[The battle for Beirut still continues. The Israelis…]
Socialist Organiser1983 1983-01-06Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 5 →
Read from the scan by machine and not corrected: expect misread words, and now and then a caption or a line from a neighbouring story. For anything you quote, read the scan.
Scan page 5
The battle for Beirut still continues. The Israelis, wishing to divert attention from their atrocities, published the news -that 1,200 people were kidnapped and killed in Beirut after the Sabra-Chatila massacre, in operations by the Lebanese, army accompanied by French and American forces. When an attempt was made to kill Walid Jumblatt, the Druze leader and leader of the left 'Patriotic Movement. a general strike was called in Beirut, and partially succeded.
The Israelis try to utilise the weakness of Gemayel to demand a permanent military presence and economic domination of the whole south as part of any settlement. The Israeli minister responsible for • non-military. activity in south Lebanon is Meridor, a many-times-bankrupt businessman with the habit of turning to the state to cover Palestinian retugee camps in an attempt to push the dwellers beyond the Syrian lines. Now, with the rift between Israel and Presideni Gemayel, he is trying to sell the refugees the ready-made houses that his new private company has built in Israel.
Of Gemayel, he says: 'A president that has nothing to say even in his country, and that is a hero as long as we sit in Lebanon, won't tell us when to leave Lebanon.' Gemayel, on his side, aspires to Lecome a client of the US on his own. He has demanded that the imperialist force currently policing Beirut be expanded to 30,000 soldiers, and be ready for a long stay. Up to then he is not sure even of his rule in Beirut. and neither he northe Americans seem to be pressing hard for a quick Israeli withdrawal. The Socialist Worker: Party of the USA, an old-established Trotskyist group, has recently and suddenty announced that Trotsky's theory of 'permanent revolution' was wrong after all. This new pamphlet - 40p plus postage from PO Box 135, London NI ODD = looks at the arguments An ara An ara.: = of the polica evolutirr of the Americ: otskyist International Liaison Commit Swjo
Scan page 6
V14 January 6 1983
----- pull-quotes -----
Trotskyism or Castroism? Castroism