Sabra & Shatilla, and Ariel Sharon

On the morning of Wednesday, September 15, 1982, the Lebanese forces met at the Gemayel house in Bickfaya.  The house was crammed with mourners, and the attendees decided to run Amin, Bashir’s brother, for the president.  While all of Lebanon’s religious, political, military and civilian leaders and Minister Sharon and the Head of the Mossad passed through the room where condolences were extended, an invasion of West Beirut was being planned. It went off 12 hours later.

In the afternoon of Wednesday September 15, 1982,  Bashir’s military and Intelligence lieutenants met with the Israeli chief of Staff Lieutenant General Rafael Eitan, and Major General Amir Drori, in charge of the Lebanese operation.

I was later told by Hobeika that there were about 2,000 PLO terrorists still hiding in the Sabra and Shatilla camps.  Hobeika advised me that he was in charge of the organization of an operation to clear them out.  He also disclosed that the Israeli forces had taken up positions in West Beirut and expected us to supervise the evacuation of the Palestinians from the camp.  We were to sort out the armed terrorists and hand them over to the Israeli troops at the Cite Sportive,  Al Madina Al Ryadieh, cleaned up and fixed to serve as a rally point.  Meanwhile, the whole country stood breathless and at a standstill, half of it drowned in deep despair, and the other half paralyzed with fear.   So ominous was the tragedy.

Hobeika had 24 hours to prepare his elite key force composed of 200 men.  The men were allotted in several units respectively under the command of Joseph Asmar, Michel Zouein, G. Melco, and Maroun Mashaalani. General Sharon besieged the camps and the Cite Sportive.

By noon on Thursday, September 16, 1982, the Shababs started advancing through the Beirut Airport Road. By 4:30 p.m., the Lebanese Forces had crossed the Israeli lines surrounding the camps. Sharon had given strict orders to Hobeika to guard against any desperate move, should his men run amuck. They were to behave like a real dignified, regular army not like "chocolate soldiers" and coordinate with the Israeli command. Their mission was to exert pressure an the Palestinians to drive them all out of the camp, and pick out the PLO agents left behind after the evacuation of the Palestinians in August, 1982.  They were rallied at the Cite Sportive and held prisoners. After inspection the civilians would be sent back to their homes.  However, Hobeika gave his own instructions to his men: "Total extermination ... camps wiped out."

It was Maroun Mashaalani’s men, undaunted by their regular and immoderate use of heroine and cocaine who perpetrated the most ghastly slaughters in the camp bordering Ghaza Hospital at the entrance of Sabra. That is where foreign nurses and doctors were shot down in cold blood. The minute General Ariel Sharon had been informed that something odd and unwanted was going on, he summoned his commanding officers and Hobeika.

At 7:30 p.m. on September 16, 1982, Hobeika and I arrived at General Ariel Sharon’s Headquarters.  We climbed up to the terrace of the tall building next to the Kuwaiti Embassy.  From there we could plunge right into the camp and have an overhead view. Besides the Israeli officers, Assad Shaftari, Michel Zouein, Elie Hobeika and myself were poised and ready.
The Israeli officers were jealous and filled with rage, blaming Hobeika for actually ordering the massacre of Palestinian civilians. Hobeika coldly retorted that it was because of the darkness he could not tell who they were. General Sharon, being too fat to climb up the flight of stairs, waited on the second floor to see Hobeika and have it out with him personally. The minute he saw him he roared out: "You were not supposed to do this. I didn’t ask you to commit massacres. If I wanted, I would have done so with my tanks. You’ll pay dearly for this blunder!" Hobeika replied that he would handle it with his men. Hobeika and I went back on the terrace.  Hobeika got a walkie talkie message from a guy called Paul saying, "There are women and children, what should we do?" Hobeika answered,  "It’s your lookout and don’t call me back again, you shit."

Hobeika, Zouein, Shaftari and I ran back down to the second story where an Israeli officer drew a map of the site with a piece of chalk on the floor, pointing to where the massacres were taking place. That is when we had confirmation that it was Maroun Machaalani’s unit which was involved at the entrance of Sabra Camp.

Hobeika went back to report to General Sharon his account of events.   General Sharon ordered his men to fire flares from that moment on until 4:00 a.m. to avoid a further blunder.  It was too late.  The harm was done.  All the victims were civilians killed with grenades, hatchets, assault rifles, knives.  Some of the corpses were even boobie-trapped.

