Beirut 1982: One Man's Story 
By Ben-Meir Hayoun
This text was my reaction to warm to an article by Cyril de Pins published during the summer 2008 in the site causeur.fr ( http://www.causeur.fr/valse-avec-les-souvenirs, 566 ) where the author praised the film Israeli animated "Waltz with Bashir" by Ari Folman. This film has been awarded many Oscars.
My name is Ben-Meir Hayoun. I live in the Tekoa settlement in Judea, where everyone can come visit me.
I participated in the war in Lebanon in the IDF in 1982. I absolutely do not recognize myself in this description of Cyril de Pins on what this movie wants to show Ari Folman I have not seen it yet. Like what, the aggregation of Philosophy Cyril de Pins does not always know what we are talking about. You can not blame Cyril not understand the reality Israeli military in Lebanon 26 years ago when he was barely 6 years so he can compare to that of conscripts in Algeria although there are experiments Similar to all members. Similarly, it would be missing the point if I myself had to write a description of the work of Jacques Derrida, which I did in philosophy only vague memories of my classroom Terminale thirty years ago .
As I am of French origin and I think I can identify the cultural universe in which Cyril de Pins evolves, I will humbly and briefly try to share my feelings as a Jewish soldier in Lebanon at that time. I have no
repressed the type described in this article and yet I found myself in Beirut for weeks during the blockade of the Lebanese capital during the long and stifling summer of 1982. I also fought against the Syrians in Mount Lebanon, a stunningly beautiful region. I was a young soldier from the Golani regiment, a regiment of infantry shock well known in Israel for its high standards of combat. Israeli newly arrived not even four years ago in France, it was a challenge for me enthusiastically, though not without difficulty. Today, I wonder how I did it because the Israelis at that time in the army and in this particular unit was the brave guy very direct, but Tough. The war was everywhere and everywhere in France nice Jewish boy that I would then get up to speed without delay. I was a kid Jewish native of North Africa, who came from a city department of Seine-Saint-Denis (93) to join the fighters of the army of the State of Israel.
I remember in fear and fighting, friends killed, wounded, broken body of the enemy, columns of Syrian or Palestinian prisoners, warehouses weapon no end of kids Palestinian rockets fired RPG and got hurt not knowing to take security measures before operating this type of weapon. I remember the French manufacturing Syrian helicopters pulling us, interminable periods with nothing to do except clean weapons, search for jerry to take a shower before the approximate Lebanese or not veiled, who watched us intensely from
before us. Seeing Jews naked, they put their hands in front of the eyes, fingers spread. The men who accompanied hardly contain their rage to see them play this game for us, anything was an excuse to laugh. We had accustomed to danger and death. We even became so reckless that it was tough with the younger ones so they do not bullshit fatal. There were mosquitos and flies invasive - the football World Cup in Spain this year, the "Mundial" - the Lebanese sympathetic merchants who sold us unparalleled all sorts of things - pretty great Christian with whom I spoke French, in my mother tongue - Shiite villages where there were around portraits of Khomeini and fields of hashish - Druze happy to see us but who hated the Palestinians and the Syrians but mostly wanted to attack the Christians after having settled the account of the Palestinians - Christian Maronites also happy to see us but also hated the Syrians and the Druze who wanted above all to get rid of the Syrians and Palestinians - Palestinians in the refugee camps where we had put their fighters to their knees but we asked for help and medication that we provided.
Only then I could understand the content of the stories my father, my uncles, my grandfathers and great uncles of mine who had the various wars in the French national army.
When I saw my father that he had fought in Algeria in the 50s before my birth, I could understand what he had lived but then I noticed the difference from my experience and hers. Chores of wood, we did not know what it was in the IDF. I had gone to war just a few kilometers north of my country where we drew from Katyushas on Israeli towns and where deadly attacks were launched against Israeli civilians.
If I feed any ambition to let me know by making a film or writing a book by leveraging my experience of the war in Lebanon, I will try to identify my experience with that of Americans during the Vietnam War or that of the French during the War of Algeria - surfing the wave of politically correct "absurd war in which the young fighter does not know why and for whom he fights." This will ensure a best seller for sure. But for that, I would lie on my experience and it has nothing to do with Operation Peace for Galilee in 1982 as I lived. I'm afraid
Ari Folman in making this film fell into a such temptation. Probably, otherwise he could have done about him, or his film.Après my demobilization, it was not easy after three and a half years of army and almost a year in Lebanon to readjust to normal civilian life, without dress uniform without gun and grenade without hand. I still have served in Lebanon two or three times in the reserves when I was a student at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem until 1986.
