212
PARTISAN REVIEW
Israel's "never-ending war," however, the ShamiriArens team is
markedly dissimilar from the Begin/Sharon team . Begin and Sharon
planned and waited for the opportunity to launch a full-blown inva–
sion of Lebanon, to save the Maronites from a "holocaust" and to
push the Syrians back into Syria (as Begin promised during the 1981
election campaign). But Shamir and Arens have largely given up on
these overarching goals, and have been narrowing Israel's aims to
the original "peace for Galilee," that is, to guarantee the security of
Israel's northern settlements. No one is now taking a position
beyond that. Sharon himself, politically frustrated and tired of run–
ning on a treadmill, lashed out and denied any personal responsibility
for the war! To which Labour Party dove Yossi Sarid retorted,
"Soon the war will be an orphan; no one, not even Sharon, wants to
claim credit for it." Arens claims that when he can guarantee the
safety of Israel's northern settlements he will favor a withdrawal. In
this respect, public opinion has grown increasingly unfriendly to the
wider aims whose pursuit in Lebanon it used to favor. All the polls
indicate that a substantial majority now opposes the extension of the
war inJune 1982 beyond the limited scenario offorty kilometers. As
to what Israel now should do, a growing section of the public favors
immediate withdrawal with an attempt to make the best deal we can
- to keep the PLO away from Israel's border.
Against Arens, Aharon Yariv has argued that the longer we re–
main in Lebanon, the more entangled we become, that the Syrian
presence in the Bekaa poses no direct security threat to Israel. Arens
mostly fears a bad reaction in Washington, and this keeps him from
publicly separating Israel's goals in Lebanon from the question of
the Syrians. In fact , the United States involvement has been a mixed
blessing for Israel, while Syrian obduracy created the illusion of in–
teres ts common to Washington andJerusalem. As Yariv noted , "We
have a common enemy (Syria), but no common interest."
The Americans who, if Jordan and the Palestinians enter the
peace process, would prefer a Labour government in Jerusalem,
came to prefer a Likud government vis-a.-vis Lebanon. But the only
way to remove Syria from Lebanon is through an Israeli ground op–
eration. And the not very subtle pressure on Israel not to withdraw
unilaterally (see William Safire, on the Sunday before the Shamir–
Reagan talks , last November 27) created some tension among those
Israelis who are used to seeing themselves as close to the Americans .
In fact, it was difficult for Labour and for Peace Now to adapt to the