At around 6:00 a.m., the Lebanese Forces, arrived to inspect the butchery. Fadi Frem, Fuad Abou Nader, Steve Nakkour, Elie Hobeika and I inspected the premises. Hobeika  instructed Nakkour, who was in charge of Logistics, to send tractors to clean up the camps and leave no traces of the massacres, wiping out incriminating evidence.

The Israeli officers prevented the Lebanese Forces from getting into the camps with their chiefs.  At 9:00 a.m., artillery fighting broke out between Maroun Mashaalani’s men and gunmen from Moslem Shia Mekdad family members.  The Mekdad families came to inquire about their relatives who were among the camp inhabitants. A Lebanese army officer ordered Mashaalani to get off to stop the skirmish.  He complied.

By now, news accounts of the massacres had leaked out.  The reports became amplified, confused, and mixed-up. Some witnesses claimed that it was actually Major Saad Haddad’s men who had perpetrated the slaughter because of the South Lebanon accent.  Not one single man from Saad Haddad’s Free Lebanon Army took part in the operation. The Christian militia was unchained and blinded by rage after the assassination of  their Chief, President and martyr.

Once again, the mastermind, Hobeika had toyed with the lives of young patriots, committing them to carry out reprehensible actions which could serve only Syria’s interests!  It was the Syrians, not the PLO who had never accepted Bashir’s election. It was later discovered and proven that Bashir’s  actual assassin, Habib Tanios Shartuni, was a secret member of the pro-Syrian, anti-Kataeb Party, Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SNSP).  The SNSP was represented by Assaad Hardane via Nabil Al Allam Chief of Intelligence and Security of the SNSP.  Syrian Army Intelligence conducted by Ali Douba assisted Shartuni in providing and stashing the bomb.  How could Hobeika claim that he had received orders to massacre the Palestinians from the Israelis?  I did not know where his two ultra secret meetings with Abdul Halim Khaddam during the first half of 1982 fit in.

I was Hobeika’s field man always present on the premises with my chief wherever he went.   I can state under oath, that General Sharon would never have lit up the area the way he did had he planned for any butchery. He would not have cleaned up the Cite Sportive to house all the Palestinians pending their return to their homes after verification. He would not have placed his tanks and armored cars all around the camps to capture the remaining armed Palestinian agents. One thing was certain, the Syrians had their men within the ranks of Lebanese Forces leaders.

Reflecting back on the events of my life, all the facts led me to believe that Hobeika was the man, who in 1982, provoked the Sabra and Chatilla massacres.    This is my own assumption of what was behind it because there are no real facts to support my claim.  After killing Bashir Gemayel, in secret coordination with the SNSP and Syria, I also suspected Hobeika was instrumental in the fall of the Likoud Government.  Prime Minister Begin and General Sharon resigned, allowing the Labor Party in Israel to come to power.  This rise reversed the process and destroyed everything the Likud Government had worked to establish with the Lebanese Christians.

Bashir’s death and the massacres were pivotal in the fall of the Likoud Government.  It is alleged that  Hobeika contributed to the destruction of the Likoud Government plan for Israel and Lebanon because of his participation in the events.  While Syria was working for a new consensus with the United States, Hobeika became a pro-Syrian and a Hafez Assad hero.  Hafez Assad personally placed a protective umbrella over Hobeika’s head to avert any assassination attempts on Hobeika’s life following the massacres of the Sabra and Shatilla camps.

The assassination of Bashir and the attacks on Sabra and Shatilla also led to the fall of power for General Sharon and Prime Minister Begin.  Hobeika’s actions changed the course of events.  Israel lost power and Syria gained it.  It was the same mechanism that destroyed the courageous Israeli Government’s plan to save Lebanon and restore peace through a solid and strong Christian state.  Following Bashir’s death and the failed Likud/Israeli plan, the United States then entered the Middle-East conflict with a new consensus and perspective different from the original Israeli perspective.  The Labor Party took control of the Israel government and compromised the Lebanese Christians with Syria.  Rabin stated many times, he would not mind for Syria to stay in Lebanon should Syria sign the peace treaty with Israel.  When Netanyahu took office, the whole middle eastern peace plan changed.

