Kim Ghattas

For Yasser Arafat, they've lost their base.

For many of his men, they've lost the only home they've known.

They're leaving behind their families.

And they're going into exile to Tunis, which has no border whatsoever.

with with israel and israel thinks that that will be the end of you know the plo and political ambitions and militant ambitions that that is not how how that plays out but importantly you know in lebanon there are two different feelings unfolding here one is disappointment that

you know, Israel was not defeated and that it is Arafat who has to leave.

But at the same time, Israel is not victorious either because the Palestinians and Arafat are still alive, so they can declare some kind of victory.

You know, Beirut, in the words of some of Arafat's allies, stood up to the Israeli military ambition and was not

finished off.

And there is a famous scene of Walid Jumblat, one of the Druze chieftains and warlords at the time, and Nabi Birri, leader of the Amal Shia militia, today Speaker of the House, sitting with Yasser Arafat as he's about to depart.

And, you know, Walid Jumblat talks about how, you know, there is no Arab honor anymore.

And Yasser Arafat is driven to the Beirut port where the Marines are deployed to secure this evacuation.

And he's driven by the Lebanese prime minister, Shafiq Ozan, in his own armored Mercedes.

And the slightly sort of tongue-in-cheek description of that moment is that Shafiq Ozan wanted to make sure that Arafat was going to get on that boat, that this was it.

The other moment, the other feeling there

in Lebanon is that now that the Palestinian militancy, the guerrilla fighters are gone, that this aspect of the Lebanese war, which was really the trigger for it, is over in a way, that perhaps the war in Lebanon

is now over as well.

This is a crucial point because it goes to America's failed promises.

The Marines deploy and they're supposed to stay on for X number of weeks after the departure of the militants.

Bashir Jmeil has by now been elected president.