Chapter 17 & Epilogue Summary and Analysis

In September 1982, there is a massacre at Sabra and Shatila, two Palestinian refugee camps in Beirut. Eight hundred Palestinians are killed.

The Mossad makes contact with Bashir Gemayel, the head of the Christian Phalangist party in Lebanon in the late 1970s. The Christians and Muslims are fighting in Lebanon. Gemayel turns to Israel for help, and when he needs weapons in 1978, the Israelis sell the weapons to him. In 1979, Gemayel allows the Israelis to establish a navy radar station in Junigah. The Syrians support the Muslims but do not want to engage the Israelis over the radar station.

The Israelis want to expel the PLO from Southern Lebanon and pressure is mounting on Begin to attack. The Israeli cabinet okays an invasion of Lebanon on June 6, 1982. The invasion begins and after ten weeks, the PLO departs from Beirut.

On...