Five years after Hafez Assad kidnapped the American and western hostages through the Hizballah in Beirut, and released them later in Damascus.  He did so to gain the blessings of the United States political power.  The United States attempted to a deal with the Labor Party, headed by Rabin in Israel, Assad released 5,000 Syrians Jews from Damascus and authorized them to leave Syria and travel to the United States.  The United States was blessing a naive peace between Rabin’s Israel and Syria.  The Labor Party leaders believed this naive peace with Syria.  Rabin backed by United States support sought a peaceful resolution to the Middle-East conflicts. What Hafez Assad  and Syria wanted was the return of the Golan and Lebanon and to be in a position of strength in the balance of power in the Middle East.

Assad was loosing time.  The United States Secretary of State, Warren Christopher, traveled numerous times to the bargaining table to resolve the terms of the agreement, but was unsuccessful in his diplomatic attempts.   He failed because Syria never believed in Israel.  Assad was counting on a change that might occur with the New World Order, perhaps a new revolution with Russia that would topple the pro-United States regime and establish the Old Soviet Union, thus returning to the Cold War.  Assad could then take a power position in the Arab-Israeli conflict.  This never happened.  The Labor Party failed to understand the ideology that prevailed in Damascus, a denial of Israel to «exist» as a Nation in the Middle-East.  Therefore, the only peace that could dominate in the region was the peace through strength.  Hobeika succeeded in playing Syria’s political game and Syria was fooling the United States of signing a peace treaty with Israel. The political perception of President Reagan for the Middle East was the best.  Peace through strength. What Syria really wanted to do was waste time and swallow Lebanon for its own.  By doing so, Syria gained economic and political strength in the region.

On October 2, 1982, 17 days after the assassination of President Bashir Gemayel,  the Kataeb Party Radio Voice of Lebanon announced that the man who perpetrated the outrage, the assassin, Habib Tanios Shartuni, age 26, was captured. Strange coincidence indeed, Shartuni, his sister and grandparents occupied the top floor of the small three-story building which accommodated the Kataeb Party’s Ashrafieh headquarters. A friend of mine, then in West Beirut, overheard  two SNSP party leaders commenting that one of the greatest assets Hobeika gave to the Syrians was the Bashir story.  One can only infer that Hobeika was behind Bashir’s assassination.

Speculation of Hobeika’s participation in Bashir’s assassination was wide spread.  Hobeika had been Syria’s man inside the Lebanese Forces.  Hobeika had travel numerous times with Bashir.  Hobeika made many contacts there, but it was speculated that he was secretly working for the Syrian interests.  The last trip Bashir made to discuss the treaty, Bashir got into a verbal conflict with Prime Minister Begin.  What followed was the Syrian leader’s plan to assassinate Bashir with the help of the SNSP.  After the success of the operation, the leaders then devised a cover for the operation.  It is reported that the Syrian Moukhabarat began circulating news that the Israelis had killed Bashir because he had gotten into a conflict with the Prime Minister Begin during their last visit in Naharia.  The plan was to remove suspicion from the Syrians and color the Israelis with the crime.

Many in Lebanon do not understand why Israel would kill a man they had devoted and invested so much time and energy into gaining peace for their country.  The whole Israeli project was built on Bashir.  When Syria succeeded in eliminating Bashir, the whole Israel plan for Lebanon was lost.  There was no leader to fill Bashir’s place. Hobeika took advantage of the situation by averting the attention from the Bashir assassination to the massacres at Sabra and Shatilla.  Everyone forgot the crime against Bashir and focused their attention on the camp massacres.  It was well planned and successfully carried out.  Following these events, the Likud Government collapsed, Prime Minister Begin and General Sharon resigned.  Alexander Haig, now the United States Secretary of State, was the man who gave his blessing to the Peace Accord, who went home without any success.  Everything in Israel collapsed and Syria was getting out of the game victorious following Bashir’s death.

