Let’s go back to the beginning and review the facts. The Christian Phalangist militia actually carried out the slaughter, not a Hebrew-speaking unit of the IDF like Nahal or Golani. Strategically speaking however, just as Nahik Navot, then the deputy head of the Mossad and the official liaison with the Phalangists, wrote on Friday in Yediot Aharonot, the war was waged “in full coordination with Christians in Lebanon.” Tactically speaking, the Phalangist militia was a unit of the IDF in every sense of the word, save that its members spoke Arabic: its soldiers wore Israeli army uniforms, used IDF equipment and arms, and worked via coordination with IDF commanders, with their aid and under their control.

This was the case even during the massacre. The Phalangist militia entered the Sabra and Shatila camps with the approval (read: under the orders) of the IDF and with the full aid of the Israeli army, which surrounded the camp and fired light grenades in the night sky. Everything that took place in those two camps at that time was approved and abetted by IDF commanders and under their control.

In fact, even in Folman’s film, the person who ultimately ordered the Phalangists to “return to their bases” and stop the massacre was the commander of Israel forces in Lebanon, Gen. Amos Yaron. He and all of his officers and soldiers must have been completely blind not to have seen the slaughter underway in the camps from their points of control around them, which looked down on the camps at a distance of ten stories. Yet we still feign innocence, as seen in Folman’s film. We wonder what happened and say that it was Arabs killing Arabs, but the world blamed the Jews.

Returning to 1938

Let’s make a necessary comparison. Let’s say that Germany occupied Poland in 1938, before the outbreak of World War II and before the genocide of Jews in Europe, and decided to install its ally, beloved by the local fascist party, as leader. Let’s call this hypothetical leader Bashiros Gomelsky.

Let’s say that someone killed the newly installed Gomelsky and that, for example, Jewish rebels were blamed. Let’s say that following the murder of their leader, Polish fascist forces asked the commander of the German army in Poland to enter the Jewish quarter in Warsaw and “bring order.” Let’s say that the German high commander approved the entry and even closed the entrances and exists of the Jewish quarter and perhaps lit up the sky with German light grenades.

Let’s say that Polish fascists then went in, wearing German uniforms and using German equipment and weapons, and massacred the Jews like dogs until the commander of the German army in Poland ordered them to stop and “return to their bases.” Would we also say that this was a matter of Poles killing Poles and wonder why the Germans were being blamed? Or would it have been clear to us—as clear as a light grenade in the sky—that Germany massacred Jews? This is what we did—us—at Sabra and Shatila 26 years ago.

Source: www.nrg.co.il

July 14, 2008

By: Kobi Niv