The event that was decisive in changing the nature of the invasion was a massacre of "Palestinian" Arab refugees at the Sabra and Shatila camps by a Christian Lebanese militia force, known as the Phalangists.
The fact that thousands of Lebanese Christians had been killed during the Lebanese civil war by "Palestinian" Arabs was ignored by the world's press; so was the fact that five thousand "Palestinian" rebels had been killed by General Zia ul Haq in Jordan in 1970. The fact that Security Minister Sharon was supposed to watch over the Phalangist forces for possible abuses was focused in on like a laser.
In the end, Israeli forces withdrew to the Litani and a zone south of it to prevent Arabs from firing missiles into Israel. But not before major internal damage had been done to the country's political structures and the trust that Israelis placed in the IDF.
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1 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
This reminiscence by Yehuda Avner, in the Jerusalem Post, shows what happened because Israel had not taken prompt advantage of its new position by allowing Arabs to leave and cementing their hold on the Temple Mount with a synagogue. Both acts would have told the Arabs that Israel was not interested in peace, but in security, and did not place its trust in arms, but in the G-d Who commanded us here. As long as the Arabs felt they had a potential victim, a neighbor always pining for peace, they could afford not to care about peace.
Avner reached an erroneous conclusion from this reminiscence of his. The "special" relationship with America was to turn sour and provide the Americans with the tool to dominate and finally begin to dismantle the country, the process that began when Golda Meier quailed in fear in 1973. Avner could not know that in 1968 when his boss, Levi Eshcol, was pleading for his country's fate like a beggar. But thirty nine years on, he should be willing to understand that and state it openly.
The inability to openly state cold facts and hard realities has always crippled the Israeli leadership.