A war without evacuation ships

Two major wars were fought and are being fought by the Palestinians: one lasted 88 days, and resulted in heavy losses between both sides, but it led to the withdrawal of the Palestinian revolutionary forces from the south and Beirut, and later from Lebanon.

The Israeli name for the 1982 war was “Safety of Galilee.” Its declared goal was not to uproot the PLO, given its impossibility. Rather, as a final link in the effort aimed at ending the Palestinian military capabilities on the three fronts adjacent to Israel: the Jordanian front, which was accomplished in the year 1970, the Syrian front, which was accomplished by limiting, containing, withdrawing, and splitting, and the Lebanese front, by dispersing over many Arab geographies, which made the presence of the fighters on it a mere matter. Shelter no more.

Because this war was not aimed at ending the “PLO,” but merely to remove it from Lebanon, it coincided with the preparation of giant ships to evacuate the Palestinian fighters and their leader, Yasser Arafat, who chose Tunisian exile, as an expression of his dissatisfaction with the Assad regime, which Arafat had accused of hijacking the independent Palestinian decision-making process. 

The Palestinian warrior presence on the three fronts ended. In short: closing the military door to Arafat was coupled with opening the door to settlement, and this is what happened, without examining the time that this process took.

The biggest war, after the 1982 Lebanon War, is the current war on Gaza. Between the two great wars, many wars occurred with a smaller area and intensity.

The difference between the two wars, other than time and place, is the evacuation ships that the Americans provided through the efforts of their envoy, Philip Habib, and NATO took over their protection from where they set off to where they settled. As for Yasser Arafat, who considers victory merely his ability to raise his badge after the end of every war, he described sailing to the sea and staying away from the most important strategic incubator, as merely moving from one arena to another. However, he did not explicitly state that it was a transition from the geography of combat to the geography of settlement.

A deliberate focus was placed on the fact that the occupied territory is the only “backup” to the power of the “PLO”, as the effort was focused on the first intifada that brought power to some parts of the country.

The Gaza war did not require evacuation ships for the fighters who performed a legendary feat on October 7th, and who are fighting the strongest defensive war in history, between one of the strongest armies in the Middle East and the world, and the smallest geographical area, the most densely populated, and the poorest combat formation in terms of The modern armament that the opponent possesses, and uses all of it in this war.

Those gathered in the same sea that carried Arafat’s fighters from Lebanon were aircraft carriers that came to protect Israel from any danger to which it was exposed, and to deter the region so that it would remain free from Israel’s war on Gaza, for fear that any intervention would lead to the outbreak of a regional war that America does not want now. Not tomorrow.

The goals of the Israeli war, supported to the point of participation by the American administration, put Gaza under the risk of comprehensive destruction and mass killing, which no one knows how much it will reach until the war ends, and put the fighters before a choice in which there are no evacuation ships. But steadfastness and resistance.

What distinguishes this war from others is that its two sides do not have the luxury of retreat. Neither the resistance fighters are willing to raise a “white flag,” nor are the attackers thinking of getting rid of their agendas, which are based on an image of victory that convinces the Israeli public and removes the feeling of defeat from its soul.

The 1982 war, which ended with the evacuation of Palestinian fighters from the south and Beirut, brought them, after decades on the broken wings of Oslo, employees and security men.

As for the war of 2023, no one knows what paths it will take after it ends, but without evacuation ships and without white flags.