ANSWERING PASSION WITH VIOLENCE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000807580064-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 15, 2012
• Sequence Number: 64
• Publication Date: June 18, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/11/15: CIA-RDP90-00965R000807580064-7
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Richard Cohen
Answering Passion With Violence
In the world of science there is a discipline
called "the mathematics of chaos.- It deals
with how sometimes a little change can have
enormous, unpredictable consequences.
What is theoretically true in math is certainly
true in power politics. The Middle East is a
perfect example of that.
In fact, the ultimate example of the non-
mathematical application of the theory of
chaos is the very establishment of the state
of Israel. What once seemed so inconsequen-
tial?the introduction of Jewish Europeans
into Palestine?has had the most far-reach-
ing consequences. The hijacking of TWA
flight 847 is an example of that. It can be
traced to the establishment of the first Jew-
ish settlements on the inhospitable dunes of
what was later to become Tel Aviv.
More directly and more recently, though.
the cause of the hijacking was the Israeli in-
vasion of Lebanon in June of 1982. Con-
ceived by Ariel Sharon, the invasion was sup-
posed to be a relatively simple affair. The Is-
raeli army would quickly demolish the Pales-
tine Liberation Organization's army, elimi-
nate it as a military force in Lebanon and as a
political force in the occupied West Bank.
Then Israel would turn Lebanon over to its
ally, the Christian Phalangists, and all would
be the Hebrew equivalent of hunky dory.
Anyone with access to a newspaper can
tell you almost nothing worked as planned.
The PLO was militarily demolished, but the
Christians never did get to rule Lebanon. .
And the Israeli military operation, which was
supposed to take no time, is just now ending
?and ending as a fiasco. Not only did Israel
lose about 600 troops in Lebanon. it created
5omething it and the United States will long
have to contend with?the rise of a dynamic
Shiite movement.
There is a lesson in all this for the United
States. Like Israel before its invasion of
Lebanon, there are people in this country
who tend to think that anything military is
"surgical"?meaning clean, meaning deci-
sive. The object of all this martial ardor is
usually Nicaragua. which, we are told, would
take us less time to conquer wan it took Is-
rael to slice through Lebanon. It might take
just as long, too.
At the moment, though, the call for mili-
tary action is directed at those presumed to
be responsible for the hijacking of TWA
Flight 847. Congress, assembled on the early
morning television shows, has called in the
person of various members for reprisals, for-
getting, it seems, that the hijackers said their
deed was in reprig-Tor an earlier Beirut
bombing in which the CIA has been indirectly
implicated.
reprisal to the reprisal would only result
in even more reprisals, and the United States
would find itself a pariah in the Arab world
and in the unenviable position of the Israelis
?a sitting duck for any terrorist convinced
that a bomb in the trunk of the car is a big
step on the stairway to paradise.
Consider for a moment what it would
mean if the United States became the target
of fanatical terrorists. The United States is
not a compact little nation like Israel but a
world power?both militarily and commer-
cially. We have military bases overseas,
hotels?even soft-drink bottlers. The United
States is countless tourists and countless
planes. It is lots of ships and lots of banks. It
is extended all over the world. Talk is cheap
and revenge gratifying, but this would be an
exceedingly dirty fight. No one fights clean in
the Middle East.
In the end, it is passion?political, reli-
gious, ethnic?that makes for the current
situation in Lebanon. That passion could be
an idealistic nationalism or a frightening hate
but it is something we Americans are not
familiar with, something we often fail to take
into account when formulating policy?or in
mouthing off about retaliation. We neglected
it in Vietnam just as the Israelis did in Leba-
non and the price for both nations was heavy.
What is hard to understand is why both
the United States and Israel persist in think-
ing that violence is an antidote to passion.
It's not. It's only a justification for it and a
precursor to chaos.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/11/15: CIA-RDP90-00965R000807580064-7