"If we adopt this report, our ill-wishers and naysayers will claim that what happened in the (Sabra and Shatila) camp was genocide," Defense Minister Ariel Sharon warned the cabinet in 1983 during a special meeting dealing with the findings of the Cohen Report on the Sabra and Shatila massacre in the First Lebanon War.
"The chapter regarding indirect responsibility is the most severe in my opinion. The committee determined that the State of Israel, not just the government of Israel, or the Israel Defense Forces are responsible. The committee determined that not only did the possibility of the massacre exist, it was also known to the political and military echelons, and they chose willingly and knowingly to ignore it.
"That includes all of us, including you Mr. Prime Minister, each and every one of us. I cannot stress this enough - knowingly ignored, all of us," he continued to stress.
"If we adopt this report, all our ill-wishers and naysayers will claim that what happened in the camp was genocide. Not to mention the fact that the committee itself didn’t even seem to hesitate before drawing a line between Israel and its partners to the pogroms and the horrors Jews experienced. I personally refuse to accept even the slightest hint of such allegations.
"There are parts of the report which I believe we just cannot accept if we do no want this burden - this mark of Cain - to be imprinted onto our forehead for generations to come."
"During Operation Peace for Galilee (the original name for the First Lebanon War) when we cooperated with them, everything worked properly. However, the committee reached the conclusion that that successful attempt couldn't be indicative of future mutual endeavors.
"Every single member of the political and military echelon testified, under oath, that positive experience made the possibility of such a massacre unconceivable. Hence, I reject the report's findings that the entire respectable group of people was wrong, that we were all wrong, all the way from the Prime Minister down, bar no one."
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