In the following excerpts from the remarks made by Defense Minister Sharon to the graduating class of the I.D.F. Command and Staff College, he gave a detailed explanation as to why Israel actually launched a preventative war. He revealed for the first time that the Syrian army "was ordered to be ready for war on a certain date this year. " He explained that the Syrians and the P.L.O. were preparing a war hoping to drag other Arab states into it. Thus it became imperative for Israel to act. For the first time publicly, Sharon linked the P.L.0. military preparations with those of the Syrian army. Excerpts:
We were in a situation in which it could be figured that the P.L.O. terror would bring down a general war sooner or later, within a year or two, in a place and time which would not be to our advantage, and in a situation which could cause us great casualties. In the stage of their underground organization, the P.L.O. organizations went over to terrorist activities, and from terrorist activities to what they called guerrilla actions. That is how they saw their violent campaigns and our reactions to them.
Beginning with the cease-fire last July, the P.L.O. began preparing for its climactic stage in its war - open warfare that was intended, according to the view of the terrorist leaders, to put pressure on Israel to accept their political demands. Everyone who fought in Lebanon, everyone who visits southern or central Lebanon and learns of the artillery network of hundreds of units that was established there, of the huge weapons stores, can understand that the terroristic P.L.O. was preparing seriously for this stage that was intended to bring great casualties to Israel, in the hope that this would bring us, in the first stage, to establish a Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria and in the Gaza Strip.
These terrorist plans were drawn up in cooperation with Syria and with their full support, while they were ruling in Lebanon. The Syrian armed forces were ordered to be ready for war on a certain date this year. The feeling of the Syrians became stronger that Israel did not have answers to the various elements of the Syrian military war deployments: that the strength of more than 500 new T-72 Soviet tanks, whose number was to have been doubled this year, was a guarantee of success in war - in at least a limited one - against Israel, and also that Israel did not have any answer to the great number of missiles that the Syrians had and of which were yet to receive more. This feeling strengthened the rulers of Damascus in their desire to prepare a war against Israel - in full coordination with the armed terrorist organizations and those subservient to their authority.
All these elements joined in the dangerous process of not only the stepping-up of terror against us, but also the danger of deterioration into all-out war, within the next 2-3 years. In anticipation of the creation of a situation in which war would be forced on us, at a time and under circumstances that would cost us most heavy casualties, the Syrians and the P.L.O. hoped that then they could drag over Arab states into the war against us.
We shall not sheathe our swords until they (the terrorists - ed.) are removed from Beirut. We have allowed time for political negotiation. Who knows better than you officers that the State of Israel and the I.D.F. are capable of overcoming the problems of terror and its headquarters in Beirut. We remain adamant in our demands, and I am positive that we are on the threshold of a new era in our region, and era in which the chances for peace will increase even more.