Yes, fascists!

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EVERY Sunday Conor Cruise O'Brien writes a rambling • column-cumeditorial in "The Observer' Last week he was at some pains to stress that the Lebanese Phalangists ought not to be called that because Phalange is only the French name for the brigades loyal to the Gemayel family.

According to Mr. O'Brien, the term Phalangist is a smear used by those who want to suggest that there is something unpleasant about these militias. A smear that 'leads away from the realities Fortunątely Mr. O'Brien's literary efforts are confined to the middle of the paper while others write the front page.

In the same issue the front page reported Women and Babies Massacred ... Hundreds Shot Down in Beirut Bloodbath' • Who were the perpetraters of this massacre? Apparently those whom we should not besmirch with the term Phalange. Zionist-financed militia from the South of the country to Beirut in order to iend them into the camp.

Haddad

Most of the survivors appear to cite distinctive Southern accents and uniforms as evidence that it was Haddad's forces, and not gangsters from the 25,000-strong Phalangist militia of assassinated President Gemayel who carried out the brutal murders.

Israeli spokesmen have gone out of their way not only to deny that Haddad was involved, but also to point the finger firmly at the Phalangists, naming them on several occasions as the people involved.

It is of course possible that a combined force of armed reactionaries was sent into the camp: but the Zionist efforts to implicate the Phalangists would seem to tie in with other developments - and point to the fact that the latest slaughter WaS planned as a cynical Israeli move to rekindle sectarian strife in Lebanon.

The aftermath of the assassination of Gemayel has brought forward

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September