Today, 26 years later, I am very proud to have pulled out of the straight path towards young graduates French studies that integrate immediately to college. I am very proud to have come to live in Israel to serve in the IDF. It was not always easy: It cost me but I would not have missed it for anything. For me to fight in the army of the Jewish people for the Jewish state is a privilege that neither my father nor my ancestors have been before me until the time of our ancestors of the last great rebellion Judean against Rome, the revolt of Bar Kochba in AD 135. For me who had been educated in the Jewish tradition and the historical consciousness of our people, it was therefore of considerable size.
I am extremely proud to have participated in these events in Lebanon in 1982. I think this was the turning point in my life. Of course, the boys died, fighting, all that weighs on the stomach and must live with. I thank God for not having been killed, would do for my children who were able to see the day. I have not been injured and not suffering from any disability, thank God. I'm probably hardened but I think I preserved my feelings and my love for mankind. My personal experience of this war is But nothing compared to that of my elders who fought Israel in previous wars, many more terrible as the Yom Kippur War, the Six Day War or the War of Independence. If I let myself think that I 'had fought for nothing as he agreed to proclaim the second Intifada would have refreshed his memory so cruel. Terrorist leaders and Arafat that we expelled to Tunis were invited to enter the Land of Israel in the deadly trap called the Oslo Accords. This time, it was as civil as I found myself in front of them to a spitting distance of Jerusalem. It was far more dangerous. Here murdered by suicide bombers, not in Jerusalem, women, old and young Jews are much more numerous than the victims of Sabra and Shatila. The vision of mangled bodies after the bombing of buses in Jerusalem, where I found I was much more painful than our fighting in Lebanon. It's much more horrible to see a baby whose pieces were scattered over a radius of several meters after an explosion in a bus than being in combat to see a friend who was shot in the head or brightness in the stomach.
There I regretted that the war in Lebanon was no more implacable and point that we have exterminated the remaining forces of Arafat in Beirut. We had settled for an agreement guaranteeing them life saving in exchange for their departure from the Lebanese capital. It Mitterrand came to their rescue by providing them with a French vessel to evacuate the port of Beirut to Tunisia. We had our lines of sight, but we had been ordered not to open fire during the evacuation. Ari Folman must remember this, but he can not say or imply that he regrets not disobeying orders opened fire on Arafat. Me, 26 years later, I regret that we did not open fire on Arafat and his henchmen fleeing Beirut. It was observed making the V sign for victory and quietly on board the boat chartered by the French government. These are the friends killed in attacks in recent years to arouse in me a feeling of regret. It is true that I was just a noncommissioned officer with no authority except the decision to open a button on my shirt or drinking from my flask. Is leaving Arafat and his forces in life that we have condemned the 1500 Israeli civilians atrociously murdered in recent years.
It was for this reason that we were wearing helmets and armed to the teeth in Beirut during the summer of 82 rather than to girls in tanned on the beaches of the Mediterranean - to prevent the massacres which the Arabs called Palestinians wanted and always want to perpetrate against the Jews of Israel. The massacre of Palestinians by Lebanese Christian militias in the camps of Sabra and Shatila nothing can change that. Regrettably, this massacre was not a massacre of the Jews, nor wanted by the Jews. The feeling of dread before the bodies of those civilians killed can not we lose sight that this is a much greater misfortune that we had come by to prevent this war against our own misfortune, which finally arrived in Oslo by the mad despite or thanks to agreements "peace".
Oh, I almost forgot this anecdote: Once, a Lebanese official has questioned one of our officers if we are Jewish soldiers, we were not all gay or impotent or if we were made to ingest products that alter the libido. Taken aback, the ranking officer asked him why he asked this question. The Lebanese tell him that whenever foreign forces, whether Syrians, Palestinians and other seized an area in Lebanon as a result of fighting, they raped the women of the opposing ethnic group, while we Israelis we did rape anyone. The sergeant replied that he was sorry that Israeli soldiers have not been able to honor the Lebanese femininity. This anecdote is true.