If Bashir had continued forward with his plans in Israel, Lebanon would have been the second State in the Middle East to sign the peace treaty with Israel after Egypt. This move would have ensured a friendly government to Israel in Lebanon. The Lebanese Forces were considered the Israeli mechanism in Lebanon, with the tripartite agreement and the Intifadas, Hobeika sliced the Lebanese Forces into two pieces and took the half of it to the Syrian side when he went to Zahleh.  He converted them working for the Moukhabarat Sourieh sending car bombs and executing assassinations in the Christian enclave for Syria’s interest.  Assad himself placed a protective umbrella over Hobeika because the Palestinians wanted to kill him and gave him a residence in Damascus and protection for the "favors" he did for Syria.

http://www.aceviper.net/members/cobra/07.html

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The Contrived Myths:
of Sabra and Shatilla; War in Lebanon;
and the Cause of the ‘al Aksa Intifada’ 24 January 2001

Let us start with a story told to me by a knowing friend: A woman had a lover. Her husband knew she did but he didn’t stop her. She wanted to see her lover. He told her to come to his home. "But, you live in a dangerous neighborhood." "If you want to see me, come anyway." Her husband knew she was going but didn’t stop her. She went to his dangerous neighborhood and she was murdered. The question is: "Whose fault was it that she was murdered." [Answer at the end of this article.] The Media both in Israel and in the U.S., following the State Department lead, are already smearing Ariel Sharon with the massacre of Sabra and Shatilla, that the "Peace for Galilee War in Lebanon in 1982 was ‘unnecessary’, and that Arik Sharon’s visit to the Jewish Temple Mount caused what the Media now calls the ‘Al Aksa Intifada’. These 3 myths appear in every article about the Likud candidate for Prime Minister in Israel’s February 6th snap elections. However, there are a few facts which have been conveniently discarded by perennial Israel bashers. First, there was an intense vicious war going on in Lebanon that had nothing to do with Israel. Between the Lebanese Muslims and the Lebanese Christians there were so many factions killing each other in horrible ways, it was almost impossible to keep track. The total number of Muslims and Christians who killed each other added up to 100,000 in the 12 year Civil War that really began in earnest when Arafat entered in 1970. Arafat’s PLO established his own mini-state of terrorism in Lebanon. These were the Palestinians who escaped from Jordan after what the PLO calls Black September when King Hussein massacred more than 10,000 Palestinians who were trying to overthrow his kingdom. There were 26 agreements that Arafat had agreed to in controlling his PLO within Jordan - all of which Arafat broke. It was forgotten that it was the Jews who rescued thousands of Palestinians from the Jordan River as they were escaping from King Hussein’s Bedouin warriors. Arafat’s Palestinians turned Lebanon into a jungle of warfare as they stirred up hatred between Lebanese Christians and Lebanese Muslims. The Civil War in Lebanon lasted in Lebanon lasted for 12 years - from the time Arafat came in with his Palestinians in 1970 (Black September) until Israel came in 1982. The Lebanese greeted the Israeli soldiers with flowers of happiness and hope that the Israelis would rescue them from the bloody wars of PLO between the Christians and Muslims. From his base of operations in Lebanon Arafat launched innumerable terrorist attacks against Israel. Prime Minister Menachem Begin always denied that then Defense Minister Ariel Sharon had "dragged" him and Israel into an "unnecessary" war in Lebanon. Israeli intelligence knew that Arafat was poised and armed for a major war against Israel. Under Gen. Sharon the Israelis successfully pushed the PLO terrorist army all the way to the outskirts of Beirut. The Israelis discovered that Arafat had built huge tunnels throughout the areas they controlled. These tunnels were loaded with tons of weapons and Arafat’s "secret" plans to invade Israel very soon. But, of course, that isn’t ever reported or remembered when each article lambasting Sharon accuses him of leading Israel into an unnecessary war. The fact that Arafat and his PLO were actively planning a war and had the weapons to commit major atrocities was keep as a secret closely held by the professional journalists. That War in Lebanon was justified as self-defense and inevitable because Jews were again being killed by cross-border terrorist raids and plans imminent war. What makes professional journalists keep such secrets in order to smear a man for all his life and to skew an election where he is 20 points ahead in the polls 13 days before the vote? The Media has blown up the concept that Gen. Arik Sharon brought Israel into Lebanon, that it was his fault Israel couldn’t