34; Friday, May 24, 1985
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
ANALYSIS
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Amin Gemayel Revises
Recent Mideast History
BY VICTOR M. BIENSTOCK
Special to The Jewish News
Lebanon's embattled and be-
sieged President Amin Gemayel
couples a strong plea for a re-
vitalized American role in the
Middle East and Lebanon with a
running attack on Israel and the
threat that unless there is a
speedy withdrawal of Israeli
forces from his counry, "the
Lebanese resistance movement"
could become a threat to Israel it-
self.
Gemayel's remarkable effort at
rewriting contemporary history
appears in the Spring edition of
Foreign Affairs. It is accompanied
by an article by Fuad Ajami, di-
rector of Middle East studies at
Johns Hopkins University's
School of Advanced International
Studies, himself of southern
Lebanese Shiite origin, who says
that Israel's withdrawal will
leave Lebanon a virtual Syrian
protectorate and the Shia, "more
radicalized than ever before and
representing some 40 percent of
the nation's population, to come of
age as claimants to power."
Gemayel, who blames most of
Lebanon's ills on foreign forces,
concedes that the Lebanese them-
selves were at fault because they
failed to develop a strong central
government and to build up a
strong army "thereby permitting
the PLO to become a state within
a state in our land and allowing
external forces to intervene in our
affairs virtually at will."
The man who holds the
presidency by grace of Gen. Hafez
al-Assad, the Syrian dictator, vir-
tuously allows that "it is we wh-07
through mistaken principles,
allowed ourselves to work with
external forces against Lebanese
interests" without going the rest
of the way and confessing that his
own religious community, the
Maronite Christians, and particu-
larly the clan headed by his
father, sought and accepted
strong support from France over
many years and then from Israel
which he currently denounces.
In 1982, Gemayel notes, "Syria
maintained a presence in the
northern and eastern parts of the
country. Over one-third of Leba-
non (the southern region) was
under Israel occupation."
Nowhere does he admit the mag-
nitude of that "Syrian presence"
involving between 30,000 to
40,000 troops in full control of the
Bekaa Valley and the northern
areas of the country.
When he assumed the
presidency in September 1982, he
says, the withdrawal of the Israeli
army was the first of his four go-
als. In frequent discussions with
President Assad, he asserts, "it
was agreed that Syrian forces will
withdraw upon the withdrawal of
the Israeli army from Lebanon."
But, he adds, "Lebanon needs
direct Syrian support to consoli-
date its internal front, to cultivate
the new coalition represented in
the government of national unity
and to contain the many militias
that emerged in the ten-year
war." Lebanon, Gemayel insists,
"must work closely With Syria to
overcome the many security hur-
dles that lie in the way."
Gemayel assails Israel over the
breakdown of the accord of May
17, 1984 for termination of the Is-
raeli occupation. He puts the
entire blame for the breakdown
on Israel, charging that "it acted
in a manner inconsistent with the
letter and spirit of the agree-
ment."
The preconditions Israel set,
which he asserts included the
prior withdrawal of Syria, the re-
turn of prisoners held by Syria
and the PLO and other conditions
were "virtually unimplementa-
Gemayel concedes the
Lebanese allowed the
PLO to build a state
within a state and
allowed external
forces to intervene
"virtually at will."
ble." Similarly, he asserts, the
Nakurah discussions collapsed
because the Israelis proposed
solutions that "in our opinion
would compromise our sover-
eignty." Further, the Israelis re-
fused to submit a comprehensive
withdrawal plan, Gemayel
claims, thus leaving doubt
whether there would be a com-
plete withdrawal or whether sur-
rogate forces would be left behind.
And then comes the remarkable
threat that "if Israel does not
withdraw fully and soon," the
Lebanese resistance movement
which he fails to identify as Shiite
and as engaged in bitter conflict
with the Christian militias,
"could develop from a movement
to free Lebanon from Israeli occu-
pation to a movement that
threatens the Israeli state per se.
Passions that are unleashed now
could evolve into a massive and
unpredictable movement with
long-range consequences for the
prospects of peace in the Middle
East."
In his plea for the United States
to resume an active role in the
Middle East, Gemayel calls for
separation of the Lebanese ques-
tion from the Arab-Israeli con-
flict. He claims there are "persua-
sive indications that the Arab
world and Israel alike are pre-
pared to accept Lebanon's dis-
engagement from the regional
conflict so long as it is genuine
and not merely camouflage for a
separate peace with Israel, on the
one hand, or for an assumption of
a more overtly-hostile posture
toward Israel on the other.
"Equally important," he adds,
"Lebanon must be seen as a
roadblock, rather than a road be-
tween Israel and Syria. These two
countries are determined to pre-
vent political or security threats
from arising in Lebanon. A
strong, independent Lebanon is
the best insurance that neither of
Lebanon's neighbors will use
Lebanon against the other.
It is a very different picture of
Lebanon that Dr. Ajami presents
and quite a different version of
events prior to and during the Is-
raeli invasion. Israel, he says, was
the midwife of the current Shiite