Learning the lessons of the 1982 Lebanon War

Emily Whalen

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Last week, Israel began a ground war in Lebanon. It recalls, in both scope and apparent strategy, the 1982 Israeli ground war in Lebanon. More than forty years ago, Prime Minister Menachem Begin assured US officials that IDF troops would simply establish a ‘security zone’ 40 kilometres north of the border. Begin and Minister of Defense Ariel Sharon described the invasion as ‘limited’ and ‘targeted’ – the aim was to push the Palestinian Liberation Organization back far enough to ensure Israelis living close to the border would no longer fear rocket fire.

In addition to Prime Minister Netanyahu’s assurance that the invasion will be both limited and targeted, many other echoes of the 1982 Lebanon war reverberate across the decades. Like Netanyahu, Begin insisted that Israeli incursions in Lebanon were not targeting Lebanese citizens, and, indeed, would ultimately protect civilians from further clashes. Like the PLO, Hizbollah has a complicated relationship with the Lebanese state and with Lebanese civilians, providing necessary services while simultaneously inciting resentment. And, just as in 1982, the United States finds itself trapped in its own equivocations on the Middle East, caught in the usual tension between its commitments to Israel and its commitments to international law.