Sharon Takes the Stand

By William E. Smith

Israel's Defense Minister spreads the blame for the massacre

He spoke calmly and deliberately, never raising his voice or losing his temper. Ariel Sharon, Israel's embattled Defense Minister, was on the witness stand, testifying before the commission of inquiry that is investigating the circumstances surrounding the Beirut massacre of Sept. 16 to 18. Since the hearings were being held in a lecture hall of Hebrew University in Jerusalem, the setting seemed as relaxed as a college seminar. In fact, it was a tension-charged inquiry that could lead, in a few months' time, to the resignation of the tough and ambitious Sharon and perhaps even to the fall of the government of Prime Minister Menachem Begin.

Sharon had intended to deliver his 20-minute opening statement in a public session as a way of demonstrating that, according to one of his aides, he had "nothing to hide." After that, he had planned to submit to questioning by the three-man panel behind closed doors. But the members, sensing the intensity of Israeli interest in the subject, ignored Sharon's repeated appeals for privacy and continued to interrogate him for 2 1/2 hours. Only later in the day, when Sharon discussed such sensitive matters as the covert dealings between the Israeli government and the Lebanese Forces, the Phalangist-dominated coalition of Christian militias, did the panel members allow him to testify for an additional three hours in private session.

In an address to the Knesset only four days after the massacre, Sharon had acknowledged that the Israeli Defense Forces (I.D.F.) had given limited field support to the Lebanese Forces' military operation that led to the massacre of at least 400 Palestinian civilians within the Shatila and Sabra refugee camps.

This time, it appeared, the Defense Minister's strategy was to place the primary blame for the events that led to the mass murder on Chief of Staff Rafael Eitan and the Israeli army. Beyond that, Sharon seemed to be implying that the entire Begin Cabinet bore the responsibility for allowing the Lebanese Forces to enter the Palestinian camps.

On several occasions, the panel, headed by Chief Justice Yitzhak Kahan, questioned Sharon on the wisdom of the original plan to send the Lebanese Forces into the camps of their enemies, the Palestinians, in order to clean out any remaining pockets of Palestinian guerrilla resistance. Had the Israeli officials involved not realized that such a massacre of civilians might take place? they asked. Replied Sharon: "I would say that no one thought the Lebanese Forces would behave like us. I didn't think so. Our I.D.F. has its own moral code. But it is a very far cry indeed from that assumption to anticipation of a bloody massacre." Sharon also contended, "On the subject of vengeance as I know it among the Arabs," revenge was not ordinarily directed toward "children, women and old people, nor toward entire populations, or hundreds of people." Later he told the panel that no Israeli soldier or commander "imagined in his worst dream the terrible scenes that were revealed to us in Sabra and Shatila . . . We were surprised, astounded and shocked by the massacre that took place."

Sharon's claim that he and his colleagues could not anticipate the ensuing slaughter was perhaps his weakest argument. Many Israelis knew that the hatred between Lebanese Christians and Palestinians had led to atrocities in the past.

Sharon said that he first learned of the massacre when he received a telephone call from Chief of Staff Eitan at about 9 p.m., Friday, Sept. 17, informing him of irregularities in the Lebanese Forces' operation. This was already some 24 hours after the massacre in the camps had begun. Sharon said Eitan told him that the Lebanese Forces had harmed Palestinian civilians "more than had been anticipated." Added Eitan: "They went too far." Accordingly, Sharon testified, Eitan and the northern front commander, Amir Drori, had prevented additional Christian forces from entering the fighting areas and had ordered the Lebanese Forces out of the camps by 5 a.m., Sept. 18.

Sharon told the commission that he was satisfied with what Eitan had done and therefore took no action on his own. Nor did he inform Prime Minister Begin that evening of what Eitan had told him. Sharon said it was "reasonable" to have assumed that it would take all night to get the Lebanese Forces to leave the camps. After receiving additional reports during the night of trouble inside the camps, Sharon said, he tried to reach Begin for the first time on Saturday morning. But the Prime Minister was attending Rosh Hashana services in a Jerusalem synagogue, and apparently did not learn of the massacre until he heard a radio news broadcast later that day.

What Sharon subsequently told the panel about his earlier dealings with the Lebanese Forces is not known. Nor will the testimony of future witnesses, including Prime Minister Begin, necessarily be made public until the commission completes its investigation and issues its report some time this winter.

For most Israelis, already upset that the diplomatic outcome of the war in Lebanon had proved to be so inconclusive, the wait will be long. Meanwhile, the government's demand for a secure northern border remains entangled in a complex process of negotiation for a mutual withdrawal of Syrian, Israeli and Palestinian guerrilla forces from Lebanon.

The war and the massacre are also costing Israel dearly in its relationship with Egypt. Last week Cairo's prestigious newspaper al Ahram called for an international tribunal "on the lines of Nuremberg" to investigate the massacre, while the mass-circulation al Akbar declared that the incident had demonstrated that Israel is "militarist, fascist and terrorist." Along the same line, Egypt's Defense Minister, Abdel Halim Abu Ghazala, called on Arab countries to develop a "joint strategy" in order to offset Israel's increasing military superiority. It was quite a departure from the spirit of Camp David.

--By William E. Smith. Reported by Robert Slater/Jerusalem

With reporting by Robert Slater

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