John Edgar Slow Horses
The hardliners wanted to annex Lebanon and Ariel Sharon wanted Lebanese rivers.
“This land is ours, the whole land, including Gaza, including Lebanon.” Addressing soldiers geared and ready to enter the Palestinian enclave, Amichai Friedman, a rabbi in the Israeli Army, openly...
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In May 1955, the issue was raised at a meeting between Prime Minister Moshe Sharret, his Defense Minister David Ben Gurion and Chief of Staff Moshe Dayan.
According to Sharret, Gurion and Dayan proposed the annexation of the territory south of the Litani River — which includes the city of Sour — and the establishment of a pro-Israeli regime in Beirut.
“They wanted us to find any Christian officer we could either bribe or convince to become the ‘savior of the Maronites’… The Israeli army would do the rest,” Sharret wrote in his diary, underlining his opposition to the plan which eventually never saw the light of day. “Israeli claims to southern Lebanon were abandoned over time and are no longer on the agenda,”
The security challenge
Israel’s strategic objectives in Lebanon are now primarily security-related.
“It has to be said that Israel no longer has any real territorial ambitions in Lebanon, particularly since it already controls the water resources it needs,” said Khashan. “The occupation of southern Lebanon is a good example of this.”