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?ASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, OCTOBER 28, 1983
PAGE 7
deed is a good deed which God loves and which his prophet--may God praise
his name--loves. I bow before the souls of the martyrs who carried out this
operation.
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Because of their abiding hatred, the Lebanese Shiites (who comprise one
third of Lebanon's population) are easily manipulated by nearby and outside
powers--namely, Syria, Iran and the
Soviet Union--all of
whom have their
own aggressive ambitions in the region.
On October 26, Israel's new Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir said that Israel
knows who was ultimately behind the latest carnage--11 Syria together with
terrorist elements operating under Syrian aegis and enjoying Soviet
protection.
1
1
Mr. Shamir elaborated on U.S. President Ronald Reagan's
earlier remark that the mult�national peacekeeping force must not run away
from the challenge lest anti-Western forces take over the region. 1
1
If we
give in to terror," said Mr. Shamir, "Syria will succeed in its plot to take
over {all of] Lebanon, and the u.s.S.R., with its client, will become the
dominant factor in the Middle East. 1 1
Syria, reinforced by 7,000 Soviet military personnel coupled with new
Russian armaments, including SS-21 missiles, has rebounded from its near
demise at the hands of Israeli forces in the early part of last year's
Lebanese war.
On Wednesday, in his office in the Knesset (Parliament),
Speaker Menachem Savidor told Mr. Armstrong, Mr. Aaron Dean and me (with
our TV crew filming the proceedings) that by the 17th or 18th day of the war
Syria was effectively knocked out of action. The PLO military structure
was shattered. Moreover, Soviet prestige in the region had sunk to a low
ebb.
Recognizing the new reality, top Jordanian officials, we were
informed, paid a secret visit to Jerusalem to discuss the possibility of a
settlement with Israel a la the Israel-Egyptian accord. Worried Syrian
officials, in turn, traveled to Washington to see what they could salvage
from the debacle.
However, U.S. diplomacy dillydallied, failing to seize the uniqueness of
the moment.
For one thing, Washington, always wanting to appear
"evenhanded" between Israel and the Arab states and trying as ever to get
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all interested parties" together, attempted to bring Saudi Arabia into the
overall picture. The Saudis, however, though they be the paymaster of the
Arab world, have next to no political clout among their neighbors.
Precious time was lost. The war dragged on. Jordan became disheartened.
Let off the hook, Syria once again turned to Moscow which was only too
willing to
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help
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and reassert its influence. Eventually Israel got bogged
down in Lebanon too, pulling back to a southern defensive perimeter,
leaving the Americans and Europeans, who encouraged such a pullback,
exposed to the full fury of fratricidal Lebanese infighting. A fleeting
1
1
moment that might have been
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was lost.
Americans, it seems, have had a naive
1
1
aw-come-on-guys-let
1
s-stop-all-this
silly-fighting
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approach to one of the most complex, ugliest situations
in
contemporary times. The
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peacekeeping
1
1 premise has been shattered. The
tendency to cut one's losses and run is strong in some quarters. Instead,
said Mr. Savidor, America must
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show vision, tenacity, perseverance, 1 1
adding that "with weakness you never gain respect from the Arabs.••. Only
one thing count� (in the Arab world]: power." One.wonders whether America