finish their victory; and that it was his fault that Israel had to stay in her self-declared security zone and that many, too many Jewish soldiers were killed. Of course, the Media tars and feathers Sharon with Sabra and Shatilla - and that the Kahan Commission accused him of (not causing but) failing to stop the Sabra and Shatilla massacre. Their complete blacklisting of Sharon was enabled and assisted by the famous "secret " section of the Kahan committee. The Hebrew newspaper MA’ARIV on its internet site, claims that because it was kept secret it was always viewed as trying to "hide" something terrible about Arik Sharon. However, a recent book by Attorney Yosef Dar who worked for the Shin Bet security service for a few years, maintains that the Kahan Commission did Sharon a serious injustice. Most interestingly, Tom Segev, well-known as extreme left wing revisionist historian did an excellent review in HA’ARETZ despite a long history of openly hating Sharon. (1) To remind you of the events: In September 1982 Christian Phalange units entered the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Shatilla in Beirut under the auspice of the IDF and murder about 800 people in revenge for the assassination of Lebanon’s president-elect, Bashir Jemayel. A key fact about why the Israelis still near enough to have heard a possible massacre and did not stop it was revealed in a tenth anniversary broadcast by NPR, National Public Radio. The massacre was called the "Night of the Long Knives" because that those were the weapons the Christian Phalangist murderers chose because they could not be heard. (No shots were fired.) The Kahan Commission of Inquiry, headed by the president of the Supreme Court at that time, Justice Yitzhak Kahan, which was appointed to investigate, effectively removed Ariel Sharon from his post as Defense Minister. However, Yosef Dar’s explosive book "Phalange Justice" exposes the "secret" annex which entirely exonerates Arik Sharon of any culpability for this massacre and condemns others of malfeasance of office, conflict of interest, not taking responsibility, etc. (but that isn’t important to this story). Sharon was NOT culpable. The fact that he won his libel suit against TIME Magazine should have proven to the media that Arik Sharon was not to be and could not be smeared ever again over Sabra and Shatilla. Unfortunately, the truths revealed were not sustained. The media continues to blacken Sharon’s name. He is such a colorful target. Another book: "From Israel to Damascus: Lebanon, the Mystery of the Unknown" by Robert Maroun Hatem, known as Cobra, he describes how Elie Hobeika, known as H.K. planned to destroy Lebanon so he could become a minister in the current Pro-Syrian Lebanese structure. Bashir Gemayel who was the popular Lebanese Christian slated to be President of the new Lebanon, now that Israel had freed it of the PLO terrorists. Hobeika was responsible for killing Gemayel, ordering his men to "totally annihilate" everyone in the camps, and was instrumental in the fall of the Likud Government. He was protected from revenge reprisals by Hafez Assad. Cobra describes in detail the tragedy of the Sabra and Shatilla massacres and the Syrian responsibility for the deaths - as well as the innocence of Gen. Ariel Sharon and the Christians of the South Lebanese Army. Hobeika said there were about 2000 terrorists still hiding in Sabra and Shatilla. Hobeika had a key elite force of 200 men high on regular and immoderate use of heroine and cocaine. Sharon ordered him to behave like a regular army, round up the terrorists left behind after the Israelis forced the evacuation of the PLO in August, 1982 to Tunisia. This book is a complete eye-witness testimony and description of exactly what happened. Syria was behind it. It was discovered later and proven that Bashir Gemayel’s actual assassin, Habib Tanios Shartuni was a secret member of the pro-Syrian anti-Kataeb Party. (2) The third major myth that Arik Sharon caused what the Arabs and the world Media call the "Al Aksa Intifada" has been disproved by the facts. There were several attacks by PLO Palestinian Police against Israelis prior to the start of what should be called the Rosh Hashanah War 2000 on September 23rd. One Palestinian Policeman point-blank killed the Israeli with whom he was on joint patrol 2 days before Sharon went to the Temple Mount. there were several other egregious incidents preceeding Rosh Hashanah. The Muslims will never tolerate Jews visiting their most Holy Site, the Temple Mount. Israeli intelligence presented voluminous information to the U.S. that Arafat was planning a major assault against Israel and that Sharon’s visit was merely used as an excuse. But, this smear was readily accepted by the Media and the World. Arik Sharon is the only man in Israel now for whom the Arabs feel fear and respect. It is only he for whom they will make peace because they know they cannot best him in war