By Ben-Meir Hayoun
This text was my reaction to warm to an article by Cyril de Pins published during the summer 2008 in the site causeur.fr ( http://www.causeur.fr/valse-avec-les-souvenirs, 566 ) where the author praised the film Israeli animated "Waltz with Bashir" by Ari Folman. This film has been awarded many Oscars.
My name is Ben-Meir Hayoun. I live in the Tekoa settlement in Judea, where everyone can come visit me.
I participated in the war in Lebanon in the IDF in 1982. I absolutely do not recognize myself in this description of Cyril de Pins on what this movie wants to show Ari Folman I have not seen it yet. Like what, the aggregation of Philosophy Cyril de Pins does not always know what we are talking about. You can not blame Cyril not understand the reality Israeli military in Lebanon 26 years ago when he was barely 6 years so he can compare to that of conscripts in Algeria although there are experiments Similar to all members. Similarly, it would be missing the point if I myself had to write a description of the work of Jacques Derrida, which I did in philosophy only vague memories of my classroom Terminale thirty years ago .
As I am of French origin and I think I can identify the cultural universe in which Cyril de Pins evolves, I will humbly and briefly try to share my feelings as a Jewish soldier in Lebanon at that time. I have no
repressed the type described in this article and yet I found myself in Beirut for weeks during the blockade of the Lebanese capital during the long and stifling summer of 1982. I also fought against the Syrians in Mount Lebanon, a stunningly beautiful region. I was a young soldier from the Golani regiment, a regiment of infantry shock well known in Israel for its high standards of combat. Israeli newly arrived not even four years ago in France, it was a challenge for me enthusiastically, though not without difficulty. Today, I wonder how I did it because the Israelis at that time in the army and in this particular unit was the brave guy very direct, but Tough. The war was everywhere and everywhere in France nice Jewish boy that I would then get up to speed without delay. I was a kid Jewish native of North Africa, who came from a city department of Seine-Saint-Denis (93) to join the fighters of the army of the State of Israel.
I remember in fear and fighting, friends killed, wounded, broken body of the enemy, columns of Syrian or Palestinian prisoners, warehouses weapon no end of kids Palestinian rockets fired RPG and got hurt not knowing to take security measures before operating this type of weapon. I remember the French manufacturing Syrian helicopters pulling us, interminable periods with nothing to do except clean weapons, search for jerry to take a shower before the approximate Lebanese or not veiled, who watched us intensely from
before us. Seeing Jews naked, they put their hands in front of the eyes, fingers spread. The men who accompanied hardly contain their rage to see them play this game for us, anything was an excuse to laugh. We had accustomed to danger and death. We even became so reckless that it was tough with the younger ones so they do not bullshit fatal. There were mosquitos and flies invasive - the football World Cup in Spain this year, the "Mundial" - the Lebanese sympathetic merchants who sold us unparalleled all sorts of things - pretty great Christian with whom I spoke French, in my mother tongue - Shiite villages where there were around portraits of Khomeini and fields of hashish - Druze happy to see us but who hated the Palestinians and the Syrians but mostly wanted to attack the Christians after having settled the account of the Palestinians - Christian Maronites also happy to see us but also hated the Syrians and the Druze who wanted above all to get rid of the Syrians and Palestinians - Palestinians in the refugee camps where we had put their fighters to their knees but we asked for help and medication that we provided. Only then I could understand the content of the stories my father, my uncles, my grandfathers and great uncles of mine who had the various wars in the French national army.
When I saw my father that he had fought in Algeria in the 50s before my birth, I could understand what he had lived but then I noticed the difference from my experience and hers. Chores of wood, we did not know what it was in the IDF. I had gone to war just a few kilometers north of my country where we drew from Katyushas on Israeli towns and where deadly attacks were launched against Israeli civilians.
If I feed any ambition to let me know by making a film or writing a book by leveraging my experience of the war in Lebanon, I will try to identify my experience with that of Americans during the Vietnam War or that of the French during the War of Algeria - surfing the wave of politically correct "absurd war in which the young fighter does not know why and for whom he fights." This will ensure a best seller for sure. But for that, I would lie on my experience and it has nothing to do with Operation Peace for Galilee in 1982 as I lived. I'm afraid
Ari Folman in making this film fell into a such temptation. Probably, otherwise he could have done about him, or his film.Après my demobilization, it was not easy after three and a half years of army and almost a year in Lebanon to readjust to normal civilian life, without dress uniform without gun and grenade without hand. I still have served in Lebanon two or three times in the reserves when I was a student at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem until 1986.
