Articles

Lest We Forget
by Dr. Franklin H. Littell
no date available


Who did it – and why? What were the circumstances? And who says so?
Those are the questions that we teach in every history class. Because trained minds do not make judgments based on rumor, we insist that restraint be exercised in reaching conclusions. First-hand information and evidence (“primary sources”) are demanded if historical incident is to be understood.

OF COURSE, “EVERYONE KNOWS” that the recent atrocities in Beirut were committed by “Christian Phalangists sent in by the Israelis” – as a current newspaper report put it. Leaders of the Phalange deny it. That the killers were “sent in by the Israelis” is almost certainly a lie. That, however, does not prevent the anonymous correspondent from passing his prejudices (hopes?) off as solid information.

Nor has the concern for verified truth stopped the deluge of pro-PLO propaganda which The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Philadelphia Inquirer (inter alia) has flooded readers within recent weeks. Statistics and incidents easily verified as false or even impossible have been headlined; rare corrections, if they follow at all, are buried deep in the back pages. Moreover, by selecting some data and simply refusing to print other information, popular journalism has created an hysterical situation in which a rush to condemn Israel is inevitable among the uninformed or malicious.

But who did it? The truth is: We don’t know, and we won’t know until investigative commissions (chiefly Israeli and Lebanese) complete their work.

AND WHY WAS IT DONE? What were the circumstances? The popular journalists, who never reported adequately the 1975-76 PLO and Syrian conquests of Lebanon, and who were simply untrained to understand the bitter hatreds between competing warlords and their private armies.

Lebanon has been for seven years a jungle. The assassination of the newly-elected President of Lebanon, Bashir Gemayel, might be a clue to the latest outbreak. But the pro-PLO journalists have had to throw in Major Haddad’s forces as part of the killer teams. There is no evidence for it, and Haddad denies it, but they have waged a propaganda war against him for years. They resent his resistance to the PLO terrorists and his friendship for Israel. That is enough to justify passing on any rumor, any lie?

WHO SAYS SO? The BBC is rumored to have picked up a radio message from an Israeli officer to higher command, a message which would indicate Israeli prior knowledge and complicity. But has anyone remembered the BBC coverage of the Israeli police action in its initial stages? What is a credible witness? – even supposing the rumor is true.

The present rush to judgment upon Israel, orchestrated by the Communists and the militant Arab governments, has been prepared by weeks of false reporting, suppression of relevant facts – not to mention daily pictures of Yasser Arafat kissing babies. (Does the wretched little killer have time for anything else?)

BEFORE PASSING JUDGMENT, which sensible people will delay until investigation is completed and the facts verified, what are the background facts? What are the circumstances?

First, for many years Lebanon has been a jungle, without central government, ruled and schooled and taxed by warlords in their fiefdoms – three Christian, two Druse, four Muslim (not to counter splinters) and two invaders: PLO and Syria.

Second, from its training camps, serviced by Soviet equipment and training, the PLO has launched attacks upon unarmed civilians in Israel and Jewish synagogues and businesses all over Europe and South America. Terrorists from 33 nations were captured during the Israeli police action “Peace for Galilee.”

THIRD, IN SPITE OF LYING REPORTS of tens of thousands of Lebanese and Palestinians killed in that IDF action, in spite of the obscene misuse of the “Holocaust” imagery against Israel, in spite of the lying claim that hundreds of thousands were rendered homeless, the truth is that although the PLO deliberately placed its installations in the midst of civilian centers, destruction – until the final action to dig the PLO out of Beirut – was minimal.

Fourth, as this writer published at the time, Lebanon was doomed to slide into the swamp of renewed fratricidal warfare – even before President Gemayel was murdered – unless the successful IDF action were followed up by occupation by U.S. troops (or an international force if politically necessary). The American Marines, a pitiable force of 1000, as against the 20,000 which President Eisenhower once sent in to prevent a previous Syrian takeover, should never have been withdrawn. They should have been reinforced, and would have been by a strong American President.

BUT HOW FORTUNATE it was that the Israelis were there to blame! Who blames the actual perpetrators? – assuming that we know who they were, which we can only guess. Breast-beating American Jews and endemically anti-Semitic American churchmen have all they need to rush to judgment – and against Israel.

Where do I stand? I intend to reserve judgment and to draw my conclusions when the evidence is in and guilt has been established. I don’t like lynch mobs!

MENACHEM BEGIN, whose policies we may like or dislike at will (hopefully selectively), is the head of a legitimate government, the only one in the entire area. Whether Lebanon can recover, disarm the private armies and clean up the jungle of warlords, is still debatable. In the meantime, we should mark the enemies of Israel, whether journalists or politicians, for what they are – our enemies. The IDF was doing a job for us, as well as for their own people, when they broke the back of the PLO terrorist machine. They also checked the Russian advance, with their satellite Syria, into that section of the Middle East.

When the facts are known about the recent atrocities, we can draw the necessary conclusions. In the meantime, we will do to remember well the names of those who lied about the facts of the action “Peace for Galilee” and could not wait when they finally found something to blacken Israel for.

DO AMERICANS STILL REMEMBER My Lai? Do they remember how high officers, colonels and generals and right to the Commander-in-Chief, tried to cover it up? Already, after the first shock of disbelief, the Israeli government is moving to establish the facts and deal with them – when the worst they can be accused of, truthfully, is a breakdown in police supervision.

What is this rush to judgment – if not an expression of raw hatred for the head of the government of Israel, our ally, or of the latent anti-Semitism of Christendom’s gentiles, who always seek to believe the worst of “the Jews,” any Jews?