Former French Premier Michel Debre called on the government yesterday to intervene, by force if necessary, to save Lebanon’s Christian community now threatened with virtual extinction by the Syrian “Arab intervention force.” Debre is one of France’s leading traditional Gaullists.
His call, in the form of a parliamentary question, followed many previous appeals for intervention on behalf of Lebanon’s Maronites with whom France has long-standing cultural and religious ties. Monday, when President Valery Giscard d’Estaing attended a mass in memory of the late Pope, John Paul I, hundreds of demonstrators greeted him with the cry “Save Lebanon.” The President, who has tried to steer a neutral course between the various Arab states involved in Lebanon, walked by the demonstrators as if unaware of their presence.
French public opinion has been increasingly vehement during the past few days in its demand that France use its 1300-man contingent serving with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) to rescue the embattled Christians.
A number of national papers, such as “France Soir,” have published front page editorials advocating an intervention while opposition leaders, such as left-wing radical Robert Fabre, have urged parliament to drop its current agenda and concentrate on discussing and voting concrete measures to help Lebanon’s Maronites. A number of Jewish organizations, such as LICA (International League Against Anti-Semitism and Racism) have also called on the government to take active steps in Lebanon.
Official sources in Paris say France will try to work through the United Nations to obtain a cease fire in Lebanon but believe it is highly unlikely that it would supply an intervention force which, at the best, could only have a symbolic role in face of the large and well armed Syrian troops stationed in Lebanon.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
