Word: bashir
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There were no illusions about the fragility of the prevailing calm or the problems that still remain to be solved in the war-torn land. Grudge fights between Christians and Muslims caused several deaths, illustrating the difficulties President-elect Bashir Gemayel, former leader of the Christian militia forces, faces when he tries to pull together a country of feuding sects. On Wednesday, Gemayel had a secret meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin. Later, a French soldier attached to a United Nations unit was killed by sniper fire outside the city. A Syrian MIG-25 jet fighter was struck...
...Despite demands by Lebanese leftist and Muslim politicians that the voting be postponed until Israeli troops had withdrawn from Beirut, the deeply divided Parliament went ahead last week and elected Israel's chief military and political ally in Lebanon to a six-year term as President. He is Bashir Gemayel, 34, commander of the country's principal Christian militias and leader of the Phalangist Party. Gemayel was the only candidate for the post, largely because no other Christian leader dared to oppose him. He promptly declared that his election had been "a big achievement for our democracy...
Those most pessimistic about Gemayel's election, perhaps, are the Palestinian civilians who will remain behind after the P.L.O. fighters have left and who fear Gemayel. Even now, mothers in West Beirut are prone to tell their misbehaving children: "Don't do that. Bashir will come and get you." Last week Gemayel's Phalangist militiamen were taking food out of some cars heading into West Beirut and throwing it into the street. Palestinians are afraid that he may order a harsh crack down to drive them out of the country. Said a retired schoolteacher: "Bashir...
Liberator. Warlord. Patriot. Power-mad. Those are some of the terms that Bashir Gemayel's deeply riven countrymen have used to describe their President-elect during his years as a leader of the Christian militia forces. Part political idealist and part storm trooper, Gemayel, 34, has shown he will use whatever means necessary to achieve his nationalist goals. His supporters argue that Lebanon's dire condition requires just that sort of toughness. Opponents claim that he is a fierce political animal dedicated to narrow sectarian aims...
...President-elect's father Pierre Gemayel was the founder and original leader of the Phalangist Party, a hardline, fervently nationalistic faction of the country's large Maronite Christian community. The youngest of six children, Bashir Gemayel enthusiastically embraced his father's conservative ideology, which was inspired by the nationalist movements of Francisco Franco and Benito Mussolini...