Today, 26 years later, I am very proud to have pulled out of the straight path towards young graduates French studies that integrate immediately to college. I am very proud to have come to live in Israel to serve in the IDF. It was not always easy: It cost me but I would not have missed it for anything. For me to fight in the army of the Jewish people for the Jewish state is a privilege that neither my father nor my ancestors have been before me until the time of our ancestors of the last great rebellion Judean against Rome, the revolt of Bar Kochba in AD 135. For me who had been educated in the Jewish tradition and the historical consciousness of our people, it was therefore of considerable size.
I am extremely proud to have participated in these events in Lebanon in 1982. I think this was the turning point in my life. Of course, the boys died, fighting, all that weighs on the stomach and must live with. I thank God for not having been killed, would do for my children who were able to see the day. I have not been injured and not suffering from any disability, thank God. I'm probably hardened but I think I preserved my feelings and my love for mankind. My personal experience of this war is But nothing compared to that of my elders who fought Israel in previous wars, many more terrible as the Yom Kippur War, the Six Day War or the War of Independence. If I let myself think that I 'had fought for nothing as he agreed to proclaim the second Intifada would have refreshed his memory so cruel. Terrorist leaders and Arafat that we expelled to Tunis were invited to enter the Land of Israel in the deadly trap called the Oslo Accords. This time, it was as civil as I found myself in front of them to a spitting distance of Jerusalem. It was far more dangerous. Here murdered by suicide bombers, not in Jerusalem, women, old and young Jews are much more numerous than the victims of Sabra and Shatila. The vision of mangled bodies after the bombing of buses in Jerusalem, where I found I was much more painful than our fighting in Lebanon. It's much more horrible to see a baby whose pieces were scattered over a radius of several meters after an explosion in a bus than being in combat to see a friend who was shot in the head or brightness in the stomach.
There I regretted that the war in Lebanon was no more implacable and point that we have exterminated the remaining forces of Arafat in Beirut. We had settled for an agreement guaranteeing them life saving in exchange for their departure from the Lebanese capital. It Mitterrand came to their rescue by providing them with a French vessel to evacuate the port of Beirut to Tunisia. We had our lines of sight, but we had been ordered not to open fire during the evacuation. Ari Folman must remember this, but he can not say or imply that he regrets not disobeying orders opened fire on Arafat. Me, 26 years later, I regret that we did not open fire on Arafat and his henchmen fleeing Beirut. It was observed making the V sign for victory and quietly on board the boat chartered by the French government. These are the friends killed in attacks in recent years to arouse in me a feeling of regret. It is true that I was just a noncommissioned officer with no authority except the decision to open a button on my shirt or drinking from my flask. Is leaving Arafat and his forces in life that we have condemned the 1500 Israeli civilians atrociously murdered in recent years.
It was for this reason that we were wearing helmets and armed to the teeth in Beirut during the summer of 82 rather than to girls in tanned on the beaches of the Mediterranean - to prevent the massacres which the Arabs called Palestinians wanted and always want to perpetrate against the Jews of Israel. The massacre of Palestinians by Lebanese Christian militias in the camps of Sabra and Shatila nothing can change that. Regrettably, this massacre was not a massacre of the Jews, nor wanted by the Jews. The feeling of dread before the bodies of those civilians killed can not we lose sight that this is a much greater misfortune that we had come by to prevent this war against our own misfortune, which finally arrived in Oslo by the mad despite or thanks to agreements "peace".
Oh, I almost forgot this anecdote: Once, a Lebanese official has questioned one of our officers if we are Jewish soldiers, we were not all gay or impotent or if we were made to ingest products that alter the libido. Taken aback, the ranking officer asked him why he asked this question. The Lebanese tell him that whenever foreign forces, whether Syrians, Palestinians and other seized an area in Lebanon as a result of fighting, they raped the women of the opposing ethnic group, while we Israelis we did rape anyone. The sergeant replied that he was sorry that Israeli soldiers have not been able to honor the Lebanese femininity. This anecdote is true.
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