A Slight Conflict of Interest

After the massacre of more than 700 civilians at two refugee camps in Beirut last September, both Israel and Lebanon established commissions to investigate the incident. Last week, four months after publication of the Israeli group's report, portions of Lebanese Military Prosecutor Assaad Germanos' findings were leaked to the press. His account placed full legal responsibility for the carnage with the Israeli troops who controlled both camps. It went on to claim that there was no proof that the Phalangist-dominated Lebanese Forces had advance knowledge of the assault and that all prosecutions should therefore be postponed. A senior Lebanese official later said that the document was an "unauthorized first draft" that did not represent the final results of the government's inquiry.

In marked contrast, Israel's Commission of Inquiry did not shrink from concluding that the massacre was the work of right-wing Lebanese Phalangist militiamen. It found a number of Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Menachem Begin, negligent and recommended that Defense Minister Ariel Sharon resign.

Germanos' absolution of the Phalangist high command came as no surprise. It was, after all, submitted to Lebanese President Amin Gemayel, who is himself a Phalangist and whose authority over the country remains tenuous at best. Noting that irony, an editorial in the Jerusalem Post dismissed the report as a "whitewash" and concluded tartly, "The report should be reason enough for Israelis to ponder the moral caliber of their newly found Lebanese friends."