Word: militiamen
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...remainder of the civilians were led off by the militiamen in the direction of Beirut's nearby sports stadium. As they approached the bomb-damaged structure, an explosion attracted the attention of Israeli army officers. The Israelis quickly took charge of the captives, sent the women and children back into the camp and eventually released the men. At one point, an Israeli officer asked through a bullhorn if any of the group were from Shatila. He was told yes, and was told what had happened there. When he heard, the officer tore his peaked cap from his head...
...Monday morning, as the cleanup of the massacre began, one final moment of panic swept the camps. While volunteer civil defense workers dug a huge pit near the entrance of Shatila to bury the dead, word spread that the militiamen were returning. Thousands of screaming Palestinians poured out of the camps and ran toward downtown Beirut. It is one thing to have escaped a massacre. It is quite another to escape the memory of it. -By George Russell. Reported by Roberto Suro/Beirut
...pretext of preventing disorder. Finally, Americans charged that Ambassador to Washington Moshe Arens assured them on Begin's behalf that the Israelis would seize only "a few" strategic points in West Beirut. Instead, they took over the whole Muslim section of the city and then arranged for Christian militiamen to enter Palestinian refugee camps, with bloodcurdling consequences...
...unjust that the blame for the atrocity hailed down upon Israelis alone. The Christian militiamen who actually did the evil work were rarely mentioned. Presumably, that kind of Hobbesian savagery comes so naturally to them that it hardly bears remarking. There was a strange compliment concealed here. The world accused Israel so violently in part because the massacre profoundly violated Israel's own moral standards. Some of the vitriol, too, was just anti-Semitism dressed up to look like righteous indignation...
...world after Entebbe. Think of it now. Any fair judgment of Israel's long-run morality, however, should follow what might be called the Doctrine of Characteristic Acts. Was the behavior of the Israeli forces at these camps characteristic of Israeli society, of Israeli morals? The Christian militiamen, who do not seem to have read the teachings of Christ, were thoroughly and catastrophically in character. The Israelis were not. -By Lance Morrow