plan not only to get Israel to pull its troops out of Lebanon, but to force Israel into withdrawing from Judea and Samaria - the West Bank - and Gaza. Reagan envisioned Palestinian autonomy in a federal system with Jordan.

Putting him twenty years ahead of his time.

MORE:
Sharon to lead with minority government, for now (Ellis Shuman, June 9, 2004, Israel Insider)

Aides of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said the prime minister is in no hurry to open coalition talks with the Labor Party and will lead a minority government through the end of the present Knesset session. After yesterday's resignations of National Religious Party (NRP) ministers Effi Eitam and Yitzhak Levy, Sharon's government has the support of only 59 MKs. Likud officials are confident that the opposition can't garner 61 MKs, but Eitam vowed to bring Sharon's government down. [...]

"This prime minister must be removed from office," Eitam declared at a press conference in Jerusalem yesterday. Eitam also called on the nationalist camp to "unite and act against this government and against this terrible decision," in reference to the government's approval of Sharon's revised disengagement plan.

"The flag of the Land of Israel has been lowered to half-mast in your time," Levy wrote to the prime minister, according to a report in Haaretz. "The splendid settlement movement feels you are pursuing it... Today you are primarily occupied with the plan to uproot Jews from their homes. I cannot even be a partner in your government," he wrote.

Posted by Orrin Judd at June 10, 2004 11:05 AM