Chief of Staff Gen. Rafael Eitan said that the Israeli army should remain in Lebanon until Israel’s political aims are achieved. Explaining those aims, Israel’s military leader, who has frequently been criticized by the opposition parties for making political statements, told high school students in Eilat yesterday that the war in Lebanon “was meant to beat Syria and the PLO to the gun — to attack them before they began a war against us.”
Eitan said that if Israel had allowed them to take the initiative, Israeli losses would have been for heavier. “No sovereign state can allow such a thing to happen and it does everything in its power to protects its citizens,” he said. He stated that if the Syrians had not requested a cease-fire, “not one of them would have been left alive in Lebanon.”
The Chief of Staff said the PLO was ejected from west Beirut only through Israeli firepower and stubbornness. “We must make certain that the diplomatic results of the war equal the military victory,” he said. Replying to a question, Eitan said only time and the political results would prove whether the many sacrifices in lives lost have proved worth while. “Even one soldier dead is a tragedy,” he said.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
