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PARTISAN REVIEW
cated unless the democracies stop doubting themselves. The Western
world must be made aware that even if its value system is not the
best, it is in any event the least bad, and that it is worth fighting in
order to safeguard it.
In view of the Lebanese crisis, the sum of "stupidities" that have
been written in the Western press is bewildering, as though
it
were a
battle between rich and poor, progressives and fascists! No one, it
is true, any longer would use the expression that bloomed in 1976,
Islamo-progressive,
since everyone has understood its absurdity.
The origins of the Lebanese war are complex, multiple, equiv–
ocal; they don't lend themselves to rational analysis. Nevertheless, at
the risk of being too schematic, one can say that this conflict is the
result of seven factors: the "congenital" incapacity of the Lebanese to
accept the least restraint by the state; the archaic attachment to anti–
laical religious values by these same Lebanese; the Palestinian sub–
version; the Syrian hegemony (Damascus never recognized Lebanon
and never had an embassy in Beirut) upheld by the Soviet Union;
the rise of Islamic
integrisme;
the procrastination and weakness of the
democracies.
At different times, some of these factors have been more impor–
tant than others. That was how, for example, the first factor cited
explains, at the beginning of the war, the weakness of the Lebanese
state when faced by the subversion of Palestinian militia, who were
better armed than the Lebanese army. Contrary to common opinion,
the Syrians have done nothing but throw oil on the fire . The choice
made by the United States and France, namely to discharge their re–
sponsibilities in favor of the Syrians, in entrusting them to reestablish
order, is an historical fraud.
When will we finally understand that the principles of respect
for human life, of honoring one's word, of individual liberty, are not
the basic values ofIslamic
integrisme?
Just like the Inquisition, Islam–
ism has had but one, and only one end: to convert the entire world
to
its faith.
The only nation to have understood the seriousness of the sit–
uation (it is true that it is seated in the front row) is Israel, the only
democratic state in the Near East, which, if it were not its own air–
craft carrier, already would have been swept away. The historical
error of the Lebanese Christians was not to have understood that
their only natural allies in that part of the world were the Israelis,
not only for political reasons but also for cultural ones.
They have, however, several excuses for committing such an
