""Jim, IDF deivered the miltia to the camps to root out PLO fighters.
They have an indirect responsibility for not foreseeing the danger.
We can agree on that.
That much is unequivocal.""

They delivered them and nominally were in charge of, and responsible for, their actions.

This would not have mattered had they stopped the massacre, or even tried their best to do so.

They didn't take any preventive action for three days, and subequently allowed the murderers to walk away.

That is "Accessory, before, during, and after the fact!"

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

""All the direct or implicit accusations that the I.D.F. bear any blame whatsoever for this human tragedy in the Shatila Camp are entirely baseless and without any foundation. The Government of Israel rejects them with the contempt which they deserve.""

Well they would say that wouldn't they? That's the simple response.

Expanding a little,....They would also present hard evidence for that statement, assuming such existed, but they didn't. Far from it! Accounts from their own soldiers, horrified by the excesses of the Phalangists directly contradict Israel's statement.

It may well be that Israel (the government) ordered the IDF to put the phalangists in, so that they could be in precisely this position of at least semi plausible deniability. The soldiers' accounts blew deniability out of the water.

Don T.