UN Security Council
2552rd meeting
The situation in the Middle East
29/8/1984
During a
discussion of the situation in Lebanon
following the 1982 war and the continuing occupation by Israel, Dia Allah El-Fattal, representative of Syria, in
speaking of “the practices of expansionist Zionist colonialism”, mentioned
Moshe Sharett and quoted from his Personal Diary. Following is the excerpt
concerning Sharett:
Excerpt from statement by Mr. EL-FATTAL (Syrian Arab
Republic)
142 The second stage in this long chronological
chain of violence plotted by the Zionist movement that took place in 1954
against the independence, unity and sovereignty of Lebanon was effectively
implemented in 1982 because the “appropriate conditions” Sharett, the former Minister for Foreign Affairs of Israel and later its
Prime Minister, spoke of were
actually ripe at the end of the 1970s as a result of the defeatist Camp David
conspiracy, which disrupted the strategic balance in the Middle
East as a whole.
143 On 27 February 1954, Ben-Gurion,
who had by then stepped down from power, wrote an extensive letter to Sharett
setting forth his plans and those of his two colleagues Lavon and Dayan. I am
quoting from a book entitled Israel’s Sacred Terrorism, by Livia Rokach. The following is taken from the letter Ben-Gurion sent
to Sharett:
“The creation of a Christian
State is therefore a
natural act; it has historical roots and it will find support in wide circles
in the Christian world, both
Catholic and Protestant. In normal times this would be almost impossible, first
and foremost because of the lack of initiative and courage of the Christians. But at times of confusion, or revolution
or civil war, things take on another aspect, and even the weak declares himself
to be a hero. Perhaps (there is never any certainty in politics) now is the
time to bring about the creation of a Christian
State in our
neighbourhood. Without our initiative and our vigorous aid this will not be
done.”*
I would repeat that:
“Without ... our vigorous aid this will not be
done. It seems to me that this is the central duty, or at least one of the
central duties, of our foreign policy. This means that time, energy and means
ought to be invested in it and that we must act in all possible ways to bring
about a radical change in Lebanon.”*
144 The plot contained in that
letter achieves the demand I have mentioned, that is, the destruction of the
unity of Lebanon
and the setting up of a sectarian regime through the creation of puppet
mini-States. In Sharett’s reply, he said conditions were not yet appropriate in
1954. Allow me to quote from his reply to Ben- Gurion:
“A permanent assumption of mine is that if
sometimes there is some reason to interfere from the outside in the internal
affairs of some country in order to support a political movement inside it
aiming towards some target it is only when that movement shows some independent
activity which there is a chance to enhance and maybe to bring to success by
encouragement and help from the outside. There is no point in trying to create
from the outside a movement that does not exist at all inside”*
—inside Lebanon, that is.
“It is impossible to inject life into a dead body.
As far as I know, in Lebanon
today there exists no movement aiming at transforming the country into a Christian
State governed by the
Maronite community.
“This is not surprising. The transformation of Lebanon into a Christian
State as a result of an
outside initiative is unfeasible today. ... I do not exclude the possibility of
accomplishing this goal in the wake of a wave of shocks that will sweep the Middle East
... will destroy the present constellations and will form others. But in the
present Lebanon,
with its present territorial and demographic dimensions and its international
relations, no serious initiative of the kind is imaginable.”*
145 Certainly, members of the
Council who read these well-known letters will draw their own conclusions about
the significance of these Israeli plans. Yakov Sharett, the son of Moshe
Sharett, in Le Monde
Diplomatique of December 1983,
wrote:
“The time for the achievement of these ambitions
was in June 1982 and not in 1978 at the time of the ‘Litani campaign’, which
was limited from the beginning - both from the territorial point of view and in
its objectives. The State of Israel was then dominated by a ‘revolutionary’
troika par excellence - Begin-Sharon-Eytan - convinced of the political
need for the ‘iron fist’ and whom no obstacle could hold back. Did not Mr.
Begin state at the beginning of the war that it would bring 40 years of peace
to the country? But while in 1956 Ben-Gurion had come up against the refusal of
Guy Mollet, Christian Pineau and
Bourges-Maunoury to endorse his plans, in 1982 the Israeli leaders managed to
win the support of the United
States, in the person of Secretary of State
Alexander Haig.”
* Quoted in English by the speaker