ABSTRACT
The fighting during the 1982 conflict between Israel, the PLO, and Syria reflected many of the patterns established during the 1973 conflict and during earlier fighting between Israel and its Arab neighbors. Iraq became bogged down in a bloody war with Iran, and lost much of its taste for adventures. As a result, the Arab-Israeli conflict narrowed down to a guerrilla war between Israel and the Palestinians and a military confrontation between Israel and Syria which was limited to Lebanon and the Golan Heights. The changes in doctrine and force structure between 1973 and 1982 set the stage for Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon, but the 1982 conflict was as much a test of politics and irregular forces as a test of Syrian and Israeli military capabilities. The Palestinian forces involved never fully deployed and never fought with any cohesion, and the key Palestinian forces affecting Israeli operations were largely militias and popular volunteers fighting under improvised command.
