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Report Syria Seeks to Gain Control of Lebanon and Decimate Christians There

August 9, 1978
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A report on the situation in Lebanon has confirmed that the recent Syrian bombing of Christian sectors of Beirut is part of an overall plan to gain total control of Lebanon. This report, relayed yesterday by Chief of Staff Gen. Rafael Eitan to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Security Committee, has led some committee members to urge the government to take action in Lebanon.

Comparing the military action taken by the Syrians in Lebanon to that used by the Nazis to take over the Warsaw Ghetto, Knesset member Yosef Tamir of Likud said the Syrians are taking steps to annihilate the entire Christian community and that Israel must stop this destruction.

Committee chairman Moshe Arens reiterated his earlier opinion that action must be taken by Israel but that the United States is supporting the Synans and is pressuring Israel to halt its aid to Lebanese Christians. Arens said he had sent cables to the chairmen of the House of Representatives International Relations Committee and the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee appealing to them “to urge a revision of U.S. policy which has permitted a massacre of hundreds and may lead to (the) destruction of the entire Christian community.”

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