Word: aley
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Indeed they are, as are the people of Ain et Tine and other shell-shocked Christian towns that are not surrounded. But then so are the people of Aley and Ain Zhalta and other Druze towns, all prisoners of collective folk memories in which rights and wrongs are forever remembered. "We are the first people of Lebanon," says a Druze village elder, referring to his sect, which broke away from Islam in the 11th century (see box). "We cannot be ignored. We respect the rights of others, but they must respect our rights...
...Syrians appeared last week to be making much progress toward achieving their ends. Intense fighting continued at Suq al Gharb, which lies only nine miles east of the capital and has a commanding position overlooking both the city and the airport, and at other villages in the Aley area, as Druze forces stepped up their efforts to drive the Lebanese Army out of the hills. Resisting the Druze pressure, the Gemayel government insisted that the Druze forces were being heavily reinforced by troops from Syria and a rebel faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization. Many Lebanese, especially the Christians, have...
...taken place between two neighboring villages, one Christian, one Druze. Like a Middle East version of the Hatfields and McCoys, the inhabitants of each town see their neighbors as mortal enemies, even though they live only a few hundred yards apart. TIME Correspondent Roberto Suro visited the two Aley-region villages just before the latest clashes erupted. His report...
...fighting flared and subsided repeatedly through the winter and spring, the Israelis prevented either side from rearming or taking new ground. The Druze surrounded Suq al Gharb on three sides, but the Christians controlled the only road between Aytat and Aley, the largest Druze-held town, which in turn was encircled by Christians. After the Druze overran the Christian town of Bhamdun last week, the Lebanese army moved in to protect Suq al Gharb. The army has braved steady artillery fire all week long in order to block a Druze advance toward Beirut's southern suburbs...
...mood to talk with the leaders of a government whose real ami, he said, was to "butcher the Muslims." Like everyone else in Lebanon, he knew that the army's next big test would come as the Israeli forces withdraw from the rugged Chouf and Aley regions where the Christians and the Druze live side by side in perpetual tension. Vowed Jumblatt: "We will defend ourselves with the weapons we have, and when Israel pulls out, the battle for the mountains will begin...