The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict #47: Into the Chaos: War Number 5 Begins
So, Who Knows Why The War Broke Out?
In April 1982, an employee of the Israeli embassy was murdered in Paris by a terrorist who shot him in the head. At the same time, the PLO and Fatah constantly carried out terrorist attacks against Israeli civilian targets within Israeli territory. In May of that year, Israel responded by bombing camps and warehouses of the Palestinian forces in Lebanon. Each time, the Palestinians responded by firing dozens of rockets into the settlements of northern Israel. Israel threatened to react with expanded military operations, and IDF forces were advanced to the border, but each time, the Israeli government decided not to act, and the forces were withdrawn. In June 1982, Palestinian terrorists assassinated Israel's ambassador to Great Britain and fatally wounded him. The sequence of these terrorist acts created a snowball that led to the escalation of the situation. As a result of the ongoing rocket attacks, the Israeli government ordered the IDF to prepare for the possibility of an extensive ground operation in Lebanon and began the mobilization of reserve forces. After further assessment of the situation, the final decision was made to launch the military operation, whose official name was "Operation Shalom HaGilil," which later became known as the First Lebanon War.
So it Begins
The military operation began with the entry of IDF ground forces into Lebanon and fighting against Syrian and Palestinian forces. After that, IDF fought on the Beirut-Damascus road, encircling and fighting in Beirut until the orderly departure of Palestinian and Syrian forces from Beirut, including their leaders. In the last stage, at the end of September 1982, the IDF withdrew from Beirut. The war led to the exile of the PLO headquarters to Tunisia and the elimination of most of the military force of the Palestinian organizations. Still, it did not succeed in removing the Syrian army from Lebanon. In the wake of the war, the extremist Shiite organization Hezbollah arose, which filled the void created in southern Lebanon with the departure of the Palestinian forces and fought the IDF forces remaining in southern Lebanon. The gradual withdrawal from south Lebanon officially ended in June 1985, nearly three years after the end of the fighting and the official end of the war. To maintain the security of the border settlements against terrorist attacks, the IDF created a security strip, which remained until Israel's unilateral withdrawal to the international border in May 2000. During this period, Israel continued military operations against Hezbollah's terrorist activities, which Iran and Syria funded. The confrontations took place within the security zone until Israel's unilateral withdrawal to the international border in May 2000. Following this withdrawal, the South Lebanon Army (SLA) collapsed, and most of its commanders fled to Israel.
So What Did We Want Anyway?
The war, its objectives, its moves, its price, and its results were accompanied by harsh internal criticism in Israel. The war, which began as a limited military operation, became complicated and led to the operation's objectives changing during it. Therefore, they are still a source of conflicts in the political system in Israel to this day. The official goals were to restore peace to the northern border settlements and respond to terrorist acts against Israeli targets in Israel and around the world. However, it also included another goal that was hidden from the government. Officials in the military system hoped that the restoration of power in Lebanon to the Christian phalanxes led by Bachir Gemayel would lead to the signing of a peace agreement with Israel and, therefore, act to help him.
The war was conducted mainly in the territory of Lebanon between Israel and Syria and Palestinian terrorist organizations based in Lebanon after carrying out a series of attacks in Israel and other countries and after firing rockets that did not stop towards the border settlements. In the order of the operation and according to the knowledge of the Prime Minister at the time, Menachem Begin, the operation was limited to the entry of IDF forces up to 40 km north of the ceasefire line with Lebanon, a distance greater than the range of the Katyushas (rockets), to severely damage the PLO. However, the order did not go down to the field levels; therefore, the IDF did not stop its forces until they reached Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, and the purpose of the operation was changed and became the expulsion of the PLO militias from all of Lebanon. This goal was successfully achieved in the end, only after the siege of Beirut.
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The Hope That Was Lost in an Instant
During the fighting, Bachir Gemayel, the leader of the Christian phalanxes, was elected president of Lebanon. Israel saw this as a sign of a political breakthrough and hoped that another Arab country was planning to sign a peace treaty with it. But this hope was undermined after a few weeks when Bachir Gemayel was murdered. Following the murder, the IDF authorized the Christian Phalanx forces to enter the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in the Beirut area. The entry of the phalanxes into the camps soon turned into a "Sabra and Shatila massacre,” in which the phalanxes murdered hundreds of the camp's residents for two days. The massacre caused an international public uproar, and many countries protested against Israel. Following the public outcry that took place in the world due to the massacre and American pressure, Israel withdrew from West Beirut at the end of September. In addition, Israel established a commission of inquiry (Kahan Commission) to investigate the “Sabra and Shatila massacre” events. Following the conclusions, Ariel Sharon, the Minister of Defense and the architect of the Lebanon War, was forced to resign.
That's all for today, class. We'll continue tomorrow.
Take care.