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Date Posted: 16:20:10 10/24/03 Fri
Author: TruthMeister
Subject: Re: ever heard of quibya? shabra? chatila? ask sharon
In reply to: he was in charge of all those attrocities...mm/nt 's message, "ever heard of quibya? shabra? chatila? ask sharon" on 18:57:36 10/22/03 Wed

The Shatilla Massacre
Was it true what Israel Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had done 20 years ago... basically allow the slaughter of men, women, and children in a Palestinian refugee camp in 1982? The charge levied against Sharon is that he is as much of a terrorist as he claims the Palestinians to be.

Shatilla is located in West Beirut. It was the site of a refugee camp created during the 6 day war in 1967 when many Palestinians fled Palestine to avoid being casualties of the fighting between Israel and the Arab nations of Egypt, Syria, and Jordan. Instead of being assimilated into the Palestinian nation of Jordan, these refugees were forced to remain in the Shatilla camp, and were still there when Israel invaded Beirut 15 years later in 1982.

Now, Beirut is located in Lebanon, and Lebanon was in civil war, and was in the process of electing Bashir Gemayel to be president of Lebanon in 1982. Bashir was a Christian, and one of his accomplishments was being the leader of a political middle-eastern Christian army referred to as the Phalange. However, right after being elected, he was assassinated, and the Christian Phalange army saw his death as a blow that needed to be avenged.

Now, during Lebanon's civil war, Israel was trying to get at Arafat's PLO, and had intelligence reports that they had a headquarters set up in the Shatilla camp. The PLO was theoretically leaving Lebanon at this time, so hearing of PLO in Shatilla was significant. The problem for Israel was how to gather up the PLO guerillas in Shatilla, when everyone in Shatilla was hostile toward Israel.

Israel's relations with the Phalange army was pretty good, so they recruited them to find and capture any PLO guerillas in Shatilla. Israel flew the Phalange army to Beirut. Then, while the Israeli army completely surrounded the refugee camp, the Phalange were sent in. What they did was slaughter everyone in the camp... as revenge for the assassination of President Bashir.

Now, I've included some links below. Some explain the massacre from Israel's standpoint, and some are from the Arab/Palestinian standpoint. The Arab sources consider Israel's actions to be cunning and intentional. Israel considers their actions a mistake. The person in charge of the Israeli army during the invasion of Lebanon was Ariel Sharon. This makes Sharon the ranking Israeli military leader responsible for Israel's actions at Shatilla, resulting in the allegation that Sharon is a hypocrite and a terrorist.

Benjamin Netanyahu is no fan of Ariel Sharon. But, he is an Israeli. It is Netanyahu's opinion ("A Durable Peace") that the tragedy in Shatilla was indeed a tragedy, but was not a plan of Israel or Sharon. In fact Netanyahu wrote that "many thought Sharon should resign", not because he'd planned the massacre, but because the massacre was not foreseen!

Sharon is no terrorist. However, he is not always the brilliant military strategist either. We see it today, and it was demonstrated 20 years ago.

As supporters of Israel and students of prophecy, we must admit that Israel has a bloody past, and doesn't always exercise good judgment (Oslo for example). But, it is more their desire for peace and their value of life (yes, even Palestinian life) that gets them into trouble, providing fodder for the anti-Israel crowd.

Links to read about the Shatilla Massacre:
The Sabra and Shatilla Massacre balanced)
Naom Chomsky's account (Anti-Israel)
15 Years After the Sabra & Shatilla Massacre: The State of Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon (Anti-Israel)

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Replies:

  • The problem is not Israel. It is the rest of the neighbourhood -- TruthMeister, 16:21:23 10/24/03 Fri
  • there's always an excuse for arab & israeli attrocities -- they want/need to kill each other...it's "biblical"..nb/nt, 19:34:26 10/25/03 Sat
  • "To be part of an organization fighting colonial powers is no crime."... -- you sound like you support the palestinian position...mm, 07:20:20 10/27/03 Mon
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