or in political negotiations. And the Arabs know that Sharon cannot be pushed around by America, by any presidential administration nor any State Department career Arabists. They will have no power over him and that is why they are using every dirty trick they can imagine. Israel will be strong again. Jews the world over will experience a re-born pride in their Jewish identity. The Arabs within Israel, in Judea, Samaria, Gaza, Jerusalem will fear Sharon sufficiently to respect the Jews again. All of the Labor Left’s concessions offered to date to Arafat have merely engendered a furious contempt for Israel, for the Jews within Israel and an Arab chutzpah to take more and much more of Israel - as Arafat shows on his maps, army badges, stationary, etc. the new State of Palestine covers over all of Israel. And as Arafat has proclaimed since signing Oslo in 1993, "The war of the stones will not stop until the Palestinian flags fly over all of Jerusalem’s mosques and churches and is the capital of the new state of Palestine and only that state - and whoever doesn’t like it can drink Gaza sea water." I challenge the Media and the Ministry of Education to enter into these historical issues to investigate the truths of these myths. If these myths are exposed and the truth is taught to our kids, we have a chance for peace in the next generation. Myths are very difficult to shatter and destroy unless you can teach a new and true myth. Is the Media mounting a smear campaign against Sharon using these 3 myths? To wit: The LONDON SUNDAY TIMES, January 21st in a photo caption under a picture of Arik Sharon: "On the warpath: Sharon, left, campaigning last week, has a long history of being uncompromising in his readiness to use troops against Palestinians and Israel’s neighbors." (3) If there are any honest and true investigative journalists in the field today, they could do a great service and win a Pulitzer Prize for daring to debunk the myths which are undermining our Jewish and our Israeli identities. 1. "Study finds Aharon Barak’s Conflict of Interest Biased Kahan Commission against Sharon n Investigation of Sabra & Shatilla Investigation" by Yosef Dar (reviewed by Tom Segev Ha’aretz 12/29/2000) 2. "From Israel to Damascus - Lebanon: The Mystery of the Unknown" by Robert Maroun Hatem Chapter 8 3. Photo caption under picture of Arik Sharon London Sunday Times Jan. 21, 2001 Answer to the question "Who was at fault for the woman being murdered?" If you answered anyone but the murderer, you don’t understand the Middle East or Sabra and Shatilla. Justice for Sharon = Truth About Sabra & Shatilla - Signatures SYRIA, THE PALESTINIANS, AND THEIR LEBANESE ALLIES: TERRORISM AND WAR CRIMES   Elie Hobeika, with the consent of the Syrians, exterminated the Palestinians of Sabra and Chatila. Using the pretext of revenge on Bechir Gemayel's death, Elie Hobeika asked the Israeli soldiers present around the two Palestinian camps for permission to enter the camps in order to arrest Palestinian terrorists. His entrance was authorized, and this is how, on Thursday, the 16th of September 1982, one hundred Phalangists entered the two camps and carried out an abominable massacre: between 300 and 500 civilians were massacred. The carnage was stopped by the Israelis on the night of Friday the 18th. One eye witness' report among others on that massacre: "The skull of many corpses were broken, others had their eyes gouged or their bellies ripped open. The skin on some corpses had been partially torn and some babies' corpses carried traces of knife blades". Elie Hobeika and his men acted exactly the way the Syrians and Palestinians acted towards the Lebanese. The courage and honor of a fighter is not measured by the number of innocents he has massacred, even if those innocents are Palestinians.   Elie Hobeika Assassinated http://www.lebaneseforces.com/hobeika.asp Historical Fact: The Assassination of Bashir Gemayel http://www.lebaneseforces.com/blastfromthepast013.asp Historical Fact: The Massacre and Destruction of Damour http://www.lebaneseforces.com/blastfromthepast002.asp Why did the Christians (not Israel, not Sharon - no one knows what if anything he knew about it) - why did the Christians massacre Palestinians in Sabra & Shatilla? Perhaps the answer could be revenge for some of these things below. Do I approve of massacres of innocent civilians of any religion or ethnicity? Absolutely not. Historical Fact: Palestinian terrorism and war crimes September 1975 Men belonging to the armed groups of the Palestinian leaders George Habash (a Christian) and Nayef Hawatmeh (a Muslim) executed all the Christian villagers from Beit Mellat in the north of Lebanon, who had fallen into their hands. Nayef Hawatmeh is a member of the DFLP and his group was recently removed from the list of terror groups by the Clinton administration so he could work with Arafat. Subsequently, Israel refused to allow him to enter Gaza as Israel