Its members likely were responsible for the October 1983 bombings that drove U.S.
and French peacekeepers from Lebanon. During the next two decades, Hizballah
would become a major influence in Lebanese life, establishing schools, health clinics,
and other social services that the government failed to provide. After Israeli forces with-
drew from southern Lebanon in 2000—for which Hizballah claimed credit—the group
launched the same kinds of rocket attacks against northern Israel as had the Pales-
tinians in the early 1980s. Its actions along the border would lead to a brief but deadly
war with Israel in summer 2006 (Hizballah-Israeli War, pp. 365–368).
The Israeli invasion of Lebanon also failed to achieve an unstated goal of Begin’s
and Sharon’s: the ouster of Syria from Lebanon. Instead, Syria’s grip on Lebanon tight-
ened, while Israel held only the southern strip of the country. Syria emerged by far as
the dominant power in Lebanon, until it was forced to withdraw under intense inter-
national pressure in 2005 (Syrian Withdrawal from Lebanon, pp. 359–361).
Overall, most historians have argued that Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon proved
to be a huge miscalculation. Disillusioned by public criticism of the operation and dis-
heartened by the loss of Israeli lives in combat, Begin abruptly resigned as prime min-
ister in August 1983 and disappeared from public life until his death in 1992.
Following are excerpts from a speech by Prime Minister Menachem Begin to the
Knesset on June 8, 1982, following Israel’s invasion of Lebanon.DOCUMENT
Begin Speech to the Knesset on
Invading Lebanon
JUNE8, 1982[Note: The first part of Begin’s speech recounted the events leading up to Israel’s invasion of
Lebanon on June 6, including an attempted assassination of the Israeli ambassador to Great
Britain by a Palestinian group, followed by Israel’s aerial bombardment of Palestinian bases
in southern Lebanon, and Palestinian artillery and rocket attacks on the Galilee, in northern
Israel.]
I want to declare to all nations: The children of Israel will happily go to school and
joyfully return home, just like the children in Washington, in Moscow and in Peking;
in Paris and in Rome; in Oslo, in Stockholm and in Copenhagen. The fate of a mil-
lion and half a million Jewish children has been different from all the children of the
world throughout the generations. No more. We will defend our children. If the hand
of any two-footed animal is raised against them, that hand will be cut off, and our
children will grow up in joy in the homes of their parents.
But, here there are Katyushas [rockets], missiles and artillery shells day and night,
with the sole intention of murdering our women and children. There are military tar-
LEBANON AND SYRIA 337