Chapter 17
The Fifth Part of the Film
Jenin. Nablus. Jerusalem. Jericho. Bethlehem. Hebron. Black flags fly over the cities of the occupied West Bank. Posters lament the martyrs of Tel Zaatar. Israeli Army jeeps cruise the streets and city squares. Jeeps with two-way radio in the plazas and at intersections. (Note to self: Israeli military jeeps, with lowered carriages, are noticeably distinct, in the same way that Gestapo motorcycles with side-seats were.)
The road leading to Mount Lebanon. Syrian armored cars advance, firing their artillery guns.
A circle around a paragraph from a public statement by Kamal Jumblatt in the al-Anbaa newspaper: “The battle for Mount Lebanon approaches, so take up arms and hold firm; holding firm means we won’t despair too much when one place or another falls.”
Beside the previous paragraph are two headlines: “Jumblatt in a hurry to hold the Arab summit conference.” “Abu Iyad criticizes Arab silence in the face of Syrian military acting alongside the Phalangists.”
Washington. Dean Brown speaks to journalists: “We are trying to keep Lebanon from turning to the left.” “Israel is a key player in the situation, since it is supplying the Maronites with weapons.”
A circle around a paragraph from Time magazine, published September 13, 1976: “In the darkness of night, Israeli commandos dashed ashore in the Christian-controlled port of Jounieh, some 9 miles north of Beirut. As soon as they established contact with the Lebanese garrison, both forces spread out and secured a landing area. A helicopter slowly whirred up from an Israeli cargo ship standing offshore, guarded by a small armada of missile ships. The helicopter, Time has learned, brought to Jounieh a top Israeli official who spent the night in a series of secret conferences with various Lebanese leaders, then climbed back aboard his helicopter and flew out to sea again, just before dawn.
“The official was Israeli Defense Minister Shimon Peres. His brief ‘invasion’ of Lebanon — a nation with which Israel has no diplomatic ties — was the first of four trips between late May and late August. As if that were not extraordinary enough, he was accompanied on his third trip into Lebanon by none other than Israeli Premier Yitzhak Rabin, who held talks with as yet unnamed Lebanese leaders. Out of these negotiations has come a secret but potentially decisive Israeli intervention in the seventeen-month-old Lebanese Civil War. Acting with the agreement of Lebanon’s Christian leadership and a moderate group of Muslims, Israel is moving to wipe out forever the Palestinian guerilla bases in southern Lebanon. As Foreign Minister Yigal Allon said last week, ‘A situation will be created in which we will not permit any faction to allow the Palestine Liberation Organization to act against Israel from Lebanese regions close to the border.’
“Beyond that, the Israeli — Lebanese agreement has opened the way to an important readjustment in the Middle East lineup, one that could prove to be a genuine turning point in Israel’s relations with its Arab neighbors.”
Beirut. Jumblatt to reporters: ‘‘We’ve put our neck on the line.’’
Headline in a Lebanese newspaper: “The first Soviet official statement calling on Syrian troops to withdraw from Lebanon.”
A statement by Yigal Allon in the Israeli newspaper, Davar: “The flame of civil war in Lebanon has consumed the PLO’s utopian idea of eliminating Israel by establishing a binational Arab — Jewish secular democratic state to take Israel’s place.”
A circle around a paragraph from an American magazine: “The women of Cairo who are covered from head to toe are still a minority, as are those groups that call for dealing with the Copts by considering them ‘dhimmis’, as was the case in the Islamic empire ten centuries ago. Dhimmis were excluded from full citizenship — that is, they were second-class citizens — and they either had to pay the non-Muslim jizya tax or become Muslim.”
A headline in the newspaper, Voice of the Tigers, the mouthpiece of Chamoun: “The theory of coexistence in Palestine came to an end in Lebanon.”
The headquarters of the Tigers forces. Chamoun reviews 3,000 Phalangist fighters in black uniforms on the drill field at their graduation from basic training. He addresses them, saying, “The war is a long one, and we are still at the beginning of the road.”
A Lebanese gunman carries an artillery piece, wearing an armband with the cedar emblem. He speaks in French in a filmed interview carried out by British actress Vanessa Redgrave: “Every Lebanese should kill a Palestinian.”
Pierre Gemayel and Camille Chamoun and Suleiman Frangieh walk through the gateway of an old palace. They are joined by Charbel Qassis in a sumptuously furnished reception hall.
A headline in a Phalangist newspaper: “Formation of a united military leadership headed by Bashir Gamayel.”
A headline in al-Safeer: “Jumblatt calls on the Palestinians to organize and form a provisional government.”
A newspaper headline: “George Habash, leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, criticizes the hesitation of the Lebanese National Movement to establish popular sovereignty.”
A newspaper headline: “Moscow criticizes the extreme right and extreme left in Lebanon.”
A newspaper headline: “Nayef al-Hawatmeh, the leader of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, says: ‘A military settlement is impossible.’”
A newspaper headline: “Habash says: ‘No compromise. We will establish an Arab Hanoi.’”
A newspaper headline: “The fifth newspaper closure in Kuwait after parliament was dissolved and the constitution annulled due to fear of Lebanonization.”
Lebanon’s presidential palace in Baabda: the new president Elias Sarkis ascends the stairs.
Title card:
On September 21, 1976, Sarkis assumed the presidency from Frangieh, and immediately called on the Palestinian resistance to withdraw from Mount Lebanon.
Yasser Arafat to reporters: “All we ask is that he not stab us in the back and doesn’t bargain with us or over us.”
A newspaper headline: “Chamoun’s Tigers fire at Jumblatt’s car after his meeting with Sarkis.”
A newspaper headline: “Attack on the ship carrying Jumblatt to Cyprus.”
Damascus. Hafez al-Assad delivers an address to soldiers of the “Defense Squadrons”: “Your efforts in Lebanon and your opposition to the conspirators have prevented the division of Lebanon.”
West Beirut. Tripoli. Tyre. Sidon. Public events commemorating the sixth anniversary of the death of Gamal Abdel Nasser.
A newspaper headline: “The Soviet news agency Novosti on the anniversary of the death of Gamal Abdel Nasser: ‘His absence is strongly felt.’”
Newspaper headlines: “Syrian forces enter most villages on Mount Lebanon. Joint nationalist forces fight and retreat.” “Israeli sea blockade of Tyre and Sidon prevents the arrival of provisions and weapons for national forces.” “The political council for the Lebanese National Movement criticizes Arab silence and the neglect of international progressive movements.” “Bashir Gemayel declares: ‘We will liberate Lebanon even if the Syrians halt.’”
A newspaper headline: “Yasser Arafat to fighters: ‘To arms, for victory is at hand.’”
Damascus. President al-Assad makes a speech on television on the anniversary of the Yom Kippur War: “We are determined to continue to help Lebanon in order to rescue it from its sufferings and to preserve its independence and unity, and to save the Palestinian resistance.”