considers him a dangerous terrorist, yet the Clinton administration has not reversed its' decision. September 3, 1975 At Deir Ayach in Northern Lebanon, a monastery transformed in 1947 into a school was twenty eight years later attacked by Lebanese and Palestinians. The school had 960 children (660 Muslims) who mainly were attending at no cost. Three monks aged, respectively, 60, 78, and 93, the sole occupants of Deir Ayach on that day were murdered. The veins of the blind Boutros Sassine's arms were severed. Antoine Tamini was slaughtered, decapitated, and burned. Hanna Maksoud was found in his room, his throat cut. The Christian villagers living around the school monastery fled, and the aggressors destroyed their village. January 15, 1976 The Palestinians arrived at Kab Elias, an Islamic Christian village situated in the Bekaa. Some ten days later, 16 Christians were killed and another 23 were injured. Following that, we witnessed the exodus of the Christians towards Zahlþ, East Beirut and Jounieh. At the beginning of January 1976 In Damour and Jieh, two Christian towns south of Beirut, the Palestinians and Syrians went so far as to cut the fingers of Christian children to ensure that they never would be able to pull a gun's trigger. In Damour, at least 300 inhabitants were killed and their churches profaned. January 19, 1976 The village of Hoche Barada in the Bekaa was attacked by Palestinians and Muslim Lebanese and completely pillaged and destroyed. In 1976 The Army of Arab Lebanon, founded by the Palestinians, attacked the city of Aintoura and destroyed it. The attack was led by the Lebanese officer Ibrahim Chahine. In 1976 The Lebanese officer Samir Abou Zahr led the massacre perpetrated by the Army of Arab Lebanon on the Emir Bechir Barracks in Beirut. During this massacre, Lebanese soldiers and officers were murdered in their sleep. In 1976 The Lebanese officer Mostapha Sleiman, a member of the Army of Arab Lebanon, led the massacre of the Lebanese population in the city of Chekka. March 10, 1976 Officer Moiin Hatoum, member of the Army of Arab Lebanon led an attack on the Khyam Barracks. Over 30 Lebanese soldiers were killed. March 1985 Exodus of tens of thousands of Christians from Iklim El_Kharroub and the eastern part of Saida. The Palestinians and Lebanese Druze laid siege to, pillaged and burned over twenty Christian villages. Walid Joumblatt, Yasser Arafat and Syrian officers, planned these massacres. http://www.lebaneseforces.com/blastfromthepast006.asp Remember! Damour came before Sabra Shatila   Justice for damour: charge arafat with war crimes UK Indymedia | Arafat's crimes in Damour Lebanon ... 100,000 wounded, 5,000 permanently maimed In January of 1976, the destruction of Damour, a town of some 25,000 was completed by the PLO within two weeks. ... www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2002/02/23284.html - 24k - Cached - Similar pages The PLO in Lebanon ... After brutally killing 582 people in the town and terrorizing the rest of the 25,000 residents into fleeing, the PLO forces took over Damour and began using it ... www.palestinefacts.org/pf_1967to1991_lebanon_plo.php WHY THEY HATE SHARON   By Rafipoe   1. He (with God's help) defeated the surrounding Arab nations in six wars. 2. He is whipping the tarnation out of the Palestinian terrorists. 3. He cares deeply about his people and their security. 4. He is very confident and calm in national crises. 6. He is a team player and works with his cabinet and the parliament. 7. He has excellent relations with Pres. Bush and US government. 8. He believes strongly in democracy and an open, free economy. 9. As Israel's most successful farmer, he supports farming & earth produce. 10. He is creative and bold when these are called for. He is free of corruption.       and the present scandal will prove to be baloney. 11. He is steady in his policies and pronouncements and is not intimidated. 12. He instills confidence in his people, many of who were once laborites. 13. He is not cowed in by Arab propaganda or European anti-Semitism. 14. Though secular, He has a deep sense of Jewish history in his pivotal decisions       and knows the Bible. Upon his inauguration he declared that       he was first a Jew and then an Israeli. 15. He wants peace but not at any price. 16. He wants the PA to control the terrorists before Israel sits down to negotiate. 17. He has instilled hatred, fear and awe in his enemies and that is good (Necessary for survival with those kind of leaders.) 18. He is life oriented, not death oriented like his enemies. 19. He is an excellent administrator and chooses his aides/cabinet member wisely. 20. He believes in God and goodness of man and the State of Israel. 21. He will clear the Jewish settlements from Gaza and let the civil war start.   No wonder his enemies hate, fear and have awe of him. God grace him with continued strong leadership and many more years of health and inspiration.