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There were other, more troubling I questions, which were not easily answered. Knowing of the hatred and the capacity for vengeance of the various communities in Lebanon, what could have possessed the Israelis to allow the Christian forces to enter the refugee camps? Had they conspired with the militiamen to root out the last vestiges of the P.L.O. and Muslim leftist military opposition in West Beirut? Had their ranks been spread too thin to keep the executioners away from their victims? Or had they simply been careless about giving the bloodthirsty militiamen a chance to run amuck? Whatever the answer, the government of Menachem Begin had a lot of explaining to do. It may eventually have a lot to regret too, for the Beirut bloodbath could very well provide powerful impetus to the Palestinian drive for a homeland.
The leaders of Lebanon's feuding factions rarely come together voluntarily under any circumstances, but such an occasion took place last Wednesday when Bashir Gemayel was buried in his native village of Bikfaya, to the east of Beirut. Only a day or two before, Pierre Gemayel, 77, the family patriarch and founder of the Phalangist Party, had stood with his sons Bashir and Amin to begin what was to have been a weeklong ceremony of receiving well-wishers awaiting the inauguration of Bashir as Lebanon's President. Now, as the trumpets blared and Israeli jet fighters screamed overhead in tribute, the family was receiving mourners by the thousands. Among them, observed Amin, the man who aims to succeed his brother, were representatives of most of the country's factions, adversaries and even blood enemies, bound together for an hour or two in a ritual of mourning. But then it was over, and so, it seemed, was the fleeting moment of unity. —By William E. Smith.
Reported by Marsh Clark/Jerusalem and Wilton Wynn/Beirut