The Retreat from Camp David • 389voke Palestinian attacks. Begin also asserted Israel's right to bombard "ter¬
rorists" in Lebanon even without prior provocation. The situation wors¬
ened in 1981 as Palestinians fired rockets into northern Israel and Israeli
artillery pounded the coastal towns of Sidon and Tyre. Both sides stepped
up their attacks. Twice in July, Israeli planes bombed Beirut, killing hun¬
dreds and injuring thousands of Lebanese and Palestinian civilians. Rea¬
gan's administration sent a special negotiator, Philip Habib, to arrange a
cease-fire that Arafat, Begin, and all the Lebanese factions accepted, but
Lebanon remained tense. Syria refused to remove the surface-to-air mis¬
siles it had installed in Lebanon's Biqa' Valley, despite Israel's threats to
bomb them as it had Iraq's nuclear reactor.
Israel was showing greater hostility toward the Arabs in other ways. On
the West Bank it periodically closed Arab schools and universities, ex¬
pelled elected mayors who backed the PLO, and increased the size and
number of Jewish settlements. Israel sought an alternative to the PLO as a
negotiating partner, but few Palestinians came forward. Israel ascribed this
attitude to PLO threats to kill would-be collaborators, ignoring the anger
fueled by its own policies. According to numerous international organiza¬
tions that were monitoring the Israeli occupation, Palestinian society was
gradually disintegrating. Even if some Palestinians were prospering, few
were willing to bargain directly with Jerusalem to gain more autonomy.
Even replacing the military government with a civilian one did not soften
Israel's occupation policies or placate the Palestinians. Rather, they grew
more sullen and militant during the 1980s.
As we noted earlier, in June 1981 Israel bombed and wiped out Iraq's nu¬
clear reactor. Although Begin justified this belligerent act as protecting Is¬
rael's security, others wondered how secure the Arabs could feel living next
door to Israel's functioning reactors and (unacknowledged) possession of
nuclear arms. In December 1981 Begin's cabinet formally extended the ap¬
plication of Israeli law to the Golan Heights, which amounted to their an¬
nexation. The UN Security Council condemned both acts, but Israel simply
shrugged them off.
The Begin government claimed that it had carried out its treaty obliga¬
tions to Egypt. Israel (with US government aid) spent vast sums to move
its military equipment from the Sinai to newly constructed bases in the
Negev Desert. It offered Israeli settlers generous inducements to leave their
homes, factories, and gardens in the Sinai, for Egypt did not want any
Israelis to stay. When some in Yamit resisted, the IDF removed the recalci¬
trant settlers and bulldozed all buildings just before the area was returned
to Egypt. When Egypt got back the rest of the Sinai in April 1982, the sole
contested area was a 250-acre (105-hectare) plot on the Gulf of Aqaba